On the wings of the Lion-the last rocks of Serenissima

The Mediterranean Sea has again become the centre of the World.
During the XXI century things are again rapidly changing, above all in the East of the Middle East. Democratic rebellions have aroused hopes and prompted fighting in those Arabian countries which overlook the so called White Sea: Syria, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia.
To us these are remote places, closed in their dictatorships. Now they have become the backdrop of hopes and struggles. Alexandria, Damascus, Benghazi, Tripoli, Tunis. To us, today's sleepy Occidental people, as sons and daughters of a World divided, are only far away ports.
Five hundred years ago however, when Venice was known as the Serenissima Republic, all those seaside cities where well trodden and well known by merchants which enriched and made Venice great, despite being a city lost in the North of the little Adriatic sea.
Those water-shepherds, who bridled their ships at their houses like horses, had conquered Costantinople and part of the Byzantine Empire. They even reached Cyprus and Crete, planting the banner bearing the winged Lion of Saint Mark.
Over time the department stores, commercial centers, warehouses and trading have spread farther and farther away, finally arriving at Aleppo, in the region today known as Syria; in the Lebanese Tyre, in St John of Acra, the same Alexandria of Egypt that guarded the holy relics of the patron saint of Serenissima up to the IX century; and also Maurocastro, on the Black sea, in the mouth of Dniester river, at Trabzon, at Tana, where the Don river ends; and more faraway toward Asia, to the Far East. These are mythical but real places, concrete, where the desire to explore and trade expanded beyond the Pillars of Hercules, to Flanders, Scandinavia and London. So perhaps it is true to say that the people of Serenissima were able to look farther than us, that they were able to combine their interests and tolerance even during the decadent 18th Century.

The Dominant was enlightened, it has opened its doors to people of different cultures and religions: Albanians, Greeks, Dalmatians and Morlaci, but also Armenians, Romanians, Moldavians, Jews, Arabs, Germans, they all peacefully traded in the amphibious city that made Mediterraneum its own sea. So Venetian became an international language, understood and spoken even by the two big powers of the time, the Spanish and the English who were travelling around the Aegean and the Ionian sea like corsairs, trying to avoid the famous and dreaded Barbary pirates, who frightened the first coming of USA Marines to Tripoli(1801).

This ancient link that connects Venice and the sea, was once symbolized by the ceremony of wedding Venice to the sea itself, celebrated every year on the Ascension day by the Doge on the ship Bucentaur. This was a golden ship and the prow bore a statue of the Albanian hero Scanderbeg, who had battled against the Turkish invasions for 20 years in the XV century.

Nowadays that the world seems more open, Venice could become a bastion of integration on the strength of its experience in keeping connections between far and different peoples. For example the Venetian government in Crete lasted more than 400 hundred years. Although marked by rebellions and bloody repressions, it built an extraordinary cultural, artistic and social Koinè that was called “Venetian Crete”, like a spontaneous union of thousands of Venetians and Greek-Cretans, both from noble and lower classes.
A long period of 400 years means an exchange of about 15 generations. From the Middle Ages to the Modern age; from holy wars to the discovery of America; from arches and arrows to cannons and blunderbusses. Not only horizons, but also costumes and habits, patterns and attitudes drastically changed.
In the middle of the 13th Century, the Venetian rulers domineered with the sword on the island of Crete but would later on fight side by side with the Cretians to defend Candia from Turkish attacks.
This charming image of a Venice far from the canals and it's Laguna, boxed in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea , found expression in the three little islands of Granbusa, Souda and Spinalonga. Even once Crete had completely fallen into the hands of the Turkish, these islands remained under the Venetian domain till 1715, despite being literally encircled, they resisted for 500 years under Venetian government. This period includes the IV Holy War of doge Enrico Dandolo, the conquest of Costantinople (followed by Crete), to the wigs and powders worn by Giacomo Casanova, who would have been born only 10 years after the fall of the last venetian strongholds on Crete.

We propose to use this history as a starting point for a cultural tour beginning with the History of these places , presenting them as exotic borders of a faraway Venice.
We will explain these 600 years of a Venice history, showing what the Cretan-Venetian culture has offered to the Mediterranean as a whole.
We will investigate the current state of Granbusa, Souda and Spinalonga by including them in this project which spans the Adriatic and Mediterranean sea.

"On the wings of the Lion-the last blocks of Serenissima" is a voyage on the routes of Venetian galleys: the ancient commercial routes, the silk road and the spice road as a bridge to connect two sides of the same world, against any prejudice or any fear. We 'd like to celebrate part of the rich heritage of Venice in the Mediterranean area and collect stories and experiences, discovering ancient roots which deserve to be documented.
Our boat Arina- captained by Enrico Brozzola- will be a vehicle but also a bridge between these places and these cultures which for centuries have been connected by the sea; the very sea that this voyage will navigate, calling at 20 port destinations including Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, Greece and Crete.