For most of its history, the job of being a gondolier in Venice has been passed down from father to son. But recently a woman passed the very difficult written and practical tests to become Venice's first female gondolier.

Check out the video highlights of our recent European Sampler tour.

Scientists have extracted DNA from Ötzi the Iceman, the 5000-year old mummy found in the Italian Alps. They are hoping to identify possible living descendants and, more importantly, to study gene mutations over the intervening generations.

The National Archaeology Museum in Bolzano, Italy has a fabulous display about Ötzi, which includes all of the clothing and objects that were found with him when his body was discovered.

I arrived in Rome yesterday, twenty-nine years after my first visit. Back then I was traveling as one of a group of 40 high school students on my first trip to Europe. Thanks to a comedy of errors, our tour group arrived in Rome after 36 hours of travel from California. It was almost midnight here. We were beyond tired. Our luggage didn't arrive. It was dark. The bus that was supposed to take us from the airport to our hotel had left without us.

Yet the next morning we were all up bright and early to spend our first day exploring the center of Western Civilization. After three days in the city, I hated the place. Old. Dirty. Noisy. Stinky. Chaotic. Confusing. And worst of all, no one spoke English. I never wanted to see another word ending in a vowel. I realize now that my reaction was a combination of exhaustion, jet lag and culture shock.

Today I'm leading my own groups through Rome. Over the years I've grown to love this mess of a city, and look forward to one or more annual visits. I slide into the flow of life here -- the crowded subways, chaotic streets and passionate people, like slipping into a comfortable pair of shoes. Two-thousand-year old ruins appear like familiar friends. I know their stories, I know their tricks, and I know a great little gelato place nearby. As I step out into the glow of a warm Mediterranean evening I smile and whisper Ciao, Bella.

Almost everything we know about the Etruscans comes from their tombs, so archaeologists hope to learn more about their lives from examining this 2400-year old house. http://bit.ly/bnffGV

Check out this very cool slide show on a 2000-year old Roman cargo ship that was carrying lead ingots from Spain to Rome.

Known today mostly for the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, Leonardo da Vinci reveals in a letter to the Duke of Milan that he viewed painting as a sideline, and his real genius lay in creating new weapons. http://bit.ly/cUFojM

Much like modern day Americans, busy Romans of the 1st century AD liked to stop on the way home and grab a bite to eat. One of the typical snack bars that dotted the city of Pompeii, the thermopolium of Vetutius Placidus, has reopened after being closed to tourists for several years. http://bit.ly/c9mIgH

I'm starting to put my destination guides on-line, including a selection of my recommended hotels and restaurants. The first of these covers Venice.

Let me know what you would like to see next.


ALBERGO DA BRUNO
Salizzada San Lio 5726, 30122 Venezia
tel. 041-523-0452 fax: 041-522-1157
e-mail: info@hoteldabruno.com
32 rooms. Singles: €135 Doubles: €180 Visa/MC accepted.

Overall: C
Location: C
Ambiance: B
Cleanliness: B
Maintenance: D
Staff: C

A nice mid-range hotel, clean and modern rooms that were upgraded recently. The renovation has added greatly to the charm of the rooms, which were rather plain and sterile but now have attractive colors and furnishings. Ideal location midway between Rialto and St. Marks.

CHECK AVAILABILITY

Venice has provided the setting for countless novels and films, but there are also a good number of non-fiction books that are worth digging in to.

Books


Commissario Guido Brunetti series, by Donna Leon
One of my all-time favorites, this series of murder mysteries is set in modern Venice, with the middle-aged Guido Brunetti as the central character. Beautifully evocative of the spirit and feel of Venice, the subtle differences between Venetians and Italians, and the love/hate relationship many have for their city.

A History of Venice, by John Julius Norwich
A massive tome that is probably the best history of medieval Venice ever written. Makes clear just how unrivaled this city of art and culture was, at a time when most of Europe was still groveling around in mud huts.

The City of Falling Angels, by John Berendt
An intimate and intriguing look at the exasperating character of Venice and Venetians. With his first book, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, on the New York Times Bestseller list Berendt moved to Venice and spent the next ten years finding quirky characters and charming citizen who inhabit the world’s strangest city.

The Venetian Empire, by Jan Morris
With typical wry wit and sparkling prose, Morris mixes the history of the great Venetian trading Empire with descriptions of places in the present day city. One of the best introductions to the city.




The World of Venice, by Jan Morris
An early work by Morris that doesn’t exhibit her usual panache and clear-headed style. While it’s a decent read, and a good comparison to her later works, which are the among the best travel writing in the world, other books do a better job of bringing Venice’s history to life.

Venice Against the Sea, by John Keahey
A modern, concise and well researched look into the many reasons that Venice is sinking, and what attempts are being made to save the city.

Venice Observed, by Mary McCarthy
Years after she spent time wandering through Venice, exploring the art and architecture of the floating city, McCarthy looks back fondly on her time there.


Films

Italian for Beginners
Comic romance is multi-lingual in this Danish film about people learning Italian for just about every reason except wanting to speak Italian. While most of it takes place in a village near Copenhagen, the class trip to Venice is a great finish.

Bread & Tulips
Heading down the freeway towards another humdrum family vacation, middle-aged and unappreciated mom Rosalba is left behind at a rest stop. How long before her family realizes she’s gone? Rosalba is not waiting around to find out and heads off on a little vacation of her own. She hitch hikes to Venice, has a fling, gets a job in flower store, and rediscovers her own sense of joy and purpose in life.

Dangerous Beauty
In the 16th-century, Venice was home to as many as 10,000 courtesans (read: high class prostitutes), who used their powers to gain considerable wealth and status while influencing society and politics. Based on a true story, this visually sumptuous film teeters on the edge of respectability with enough flesh and sex to keep any teenager happy, while delivering an insightful look into 16th century politics and church repression in the age of the Inquisition.




Death in Venice
Based on the Thomas Mann novel and set in Venice at the beginning of the 20th century, an aging composer facing a mental block finds renewal in an image of perfect youth. A tragic and disturbing film.

Summertime
At her arrival in Venice, Hepburn is an emotionally uptight, single American woman. Soon the music, food, art, and architecture of Venice (all beautifully filmed on location) will work their magic, and she’ll be tossing caution and morals to the wind.

The Wings of a Dove
In a plot twisty enough for Hitchcock, Bonham Carter plays a young woman in love with a guy she can’t marry because he’s poor and below her station. She suggests he marry a dying friend of hers, who just happens to be a rich heiress, so he can get her money, but then has second thoughts after it’s too late. Set mostly in Venice, with a few London scenes.

Osteria Oliva Nera
Castello 3417
Venezia
tel. 041-522-2170
Hours: 12:00 to 15:00 & 19:00 to 22:00
Average Price: €70 per person. All major credit cards accepted.
Finding it: Located in a residential area, midway between the Bridge of Sighs and the Arsenal. Head down the waterfront, then turn left at Calle dei Pieta, just before the Metropol Hotel. Go straight for about four blocks, and the restaurant will be on a corner to your right.

Firmly focused on quality over quantity, Oliva Nera is a gourmet delight in what is otherwise a pretty bleak restaurant landscape. They are especially known for their zucchini flowers, stuffed with cheese and fried, the best I’ve ever had. The rest of the menu changes throughout the year. I’ve enjoyed the breaded shrimp with cold cauliflower cream sauce, and the ricotta and orange ravioli with tomato.

Portions are small, with a subtle blending of flavors not often found in the tourist mills so common in Venice. Each person should expect to eat two or three courses, at €15 to €20 per course. Service is warm, yet prompt and professional.

Reservations recommended.

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Hotel American Dinesen A+
Rio San Vio 628, Dorsoduro
30123 Venezia
tel: 041-520-4733 fax: 041-520-4048
Web
30 rooms. Singles: €190 Doubles: €260 to €310 All major credit cards accepted.
Location: B Ambiance: A Clean: A+ Maintenance: A Staff: A+

Excellent location and atmosphere, the American is a hotel with strong attention to detail and friendly service. Some rooms have terraces overlooking the canal.

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Hotel La Cisterna
Piazza della Cisterna 24
53037 San Gimginano
Tel: 0577-940-328
Fax: 0577-942-080
www.hotelcisterna.it
50 rooms. Singles: €78; Doubles: €98 to €132

Right on the main square of town, the ivy covered walls hide a relatively large hotel, considering its location in the center of this tiny town. Rooms are clean and comfy, but tend to be narrow and can feel a little cramped with the bed and furnishings occupying most of the space. Thankfully most of the rooms have views into the countryside, or onto the square in front of the hotel. It’s worth splurging for one of the terrace rooms, which give you outdoor space and sweeping views of the surrounding hills.

In a city where it's not unusual for locals to don hip waders before heading out for a walk, recent rains have raised water levels above what even they are used to. Recent rains and higher than normal winds have combined to submerge over half the city. Flood levels reached more than 4.5 feet above normal. Officials fear that in January, when tides are expected to be higher already, the city may see water levels reach 5 feet. View photos of the floods.

Michelangelo Merisi (1571 - 1610), better known as Caravaggio, is one of my favorite artists. If you like paintings by Rembrandt, Velzaquez, Rubens or any of handful of other painters of the 17th century, you have Caravaggio to thank. He invented the art style known as chiaroscuro (pronounced key-are-os-koo-row, literally: that which obscures), which features a heightened contrast between light and dark in the painting. Certain portions of the painting are often given a glaring, "third-degree interrogation" kind of lighting, while the rest of the painting slips into deep, brown shadows. An example of this is the Calling of St. Matthew (right), a fresco in the church of San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome.

Typical of Caravaggio, the painting takes a classic theme -- when Matthew, a tax collector (the worst kind of sinner) is called to become a follower of Christ -- and uses light, shadow, and a scene in motion to heighten the drama and change the focal point. Our eye first falls on the men around the table, huddled over the coins they are counting (anachronistically dressed in 17th century clothes). One of the men seems to be looking up in surprise and asking "who, me?" It's only after following their interrupted gaze that we notice, mostly obscured and deep in shadow, the figure of Christ motioning to one of the men. "You. Follow me."

Caravaggio's figures are often brutally realistic, as here in the Crucifixion of Peter. Caravaggio painted from life, using models, props and natural light, in contrast to his contemporaries, who often painted fanciful scenes they had created entirely in their heads. While the accepted way of depicting saints was to show them as beautiful, clean people, dressed in the finest silks, Caravaggio often showed them dressed in rags, tired and dirty but dauntless in their faith in Christ. More shocking still, in an age when modeling was not yet a profession, he often hired drunks and prostitutes to model for him. His Virgin Mary could well be recognizable to everybody in Rome as the hooker who worked the corner near Piazza Navona.

In modern times, Caravaggio has ended up being more influential than famous, partly because he died young. There's no question that he was a bad, bad boy during his time in Rome. He made a show of walking around the city armed with a sword. He had a lengthy arrest record for fights, public indecency, and even wounding a police officer. Caravaggio's powerful patrons, including the nephew of the Pope, were able to protect him for awhile, but eventually Caravaggio killed someone (reportedly in a disagreement over a bet on a tennis match).

He fled Rome and made his way through Naples, Sicily and Malta, spending a few months in each place, but always one step ahead of the law. Oddly, he did some of his best work while on the run. Eventually he made his way back to Naples, and through contacts in Rome was working to arrange a Papal pardon. He was headed back to Rome to accept the pardon when he died under mysterious circumstances in Porto Ercole, a small port just north of Rome. His bones were recently exhumed, and scientists will be studying them to see if they can determine a cause of death.

For more on Caravaggio, I highly recommend M: The Man Who Became Caravaggio

Google has added the ruins of Pompeii to their collection of street view images, so now you can walk the streets of the ancient city without even leaving your living room.

A team of researchers from the University of Padua in Italy have used near-infrared imaging to reveal the outlines of the Roman city of Altinum. The forerunner of Venice, Altinum was abandoned 1500 years ago during successive waves of barbarian invasions.

See the images and read the story.

Tourists now out number locals almost 3 to 1, as Venice prepares for its own funeral. http://bit.ly/SfXUX

The Vatican Museum, which includes the Sistine Chapel, is joining a host of other museums in offering late evening hours. Beginning July 24, the Vatican Museum will be open from 7:00pm to 11:00pm. At the moment this is being publicized as a temporary experiment by the Vatican, but if the test is successful they plan to make the late openings permanent. Not all of the museum will be open during the evening hours, but the main attractions will be available.

Tourists drawn by Michelangelo's frescos in the Sistine Chapel have made the Vatican Museum among the most crowded in Europe. Snaking around the wall that divides the Vatican City from Rome, the security line for entry to the Museum can stretch for up to half a mile, with wait times exceeding two hours. I have complained long and loud to many of my past groups about the Vatican's limited hours, and how that forces visitors into a very narrow time window. It makes the museum more crowded than it needs to be, and visits far less enjoyable than they should be.

Assuming a set number of people plan to visit the museum on any given day, extending the hours should spread the load out, meaning less visitors in the museum at any one time. Hopefully this marks a new attitude by the Vatican towards making the museum more user friendly. Now if they would just bring back the short cut from the Raphael Rooms to the Sistine Chapel, instead of forcing everybody to walk up and down hundreds of stairs and through miles of modern art that they're not interested in . . .

You can book tickets for small group, guided tours for the Vatican Museums as well as tickets that will let you skip the line.