Pigafetta and the Giant Clam
Antonio Pigafetta was an Italian scholar and explorer. He joined the expedition to find a western route to the Spice Islands in …
Octacles
Why are they called tentacles when there are eight of them? Surely they ought to be called octacles? A fascinating exhibit from …
Rettile ittiosauro
There’s an Ichthyosaur fossil displayed at the Museo di Storia Naturale di Venezia. They evolved around 250 million years ago and some survived …
It’s a carefully laid trap
Each of these seats is a carefully laid trap. It’s a system which has evolved to take €18 off each tourist who …
Tentacles
As a child I never understood why people said an octopus had tentacles. Surely they’re octacles? An octopus’s tentacles are multi-function. Just …
Trilobite con pista
‘Trilobite con pista’, it says. No, it’s not an item on the Italian menu in the restaurant at lunch time, but the …
Scala Contarini del Bovolo
Six floors, eighty steps, 28 metres and €9. That’s the spiral staircase named after snails, ‘del Bovolo’, in Venice. The Palazzo was …
The gondoliers
Gondoliers in Venice appear to earn a top salary of €100,000. For that I’d expect some adherence to uniform standards. We saw …
Fossil ferns and horsetails
I’m astonished every time I see detail in fossils. Their age, the heat and the pressure they have been subjected to, and …
The trophy room
A visit to the natural history museum in Venice can be a bit of a shock for those unprepared for a full-on …
Bridge of Sightseers
A tale of two bridges. One is the Ponte dei Sospiri, the Bridge of Sighs, built in 1600. It’s the bridge between …
Pink lamps
It’s a foggy early morning in Venezia and the low cloud gives an eerie feel to the place as we wander around …
Chimera
A trip to Venice isn’t complete without at least two hours visiting the Museo de la historia naturale. As well as dinosaur …
Asymmetric Gondolas
On a recent trip to Venezia (Venice) I was fascinated to see that gondolas lean. They all have one side much larger …