Venezia blu ghiaccio: ice-blue lagoon in January

Have you ever seen the Lagoon enveloped in ice-blue light? January is the time when colors turn ice-blue and the contours of lagoon and sky disappear: Have you noticed that winter, and in particular this first month of the year, brings a special quality to the air, and hence to the color of the lagoon of Venice in January. I can't help calling this shade blu ghiaccio. The colors of sky and lagoon seem to merge one into the other. So what is Venice like in these days of January, in-between Christmas and Carnevale. Look at these particular lights that represent the unreal background to the gardens in Venice early in the year ... 

Barene and velme (mud islands, covered with erbe spontanne - wild herbs, grass and sometimes reeds) in the typical January light: horizons unite with the sea

The lagoon is ONE big garden: you can see the natural canals created by the river currents and river beds in the Southern Lagoon

The colors of the lagoon have always attracted color-conscious people, just think of all the artists and painters that came to or lived in Venice in the 15th to 17th centuries, such as Canaletto, Tintoretto, Giorgione,  ... and their particular preference for painting vedute (views of Venice with a particular focus to render the colors of the lagoon in both a fantastic and realistic manner). On the other hand, it seems to me that being exposed to a thousand facets of colors every day, Venetians cannot help becoming color-conscious and "light-addicted" themselves.

In the book "Itinerari slow - Venezia" (unfortunately hard to find now, it was first published in the year 2000), this particular quality the light takes on in the lagoon in January, when the sun finally defeats the deep hanging veils of fog, is described as:

"Luce madreperlacea, tersissima ... una luce cristallina che non porta calore, accarezza di sfuggita, scivolando via" - light of nacred color, sharp and clear, crystal-like, that does not bring on warmth, and caresses the lagoon in an uncertain manner, dancing rays that disappear from one moment to the other. And then, in the third week of January, the miracle occurs: an unexpected sun ray enters a room stealtily, and not only there, but lights up a thousand other corners of the città labirinto that had been tucked away in darkeness in the last few weeks. This is when people wake up and flock to the Riva degli Schiavoni and Zattere, enjoying airy walks along the Bacino di San Marco. And then, a bit later in the afternoon towards five o'clock, the darkness is suddenly back: the next day, as it is still too early in the year, fogs sets in again and makes us long for spring a little bit longer."

From the low perspective, when the plane has finally landed, one can make out the dark brown-green islets of the lagoon. A January sunny view towards Torcello and Le Vignole in the background

This is how it looks like in January when you arrive by train: Via the train bridge Ponte della Libertà, 3.85 km long, constructed back in 1846, alongside which a roadway was opened in 1933.

A January train trip to Venice looks like this: Laguna nord seen from the train crossing the bridge between the mainland and Venice, called Ponte della Libertà

The first islet you will notice when you enter the lagoon this way; Isola di San Giuliano

Another view of the cristal ice-blue waters and Isola di San Giuliano

January in the Lagoon: A little bit more of luce madreperlacea - nacred lights, towards the island Campalto; Murano is in the background

We are almost there; to the right, you can recognize the houses of Venice, sestiere Cannaregio

But of course, don't expect ice and snow in January, or in any other month of the year. Still, there are exceptions, like it happened in February 2012. 

Snow on gondolas: Bacino Orseolo, February 2012

Rain drops may all of a sudden turn into heavy snow flakes, that usually melt and disappear within an hour or so. But there were years when the lagoon froze. When we think of ice and snow, to Venetian minds comes the year 1929 when the lagoon was covered with a solid cover of ice. My grandmother was told by her mother that in that winter, people could walk from Fondamenta Nove to the island of Murano... I have found a film that brings back those scenes to us today: Ice-bound lagoon in 1929. Hope this will not happen anytime soon again ...