Caorle

This article is part of the Most Privileged Tourist series.  Which follows my travels in Italy during Covid restrictions. The quiet and solitude in places usually hustling and bustling with tourists evokes mixed emotions. It is undoubtedly a wonderful delight and privilege to see these sights without the crowds, but it is also a reminder of how much Italy's tourist industry and so many Italians have suffered during the pandemic. To remain positive - my mission in the Most Privileged Tourist series is to ignite and stoke your passion to travel; so that when you can, you can help unfreeze these gems from their current cryogenic state and help the industry thrive again. In the meantime please stay safe and consider this series as the start of your next journey, enjoy and share with friends. 

November 11th 2020, Veterans Day which meant we all had a day off from work and school. We were free to travel in the Veneto but due to the trend of Covid cases rising again, I decided against going to a city. It was a Wednesday so not too many people would be out and I craved the sea. The sea is a portal to other places. Places I could not go but after feeling confined, the idea of seeing the sea in all its amazing expanse and the opportunity to breathe in the sea air seemed blissful. When I mentioned to a friend I was thinking of going to the sea - she had a recommendation, Caorle. Caorle did not disappoint, it not only satisfied my urge to see the sea but it offered its own leaning tower, a cathedral, a church which doubled as a light house and a walkway filled with art.

The tower is part of the Cathedral of St. Stephen which was built in 1038, the bell tower dating to 1048, rises to a height of 48 meters. and is indeed a leaning tower. We could not go inside due to restrictions but if you get to go, there are frescoes from the fourteenth centuries,  sculptures and ancient relics including a crucifix from the fifteenth-century illuminated by lamps. 

The Church of Blessed Virgin of the Angel is built on a little promontory on the sea. The origins of the church date back to the 9th century. Legend says that one day a number of fishermen saw a light on the sea; when they approached it, they found a statue of the Virgin Mary with the Child, and they carried it ashore. The bishop and the townspeople tried to carry the statue from the shore to the cathedral but it was too heavy; so the bishop called a group of children who, because of their innocence, succeeded in carrying it to the nearby church where it lies today. The church continues to bear a light to guide seamen safely home.

The idea of a church being a lighthouse is not unique but usually it is a parable. The idea of a church working like a lighthouse, providing a guide, safe haven from life's 'storms' and being a beacon of all that is good to its congregation, is not new. But the Church of the Blessed Virgin of the Angel is not a parable, it actually is a lighthouse and a church. The tower has a light which guides the boats safely home and helps them navigate stormy sea and the shore at night. Just as the fishermen followed the light to find the statue of Mother Mary, the church protects the fishermen as they make their way home to the church and the statue.

In 1992 Sergio Longo, a sculptor from Treviso, was the first artist to transform the stone cliff which serves as a barrier to the sea's surf into an art gallery for the first time. He literally made the stone live again. Scogliera means cliff and Viva means life in Italian. Using only a chisel and hammer Longo created the first sculpture featuring Neptune the God of the Sea as his subject. His work intrigued both the tourists and locals and it soon became part of an annual tradition. Since 1993, sculptors from all over the world have come to Caorle in July to sculpt.  Tourists and locals get to be witnesses to the new creations as they develop. 

When my friend described the promenade and the stonework to me, my imagination did not do it justice. The Scogliera (cliff) is a group of huge boulders from the Euganean region of the Veneto. They are rough, practical and enormous piled randomly like a rustic castle wall, a hap-hazard fortress against the wrath of the sea. The promenade itself is beautiful, a paved area on the safe side of the sea. Sun glistened off the sea and the fresh air felt so wonderful. Scroll through the photos below from the infinity sign which did not have an end date, to the dolphin caught in a net they were all unique and amazing. A bunch of practical rocks protecting the town is transformed into a gallery with the frame of the blue sea, blue sky and the beautiful old town which it protects.

Like all tourist towns all over the world this year must have been tough for Caorle -of course the  competition was canceled. But Caorle has a beach and restaurants which would still attract tourists. According to one website - Carole has 12,000 residents and 50,000 beds (for tourists), it is sad to think how few of those beds were occupied this year and how that must have hurt the local economy. We barely passed anyone on such a beautiful day. The beach area on the far side of the church was frequented only by the odd dog walker, the promenade was empty.

However, Caorle like the ebb and flow of the water will survive. It has been both a tribute and inspiration to artists of the past and will be so for the artists of the future. The Church of the Blessed Virgin of the Angel dates back to the 9th century and has art from the 15th century. The Cathedral of Saint Stephen was built in the 11th century and has beautiful paintings from the 14th century.  Scogliera Viva was started with one artist who chose to transform rock into art in 1992.  His work inspired others to do the same.

Caorle will continue to have new sculptures in the future, lining the promenade and enthralling tourists and locals alike, because towns like Caorle show us that art will continue to enchant us and evolve just as it has in the past. Caorle is like the light which led the fishermen to the statute of the Mother Mary. It showed the fishermen where to find the art but they could not carry the statue all the way. They had to let the next generation (the children) continue.  The next generation were the ones to carry the statue home to where it was meant to be. They will continue to do so, inspired by artists like Sergio Longo in 1992 they will continue to take art one step further and I cannot wait to see what they do.