With Superfast to Venice

Embarkation this morning is relaxed. This also applies to the entire crossing. We enter Venice and a thick haze hangs over the lagoon. We pass the Fusina campsite, which is right next to the ferry and car terminal and where we have reserved two nights.

A rowing regatta is taking place here today, which is why the campsite is pretty full and we set up camp by the boat storage area.

Venice

Camping Fusina

We liked this simple but well-kept campsite. Thanks to the lack of parceling out, the campsite looks a little wilder, as it did at the beginning of the camping era. After the end of the rowing regatta, there is also much more space again.

The special feature of the square is its location on the shipping lane for the port of Venice. This means that mighty ships are always passing right in front of us.

A day in Venice

Today we take the vaporetto to Venice. Although there are lots of other people on the way, we enjoy the leisurely stroll through the alleyways and over the countless bridges. On the contrary, we somehow enjoy the different people visiting the city. For lunch, we even find a nice restaurant in a side street that serves us delicious food.

I will refrain from commenting on what I saw and simply post a few pictures to give you an impression of the impressive city. Of course, what always comes to mind is Commissario Brunetti, his family and colleagues from Donna Leon’s novels.

Donna Leon and Commissario Guido Brunetti in Venice

After studying English and English literature in her home country (USA) and further studies in Siena and Perugia, Donna Leon taught these subjects. She then worked as a travel guide in Rome and as a copywriter in London. She later taught at American schools in Switzerland, in Iran (until 1979), in China and for nine months in Saudi Arabia. From 1981 to 1995, she worked at the University of Maryland’s outpost at the US Air Force base in Vicenza (northern Italy).

The idea for her first book came to her in 1992 during a visit to the opera at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice. During a conversation with conductor Gabriele Ferro and his wife, they exchanged anecdotes and gossip about the late star conductor Herbert von Karajan and his death. The conversation escalated and the three ended up talking about murder in an opera dressing room.

This led to her debut novel Venezianisches Finale with the investigator Guido Brunetti, who solves the death of the German star conductor Helmut Wellauer in the first case. The novel was published in 1992 under the title Death at La Fenice by Random House in New York and flopped. Leon suspected that the investigator Brunetti was “too intellectual” for the American public. The German translation was published by Diogenes Verlag in 1993. Leon has been a bestselling author in Germany ever since. The Brunetti novels, which are published annually, often top the German bestseller lists in June/July. They have been translated into 35 languages and published in numerous countries. At her request, however, they are not published in Italian so that the Venetians, from whom she gets her stories and inspiration, can continue to deal with her without bias and because she wanted to lead a normal life in Venice without being recognized.

Donna Leon now lives in Switzerland and is a Swiss citizen.

… the day in Venice is not over yet …

Back in Switzerland

On June 12, we travel to Switzerland, specifically to Müstair in the Münstertal valley. Our friends Thomas and Esther are camping here with their new camper named “Zwerg”. We met them years ago in Kenya and have been in friendly contact ever since.

Together we walk through Santa Maria with its many typical houses and along the stream back to Müstair. Our program also includes a visit to Müstair Abbey. We would love to stay here for longer, as the great weather and the rural atmosphere move us.

Santa Maria

Santa Maria Val Müstair, until 1995 officially St. Maria im Münstertal), is a fraction of the municipality of Val Müstair in the canton of Graubünden, Switzerland. It was an independent municipality until the end of 2008. On January 1, 2009, Santa Maria Val Müstair merged with the other Swiss municipalities in the valley (Fuldera, Lü, Müstair, Tschierv and Valchava) to form the current municipality of Val Müstair.

The first farms were established in the High Middle Ages from the nearby Müstair monastery and through the clearing activities of some free people. Around 1167/70, the Sancte Mariae chapel in Silvaplana is attested to, as evidenced by the current name of the hamlet of Sielva.

Delighted by the beautifully preserved or renovated houses, we walk through Santa Maria and then along the mountain stream to the campsite in Müstair.

St. John the Baptist Monastery

The nunnery of the Benedictine nuns St. John the Baptist in Müstair is a very well-preserved medieval monastery from the Carolingian period. The Carolingian period was an era of the early Middle Ages from 751 to 919 AD, which began with the rule of the Carolingians in the Frankish Empire, led by Pippin the Younger, and ended with the beginning of Ottonian rule. It is known for the Frankish Empire under Charlemagne, who was crowned emperor in 800, and was a period of renewal in politics, religion and culture that spanned much of Europe

The monastery is considered a foundation of Charlemagne. It was founded at the time of the Carolingian conquests of the Lombard (774) and Bavarian (778) territories; the oldest timber of the church has been dendrochronologically dated to around 775, one year after the conquest of Lombardy. However, the establishment of the monastery may have been carried out by the Bishop of Chur as a confidant of the emperor. In doing so, he secured access to the Vinschgau Valley, which belonged to the diocese of Chur until 1816. The monastery served as a base for the emperor, to control intersecting traffic routes, as a hospice for travelers, as an administrative center for the bishop and, last but not least, as a place of worship.

Müstair

A probably late Bronze Age building floor plan was discovered under the north stable of the monastery. The Benedictine convent had a formative influence on the history of the village. At the beginning of the 9th century, the place was mentioned as monasterium Tuberis. Meierhöfe were grouped around the monastery, and a manor house from the 10th century is likely to have been an Ottonian donation to the Bishop of Chur. In the 13th century, the separation of the settlement of Müstair from the territory of Taufers was probably complete. A market is first documented in 1239, where mainly gray cloth was sold and exported. In 1367, the court of Münstertal joined the Gotteshausbund. Before the Battle of Calven in 1499, Müstair was the assembly point for Graubünden troops, after which the village was destroyed by Austrian troops.

Werdenberg

Although we want to go home, we don’t want to go home. It’s not easy for us. Fortunately, friends from the Rhine Valley have invited us for breakfast. Afterwards, our brother-in-law and sister-in-law invite us to spend our last night in MAN, then lunch at my brother’s house and then we end up in our village and settle into our apartment.

In between, we still have time to visit the pretty village of Werdenberg.Werdenberg is a village with historical town rights. Werdenberg boasts about 90 inhabitants, making it the smallest town in Switzerland. Of the 40 or so houses, some only serve as vacation homes. Werdenberg is often visited by tourists because of its well-preserved medieval houses and the museum in Werdenberg Castle. The Werdenberg Castle Festival has been held at Werdenberg Castle since 1985.