Vaporetto (pronounced vap-uh-ret-oh
or vah-paw-ret-taw (Italian))
A steam-powered public transit canal-motorboat used as a
passenger bus along the canals in Venice, Italy.
1926: From the Italian, the construct being vapor(e) (steamboat) + -etto. Vaporetto is a diminutive of vapore (steam) from the Latin vapor & vaporem. The origin of vapor
is uncertain but may have been related to the Ancient Greek καπνός (kapnós) (smoke) and the primitive Indo-European
keawp (to smoke, boil, move violently), via the older form quapor, the pronunciation of which
softened over time. The etto- suffix was
used to forms nouns from nouns, denoting a diminutive. It was from the Late Latin -ittum, accusative singular of –ittus, and was the alliterative suffix
used to form melioratives, diminutives, and hypocoristics and existed variously in English & French
as -et, in Italian as Italian -etto and in Portuguese & Spanish as
-ito. With an animate noun, -etto
references as male, the coordinate female suffix being -etta, which is also
used with inanimate nouns ending in -a.
It should not be confused with the homophonous suffix -eto (grove). In Italy, steam-powered vessels were quickly dubbed
vapori in the way similar ships were
in English known as steamers. The noun plural is vaporettos in English or vaporetti in Italian although in Venice, the locals call them batèlo or vaporino.
Vaporettos long ago were converted to run
on diesel engines but the name (derived from vapore (steam)) had assumed its own identity and was retained. Venice’s first vaporetto company was founded by
a prominent member of the city’s Jewish community, the lawyer & councilor Amedeo
Grassini (1848-1908) and businessman Giuseppe Musatti (1796-1877) who created a
holding company which was instrumental in the transformation of the Lido into a
tourist destination. The vaporetto was
the vessel which made mass-market tourism possible among the canals, offering
what was by historic standards a system of mass-transit which operated with the
economies of scale necessary for financial viability. The first vaporetto service was launched in 1881
and despite the fears of the boatmen operating the gondoliers which also plied
the routes, their business was stimulated and they remain essential to this day
for the transport system to function, their narrow boats able to sail along the
narrower, tighter waterways. With
dimensions dictated by the size of infrastructure such as bridges and docks, vaporettos
were built to be as large as possible so that the passenger load could be
maximized.
Amedeo Grassini is also noted as the father
of Margherita Sarfatti (1880-1961), one of the Italy’s most renowned art critics
of the early twentieth century and the mistress & first biographer of
Benito Mussolini (1883–1945; Prime Minister of Italy (and Duce) 1922-1943)). She was interested in politics from a young
age and was a left-wing activist during World War I (1914-1918), one of many
who noted with dissatisfaction what little Italy gained from the Paris Peace
Conference (1919-1920) although to what extent this influenced her change of
political direction has never been certain.
Her affair with Mussolini began in 1911 and was tolerated her husband Cesare
Sarfatti (1866-1924) (who these days newspapers would describe as a “colorful
character”) but Rachele Mussolini (1890-1979) was not best pleased, something
with which the Duce had learned to cope.
Husband and Duce remained friends.
Lindsay Lohan disembarking from vaporetto, Venice Film Festival 2006.
Upon being widowed in 1924, signora Sarfatti
wrote a biography of Mussolini (published in Italy as Dux (Leader) and in English language editions as The Life of Benito Mussolini). In Italy, the book was of course a great success
but it was translated into seventeen languages and internationally was well-received
and widely read, reflecting the positive image many had of Italian fascism in
the 1920s and 1930s when the system appeared dynamic and modern. However, as the influences of the Nazis began
to affect the Duce, even signora Sarfatti began to harbor doubts although she
continued to maintain there was no “Jewish question” in Italy and declared the
fascist regime would never follow Hitler’s anti-Semitic policies. However, on Bastille Day 1938, The Manifesto of the Race appeared in
the Roman daily Il giornale d’Italia.
Written mostly by the Duce himself, the document
condemned the corruption of the Italian Aryan race through intermarriage with
Jews and marked the point at which the Rome-Berlin
axis (signed in 1936) ceased to be merely symbolic and became emblematic of
Italy’s vassal status. At this point, signora
Sarfatti, who had ended the affair two years earlier because of unhappiness with
the Duce’s colonial adventures and the implications of his dalliances with the
Nazis, left Italy for Argentina in 1938, not returning until 1947. Despite it all, her memoir Acqua Passata (Water under the bridge (1955))
was unapologetic.
Giorgia Meloni.
Although it has exercised the minds of many
in chanceries around Europe, the specter of Mussolini (the younger or older)
seems not to have disturbed enough of the 64%-odd of the Italian electorate
which in the election of 22 September delivered a majority in both houses to a coalition
of right-wing parties, described by some, fairly or not, as “neo-fascist”. Giorgia Meloni (b 1977) seems set to become
Italy’s first female prime-minister, heading a coalition including former
prime-minister (and aspiring president) Silvio Berlusconi’s (b 1936) Forza
Italia and aspiring prime-minister Matteo Salvini’s (b 1973) League. Actually, the F-word was never far from the
election campaign, signora Meloni in her youth having been a member of Italy's
neo-fascist movement although it may have been a youthful indiscretion (perhaps
something like the flirtation of Liz Truss with republicanism) because she
claimed in her book Io sono Giorgia
(I am Georgia (2021)) not to be a fascist and her 2022 campaign was more about getting trains to run on time than anything which overtly recalled the fascist past.
Despite that, she continues to use an old fascist slogan "God, fatherland and family" and during
electioneering repeated "I have
taken up the baton of a 70-year-long history". The coalition’s margin of victory wasn’t as
great as some of the polls had suggested but there are unlikely to be any
surprises in upcoming public policy, signora Meloni having long campaigned
against LGBT rights, advocated a naval blockade of Libya and has warned against
allowing Muslim migrants. Although
unlikely to match the Duce’s two-decade tenure (although things for him ended
badly), she’s promising Italy’s seventieth government since his fall from
office will be stable and durable. Given
her partners’ reputation for intrigue and willingness to pursue their own
agendas, all wish her well.
Vaporetto passing under Rialto Bridge.
Although on
occasions rebuilt since the twelfth century, the Ponte di Rialto (Rialto Bridge, Ponte
de Rialto in Venetian) across the Grand Canal is the oldest in Venice and now a noted
tourist attraction. It was once even
more important for the city, for three centuries the only way to cross the
waterway, something of great commercial value to the butchers, bakers, and candlestick
makers who surrounded it in medieval times.
The Rialto district was the origin of Venice, the ninth century settlement
there the first in the area and it gained the advantage from its early
establishment by emerging as the financial and commercial hub, the Rialto
Bridge the gateway to the main market which, by the eleventh century, was claimed
(perhaps optimistically) to be the finest south of the Dolomites.
Il Ponte di Rialtoby (circa 1877) by Antonietta Brandeis (1848–1926).
The
original structures to accommodate crossings were made of wood which, between occasionally
collapsing under the weight of humanity and burning down, for centuries
provided their vital link but in the sixteenth century, the decision was taken build
in stone and in 1591, after three years of construction, Ponte de Rialto was opened to the public. In an example of a cultural phenomenon that
persists to this day when anything startlingly new is built, not all admired
the appearance, some thinking it jarringly out of place; history has been kinder to the architect, Antonio
da Ponte (1512–1597). More concerning
perhaps were the opinions of some engineers who had little faith in the
mathematics used in the design, doubting whether the then radical structure
would long survive the stresses the weight of the passing traffic would impose
but it’s stood now for over four centuries, during which, many others have tumbled.
Ponte de Rialto design by Antonio da Ponte (1512–1597).
The bridge is
built with two inclined ramps, each with its own row of shops, an important
revenue-generating aspect of the design and access to the pinnacle of the
archway is through a staircase at each end.
The arch is, by Venetian standards, tall and the vaporetti could be higher
and still comfortably pass underneath but the arches of most of the city’s
bridges are lower so the boats are built low.
Some twelve-thousand wooden pilings provide support and proved adequate,
if the local legend is to be believed, to withstand the stress of the canons said
to have been fired from atop the bridge during the riots of 1797.
