Venice : A comprehensive guide to Conception Moon

What is a conception moon ?

Celebration of marriage is the notion behind a Honeymoon. Celebration of a baby’s arrival is the notion behind a Babymoon. Celebration of time dedicated to making conception special is the notion behind a Conception Moon.

As a couple we have always believed in planned conceptions, prepping ourselves psychologically for the new member in our family. Prepping my body’s nutritive needs to accommodate the new life inside me. For some this process could be a night’s magic while others it could take longer.

Factors influencing a conception moon ?

Modern day scenarios introduce a new factor called as Stress which interferes with this process. A stress from demanding jobs, long-distance relationships, managing kids, muddled food habits ,fertility hurdles and new factor of near perfect lives on social media. All this makes love-making like a chore rather than pleasure. Stress plays a key role in inhibiting the process of conception.

Stress may inhibit conception because it can affect the part of your brain (the hypothalamus) that regulates your hormones.The hypothalamus is the gland in the brain that controls the hormones required to release your eggs. This gland also regulates your partner’s testosterone levels.- Barycentre UK

Planning for your conception moon ?

It is also very important to realise that spending a lot of money doesn’t spell as relaxation. The meaning of relation revolves around your definition of relaxation. For some it could be sending the kids to grandparents home and having the whole house to themselves with no breaks of wailing, lounging on the couch and watching a movie.  A stay-cation is another alternative to relaxation where checking into a nearby hotel or Airbnb breaks you away from the monotony.

So whether you choose your home, mountain or a beach, decide a period during which you are most likely to be ovulating. I personally could vouch for Clear-blue fertility monitors which provide good indication of when you are most fertile.

Clear-blue recommend these top ten conception moon destinations:

• Maldives
• Fiji
• Lake District
• Bora Bora
• Amalfi Coast
• Sardinia
• Santorini
• Paris
• Venice
• Turks & Caicos Islands

Most importantly, leave that hyperactive Outlook, buzzing whatsapp and the bloody Instagram behind. Ironically to prove my point at an extreme level, I sit down to pen down about my conception moon literally after one and half years of hatching. 🙂

VENICE, WHY LOVE IS A PART OF ITS NAME!

Venice floods your mind with artistic heritage while you stroll aimlessly into its labyrinth of bylanes and minuscule canals meandering into the gothic architecture of Venice. For me it is will remain as the most beautiful cities in the world and my heart will remain trapped in Serenissima forever.I cannot rank up its grandeur whether it lies in its Canal grande or in its square or in between its infinite bridges or its ornate doors. Little did I know while I was mugging up all the Shakespearean English for Merchant of Venice , after so many years this Jewish Ghetto would give me an undeniable frisson. It is where we waited for the sun to come out, nibbling over our breakfast by the canal shores, watching those infinite gondolas cross the lagoon, the romantic conversation flowed, while we read our Shakespeare’s sonnets.

#1 Piazza San Marco (Inferno)

In this century if there is any author which has captivated my literary boundaries then it is Dan brown, We had chosen Venice to map all the places he marks in his book Inferno. St Mark’s Square (Piazza San Marco) is the throbbing heart of venice, it is here the novel takes a leap. Looking out across the lagoon to the church of San Giorgio Maggiore to the south, the Northern face of the Doges palace looks towards St Mark’s basilica and all of them united only speak of grandeur. Dizzying heights spell romance for me, weird I know but when we stood at the top of the bell tower will give you a bird’s eye view of the Campanile di San Marco. The sight is truly sublime and in the distance you can see the islands of Giudecca, San Giorgio, Murano, and Lido. For me as a photographer this is the true insight into the true panorama of Venice.

Once you pass the Doge’s Palace and cross Ponte della Paglia, whose eastern footing is on Riva degli Schiavoni, the crowds thin out drastically the further east you walk.

#2 WALKS, ALLEYS,PONTES AND VENETIAN WELLS

Venice is an archipelago of 117 islands which are interconnected with approximately 391 bridges. That is why it is also called the city of bridges. Every bridge is different and every bridge has a story. Be it the aorta Ponte di Rialto or the fistful Ponte dei Pugni or heavily bosomed Ponte delle Tette (You have to google the adjectives to know why 🙂 ) . Coming back to walking, it is one of the best ways of exploring Venice but it comes with two words of caution getting lost is part of the fun process and walking could be a nightmare for those with buggy’s because along with every shaped bridge also come some “odd sized” steps that may require you to carry the stroller over. 

Carry a map (but don’t rely on it too heavily), look for signs on the Venetian walls, and when in doubt, follow the crowd or look for water.

While walking around Venice you will notice that every square (Campo) has at least one well.One of the paradoxes of Venice is that Venice is on the water but has no water; the provisioning of drinkable water was always a major problem as the subsoil of Venice does not have any water bearing stratum within easy reach. All of the wells are underground cisterns that only collect and filter rainwater.

It is here in these streets and alleys that we wrote many stories, memories now overlapping each other. For our son today these stories will now unfold our beautiful journey into his new imaginary world.

#3 Cicchetti Bars & the hidden secrets of Jewish Quarter

Venetians love Aperitivo, their version of Happy Hour,which means guzzling down infinite amounts of Negroni or Aperol Spritz, and ah! the pleasures we witnessed on the first night at Hotel Canal Grande for once we gave Airbnb a miss because Hey this is our Conception Moon right. Such a pompous incarnation of the 18th century Venice characterised by Rocco style luxurious Venetian rooms and such decadent bathrooms with hydro-massage showers and marble bathtubs. It is here that the bar tender night after night pampered us to stories of Venetian bacari while we nibbled on our nuts and olives.

All through the day while we walked the alleyways aimlessly we made several pit stops at quiet neighbourhoods and tried to mingle with the locals at the cicchietti bars (pronounced chi-KET-tee), it is here that the locals gathered after work to relax and enjoy small bites of local food. Also known as Bacara Bar. Generally, they’re not aimed at tourists and follow a very mundane routine.You could order several small plates of olives, cheese , calamari, langoustines, liver, speck and prawns, and Carciofi Violetto, or violet artichokes and what not. It was really an Italian Tapas or vice versa and it is here that our conversation turned to the tenderness of sliced flank steak and the sweet softness of the sensational cuttlefish cooked in its own ink.There is a still a life of venice which is alive and is not corrupted by the tourist Disneyland.

To know the secrets of the Jewish Quarter you have to read my previous blog on Campo Jewish Ghetto.

#3 THE FOOD OF VENICE & RIALTO MARKET

Making babies is not always about copulation 😀 there is a lot which goes around it minus the lingerie bit. One thing which comes to my mind is the eat your heart out. Eat good nourishing food and increase your Vitamin intake through food and drink lots and lots of fluids (only in my case Negroni included 😉 ) Just to bust your myth Venetian food isn’t all about squid ink pasta, but little that the people know due to the Merchants of Venice they also uses spices like cardamom and saffron. If you avoid the tourist infested restaurants and delve deeper you will find oodles of Kosher’s and places which sell home cooked food.

Enjoy the fresh produce at Trattoria all Vignole, Vignole is an island East of Venice you have to take a boat to reach this place (15min from San Marco by ferry). The restaurant is a nice place to go for dinner.We chose a variety of delicious grilled vegetables and shrimp as appetizers, then seafood risotto, accompanied by a delightful white house wine.

You shouldn’t miss the island of Torcello that rests quietly in the northern lagoon, a 40-minute ferry ride from the main islands of Venice. It is here that Ernest Hemingway holed up while writing “Across the River and Into the Trees” between duck hunting and bottles of wine with Giuseppe Cipriani–the founder of Locanda Cipriani, the island’s famous inn and restaurant.

Near the Rialto Market, it is really nice to stop by this bàcaro All’Arco for some midday cicchetti, such as anchovies on toast, marinated octopus, fried meatballs.

To live the life of a local in Venice you have to shop at the Rialto Market, go toe to toe with the pushy nonne in the queue for the  vegetable stall and carrying the water dripping bags with fresh fish from the fish market. All the while you imagine what is the secret life of an oyster as you pass the quiet winter corridors, tiny bridges, islands and canals far from any throngs of tourists. This is the life of slow living Venice.

#4 CA ‘MACANA & SEDUCTION OF VENETIAN MASK

From February to March it is carnival time in Venice. It started in 1168 as a celebration of victory of Republic of Venice against Ulrico, Patriarch of Aquileia, and became annual event until it was banned by King of Austria in 1797.

Carnivals in Venice is famous for its masks that everyone wears and are very specific.

“Little is known about the reasons for wearing of the masks during the carnival. It could be an act of defiance against one of the most rigid class hierarchical structures in all of history of Europe. First document that mentions use of masks in Venice is from 13th century. It bans masked men to throw eggshells full of rose water from roofs at women on the street. Same document bans masked men from gambling. Another law also forbade wearing disguises that are vulgar, visiting convents in those masks, painting faces and wearing false wings and beards. Idea of wearing a mask in Venice was not to hide identity but to hide a class” – Reference.

There are several types of mask which fascinate the common man. Bauta is probably the most famous of masks. It covers the whole face and has no mouth but it has beak-like chin that allows wearer to talk, eat and drink without taking it off. With it goes red or black cloak and a tricorn hat. Dama is a full mask of a female face, heavily gilded. Gaito is a half-mask in a shape of cat’s head. Cats were rare in Venice and this is probably one of the reasons for choosing that shape for a mask. Dottore Peste or “Medico della Peste” is a strange looking mask. Venice was a victim of a plague several times in its history. This carnival mask is a copy of a historical masks that were worn by doctors that treated patients that had plague. They were made from leather with a long “beak” in which herbs were placed and had opening for seeing covered with crystals.But my favourite mask is the Moretta. A woman covering her face with a moretta, the mask of seduction, and staying silent at the same time, a lady’s intentions were completely indecipherable. It needed a brave man to seduce a woman without knowing what lied behind the mask.

A Moretta is a small Venetian mask coated in black velvet, concealing only that part of the body that is a window into the soul, the emotions.

We were glad we took this mask decorating workshop at Ca’ Macana in Venezia. We created our venetian mask from paper-mache masks.This is a small unassuming shop and easy to miss but well worth getting lost to find.

How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!
Here will we sit and let the sounds of music
Creep in our ears: soft stillness and the nightÂ
Become the touches of sweet harmony.
Sit, Jessica. Look how the floor of heaven
Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold:
There’s not the smallest orb which thou behold’st
But in his motion like an angel sings,Â
Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins;

Our venice is not about gondolas, red roses or museums, rather its about our boisterous romance with its backstreets, captivated by its normality and getting lost in its rich history laced by our passion to fall in love.