[music] Kira: Coming up next on Islands Without Cars: we searched for centuries of artistic expression in Italy's magnificent and magical Venetian Lagoon, unmasked the stories behind some beautiful art forms...

Customer: Grazie.

Kira: ...took a ride on a Gondola, of course, and learned about the massive plans to keep Venice from sinking.

[music] [theme music] Kira: Hi, I'm Kira Cook and it's my great pleasure to be your guide as we search for islands lost in time, places where cars are restricted and whose inhabitants wouldn't have it any other way.

So come with me on a journey that you won't forget.

[theme music] [music] Kira: The Venetian Lagoon in North Eastern Italy is dotted with dozens of inhabited islands.

We're exploring two of them: Venice and Burano.

[music] The tiny island of Burano is a colorfully curated home to generations of lace makers, artists, and fisherman living quiet lives island style.

And the incomparable and mythologized city of Venice, which is probably the most famous car-free island in the world.

[music] Traditionally known as the Most Serene Republic of Venice, this city in North Eastern Italy is actually pretty busy.

[music] Kira: An average of 50,000 tourists a day are drawn to this uniquely beautiful architectural and engineering achievement, built on 118 small islands, separated by 114 canals, and joined again by 400 bridges.

Long considered the most beautiful and romantic city in the world, Venice is also Europe's largest urban car-free area and is recognized by UNESCO for it's international importance and influence.

[ringing bell] And while the 19 century added a railway station and the 20th added parking facilities at the edge of the city, transport through Venice has remained the same throughout the centuries.

Kira: Canals function as liquid roads with the famous "S" shaped Grand Canal functioning as a main street.

Motorized water busses, known as vaporetti, provide public transportation as do over 300 gondolas.

These traditional flat bottom row boats have become an international symbol of romance.

So tell me about this place.

This is a very special place here in Venice.

It's called Squero di San Trovaso where gondolas are made and fixed.

Can you see it in the lower part?

You can see that there are six teeth.

Each tooth stands for one area of Venice.

You know there are six Sestieri-- "sei" means six-- so six main areas.

So these boats are made for Venice, obviously, but also somewhere else?

Yeah.

Exactly.

For the Venetian in Las Vegas.

Okay, so there actually is something true and real about Las Vegas?

Yeah, absolutely.

Absolutely.

Viva Las Venice.

Kira: Giovanna and I are now headed to Piazza San Marco, or St. Mark's Square.

St. Mark's is the principle public square of Venice and is dominated by St. Mark's Basilica, which is one of the best known examples of a Italo-Byzantine architecture in the world.

St. Mark's can be defined, Byzantine Church.

We can really enjoy fantastic mosaics both inside and outdoor, especially with a dome background.

Have you noticed that you can see lots of winged lions in Venice?

The symbol of St. Mark is the winged lion.

Kira: Winged lion.

Giovanna: For example, you can see one at the top of that tower.

Yeah.

Can you see the golden one there?

Kira: Oh, yes.

Giovanna: On the facade of the church.

Kira: And there's a large one on the column.

Giovanna: And then, look at the flag poles, can you see?

Kira: It's beautiful.

Kira: Next Giovanna is taking me to the oldest Jewish ghetto in the world.

Inside these walls Jewish merchants and money lenders lived segregated from the rest of the city that their loans helped finance.

Giovanna: So this ghetto, this area, was established more than 500 years ago, so, precisely in 1516.

It had a population of about 600,000 people.

The Venetian Republic accepted and really wanted many Jews because most of them were money lenders.

So Venice, the Venetian Republic, really needed money lenders.

Kira: The origin of the word ghetto comes from this neighborhood, right?

Giovanna: Yes, exactly.

The word ghetto comes from venetian dialect and originally it was gheto, referring to the foundries, you know companies, for metal.

For metal?

Yeah, exactly.

And they were called "gheto" in Venetian dialect, okay.

Since the very, very first Jewish community who lived here was of German origin, instead of pronouncing it "jetto," they pronounced it "ghetto".

That's where the word comes from.

[music] Kira: Before saying arrivederci to Giovanna, we had a quick aperol spritz back in St. Mark's Square to drink in the atmosphere and marvel at the sheer number of tourists.

Kira: Is it always this crowded in Venice?

Giovanna: Oh, sometimes much more than this.

For example, in summer, in high season you can't even see the pavement-- Wow!

--in the streets.

Kira: The day tripper and cruise ship types are considered an eat and flee population, more like marauders than visitors.

And the landscape-blocking ships?

Well, you decide.

[ship's horn blows] Yet, because Venice is no longer the trading capital of yore, it needs the money from these marauders, an estimated $200 million annually.

Money that provides jobs up and down the food chain.

And speaking of food, the Rialto Market has been offering fresh produce and fish from the Adriatic sea since the 11th century.

[music] Kira: So we're here at the gladiator games of the fish world.

It is guts, it is glory, it is disgusting.

[music] This kind of makes me want to be a Vegan, I'm not going to lie.

They've got beautiful octopus.

[music] Kira: The Pescaria, seafood section, and Erbaria, vegetable and fruit section, are the places to go for local flavor.

[music] Ohhh.

[music] I'm in the market for some figs, literally in the market for some figs.

[music] [speaking Italian] Oh, delicious.

[music] After the decline of the Roman empire, the Venetian City state was founded as a safe haven for those escaping persecution in mainland Europe.

Kira: Venice's sudden growth made it a major financial player during the middle ages and renaissance, and as a result it be become home to an extremely wealthily merchant class.

They were the influencers of their day and used their wealth to patronize architects, musicians, and artists.

At Ca' Macana's shop and workshop, the influence of traditional masks for theater, for carnival, and for deception has been a lasting one.

[speaking Italian] Hey.

Hi.

I'm Kira.

Hi, Kira.

Wow, this is amazing.

What a shop.

Well, thank you.

Venice has a tight history connected to masks and mask making.

Masks were used in Venice not only for partying, but in the everyday life.

That's something crazy, something unique in the history of the human kind, I think.

Kira: Davide explained that the upper class Venetians employed masks into their leisure activities, not so much to disguise identity, but to conceal their elevated status when interacting with members of a different and presumably lower class.

But masks also had a very practical medical use.

So what is the connection between the plague and mask wear?

Well, you are referring to the plague doctor mask, and this is a special medical uniform used in Europe for more than 100 years during the plague.

They knew that there was a connection between having direct contact with sick people and getting the disease.

So this mask, the long beak of this mask, was filled with herbs, vinegar, and other things that were supposed to filter the air and the breath of the sick people.

So it was to protect the doctor, basically.

It was not for fun.

Kira: What was for fun, were the masks used for erotic games?

Tell me the story of this black mask.

Davide: This mask was called muto or mute in English, and that was a mask used just by women.

Okay, this was apart of an ongoing erotic game, let's say, that was completely legal and acceptable-- we're talking about the 1700s-- and was part of a whole costume in which the breasts were completely shown.

So at that time even the nipples were decorated with a sort of lipstick to make them more evident, okay?

And was the duty of men who wanted to talk with her to convince her to remove the mask.

This mask was worn not with strings, but by biting a button in your mouth.

It was very, very easy to remove the mask in just one second if you wanted to answer to the advances of a man that came there to talk to you.

Okay, so it takes a lot on the part of the guy to convince the woman to speak.

Davide: Exactly.

That was the game.

But he gets to see the breasts right away.

Davide: Yeah, but that was not so interesting because the intention, the attitude were hidden by the mask.

Okay, what do you think?

Convince me.

[laughing] Kira: At last, the Venice of today is not all fun and games.

The 30-foot sculpture behind me was created by Italian artist Lorenzo Quinn and it is meant to depict the very real threat of climate change to not only Venice, but the world.

The hands are supposed to symbolize man's ability to both create and destroy.

Monica: Venice has two big problems: one is the sinking of the entire Lagoon and the settlements and the other is the sea level rises.

At the beginning, the middle of the 90s, is was that industry pumped water from the ground, so this has caused the sinking of the area in the lagoon.

But now, we have now the problem of the sea level rising, so Venice get's flooded many times during a year.

So we need to realize a system to stop this problem.

Kira: To combat the rising sea levels, in 2003 a consortium of engineering firms began construction on this massive project.

The idea is to use underwater mobile gates at the three inlets where the open sea enters Venice's Lagoon.

When the sea water rises above a certain level, the gates are raised to shut out the Adriatic.

Can you tell us what we're standing in front of?

What is this?

Monica: This is a special barge for the installation of the gates and further maintenance because this steel barrier, imagine they are underwater for most of the time, so they need to be maintained.

So every five years each gate will be removed, will be replaced by another gate because we are preserving, I think, one of the most important heritages in the world.

And it's very important for, like a pilot projects for saving other settlements like Venice in the world.

So thanks to the people at MOSE Project future generations won't think of Venice the way that we think of Atlantis.

[speaking Italian] You're welcome.

Thank you.

Ciao.

Ciao.

[music] [speaking Italian] [music] Kira: And who can leave Venice without the storybook romance of a gondola ride?

For which occasion I brought my husband.

[music] [music] Kira: Trading our gondola for a fairy boat, we took a quick ride inside the Venetian Lagoon to the car-free island of Burano.

[music] The colorful and charming fishermen's homes lining the canals of Burano, are almost overwhelmingly vibrant when you see them for the first time, each painted as brightly as the Venetian sky.

[music] This tradition began when fisherman decided upon a new way to find their way home at an end of a long day of fishing thanks to the thick fog that descends upon the lagoon in the evenings.

While it may seem spontaneous, there's actually a specific color pattern system and every time that a resident wants to paint their houses they have to submit an application to the government and the government must say whether or not they can paint their houses this color, right?

Actually, you need a special permission to paint your house during the day, but during the night you can do what you want.

The important thing is that you keep the colors different.

So you can not find two green together or two yellow together, but must always be a green, a yellow, and something else Okay.

Kira: A lot of people here take inspiration from the fishermen.

Not the least of whom is Ruggero Bovo, an Island Chef who has been wowing tourists and foodies alike at his restaurant al Gatto Nero since 1965.

[music] [speaking Italian] Extra virgin.

Yes, extra virgin olive oil.

[speaking Italian] Garlic.

[music] Kira: They're moving.

They're reaching their hands up to ask for help, actually.

[music] Kira: Okay, here we go.

Ruggero: For you.

Kira: A little bit of morning risotto.

Ruggero: Yes.

[music] That is so good.

[laughing] So good.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Salute!

[music] Kira: After a delicious meal, it was time for a sweeter island speciality.

[music] The Bussola Buranello Cookies of Burano.

[music] I'll be ordering all of them.

[server speaking Italian] [speaking Italian] [server speaking Italian] [Kira speaking Italian] [music] So the Bussola, the Burano cookie, it's very simple ingredients.

It's basically the ingredients of all baked goods: floor, sugar, butter with a little bit of lemon as well.

So it's really just nice mellow flavoring.

[music] Shape is important.

The bussola cookie is a round shape and that stands for the Island of Burano and the Essi cookie is the shape of the Grand Canal in Venice.

Same flavor, different shapes.

[music] How do you make it so perfect?

[music] [speaking Italian] [music] [laughing] Okay, not bad.

Another way.

[music] [speaking Italian] Oh.

[music] [delightful moan] [mumbling] [music] Your beautiful store.

Yes, thank you.

Kira: Glass blowing is world renowned in the Venetian Lagoon.

And Burano is not without its own artist puffer who just happened to give us a lesson.

Okay, go.

Go, go, go.

You blow me, yeah.

Blow, blow.

More, more, more.

[glass chatter] Whoo!

This is the glass.

Cool.

It's like plastic.

What?

[music] So this is a different way of cooking fish, but still Venetian.

Kira: Oh my god, it's beautiful.

[applause] That is so cool.

I'm the fourth generation of a family.

She's my grandmother.

She's my mother.

She's my auntie.

And me, I'm the fourth generation.

Kira: Martina Vidal along with her brother Sergio continue to run their family lace making business, employing modern methods to market the traditional techniques required to produce Burano lace work.

Martina: This particular technique of lace, it's very unique for one reason: because all the other techniques of the work is made by one person.

But for making this particular technique of lace we need, every time, seven different people.

It's seven different steps.

Every woman, she's specialized in making only one type of stitch.

She's worked all her life to be perfect.

Kira: So this small piece is passed to seven people?

Not seven people do a wide swath of it and then you cut and put it in?

Martina: No.

Kira: No.

With the needle and thread, only with a needle and thread, we're doing the first stitch.

It's that one.

Looking like material, but it isn't material.

What you see is just a little knot.

Kira: It's a hundred of them.

Martina: Yes, many little knots.

Then, another person, she's doing the little bar in the middle to connect the work.

Then, another person, she's doing the net.

And then, another person, she's going all around pattern and she fits all the work together without cutting one thread.

Then another person, she's doing the little rose.

Then the last women, she's doing the picot.

This is the final result.

Beautiful.

This is all made by stitch.

Kira: And how many women on the Island of Burano are currently your lace makers?

Martina: Today, it's not so much like at one time.

Today in the island, it's about 40-50 women that continue to make this technique of lace.

Kira: How bad is your vision now?

[translating English question to Italian] [ladies answering in Italian] [translator answering in Italian] Kira: It's okay.

Sergio: It's okay.

Kira: So you're grooming the next generation of lace makers in your own school?

Martina: Yes.

Kira: So you have a museum, a school, and a shop?

Martina: Yes.

Kira: And so how many women per year sign up for the school?

Martina: Per year, it's about 30, 25, depending.

Kira: Any men?

Martina: No.

No men.

Why?

I don't know.

[laughing] It's good work.

It's more the work for a women.

The men in Burano are fishermen.

Kira: Okay, okay.

[Sergio speaking Italian] Kira: Martina and Sergio showed me their prized possession, a 100 year old table cloth that took seven women three years to make.

It's in amazing condition for how old it is.

Martina: And we can't do another.

Today, it's not possible to produce something like that again.

Today, we work on only small pieces.

So if you could put a price on this, how much would you sell this for?

It's difficult to make a price because it is like a painting, I don't say Picasso, but different.

Martina: It's like a Ferrari.

It's like a Ferrari, probably, in price.

Kira: Okay, so a Ferrari price for a tablecloth.

Yeah, about.

Kira: Wow.

Basic model.

Kira: Basic model.

Kira: Art and artists are everywhere on Burano Salute.

Salute.

Kira: Our guide, Marta Quintavalle grew up making lace and now is an accomplished digital photographer.

Marta: This is my real passion.

I use a very special technique to make this kind of photos, which is kind of making pictures in the darkness.

I use a torch in the darkness.

So I prepare my set and I try to use the light to create a chiaroscuro on the picture.

At the end, they seem to be a real painting.

They do.

They look completely like paintings.

They look like paintings.

Kira: And I've seen your parents have sand from all the beaches they've been in for their whole lives together.

It's like 40 jars of sand.

So they've traveled a lot, obviously?

Me too.

I imagine you have too.

What about Burano keeps you coming back to live?

It's fantastic.

It's fantastic because every time I come back, I breathe and I say, this is my place.

[music] When I see all the colors of the houses... the quiet of the island... this is really something unique in the world, I think.

Kira: Yeah.

Kira: Before leaving, we caught up with the owner of the Venissa Wine Resort, and not just to run through his vineyards or to check out his amazing sculpture garden, but to get an upscale in keepers stake on what the island has to offer.

Burano is an island where there's two lives: one during the day when the tourists come and one during the night and the morning.

[music] During the night, you can really feel the community.

So there's a lot of local people around and, I come from a 500 people city, actually a village.

So not coming from Milan or this big city, but from a small city and I can feel that Burano is really like my grandparents' stories, because here there's life of Italy like 50 years ago: the community, the ladies talking and making laces, the fishermen, at the end of the day they talk about the catch.

That's the beauty of Burano, and you can get only at night and the first morning.

That's a great way to sort of step back in time is to go to Burano, Exactly.

Exactly.

[music] Kira: After our quick skip through the Venetian Lagoon, I'm more impressed than ever by the efforts to preserve this amazing wetland... with the quiet beauty... celebrated traditions... [speaking Italian] ...and immeasurable cultural contributions.

[speaking Italian] [music] [music] [music] [music] Kira: For more information about our series, visit our website at IslandsWithoutCars.com.