Venice V Wolverhampton (Day 37)

Today I found out that Venice is twinned with Wolverhampton. So I thought it would be fun to kind of play them off against each other, compare and contrast two very different places.

So I’ve devised a questionnaire to see how they compete. Here we go…

How long have they been around?

Wolverhampton: Founded in the year 985 and given city status in the year 2000.

Venice:  Founded in the year 421, became part of Italy in 1866.

Not much in it so far….

Population size?

Wolverhampton: 251,462 (in the last census in 2001)

Venice: 60,000 (estimated in 2009)

That’s a pretty big difference, not sure in who’s favour.

What’s the Coat of Arms like?

Venice wins hands down on this one.

Tell us an interesting fact about yourself…

Wolverhampton: The location of England’s first set of automated traffic lights.

Venice: Another ‘first’, this time ripped jeans. The craze started here. Young men, banned from wearing their fashionable bright coloured trousers by the Senate passing a Sumptuary Law, would wear bright coloured trousers under dull ones and slash the outer pair to let the inner pair peep through. This led on to a ‘slashed’ fashion style in the 15^th century. As we all know, fashion works in cycles and the craze hit again not so long ago.

What’s the climate like? (Venice is bound to win this one too)

Wolverhampton: Average highest temperature 21C, July and August. Average lowest temperature 1C, January and February. Highest average rainfall in a month 67mm, December.

Venice: Average highest temperature 27.5C, July. Average lowest temperature -0.9C, January. Highest average rainfall in a month 87.3mm, November.

So Venice gets colder AND has more rain! But only gets on average 6.5C warmer? Hmmm. Let’s help Venice out a bit…

Number of canals?

Wolverhampton: 4

Venice: 177

Venice wins at last!

What about famous residents?

Wolverhampton: Richard Attwood, the winner of the 1971 24 hour le Mans race. Button Gwinnett, who moved there to marry a local girl in 1755, moved to America in 1762, and in 1776 was the second of the signatories on the United States Declaration of Independence. Ruth Badger, runner up of the second series of the Apprentice - Venice eat your heart out, you don’t get much better than that! Dave Hill, the lead guitarist from Slade. Eric Idle, Beverly Knight and Jamelia.

But my personal favourite is Jόzef Stawinoga, also known as Fred. He emigrated to UK from Poland in the 1940’s and after a brief marriage to an Austrian woman he failed to turn up for work one day. At next sighting he was seen pushing a pram containing all his possessions. He ended up living in a tent on the grassy area of the inner Wolverhampton ring road for 40 years. Fred died on 28^th October 2007, aged 86. Wikipedia lists his occupation as ‘Hermit’. He has a Facebook group with 4,000 followers dedicated to him and was treated as a holy man by local Hindu and Sikh communities as they believe he lead a truly enlightened life. The City Council paid for his funeral and he left thousands of pounds untouched in his pension fund. A bronze statue is being designed to commemorate him.

Venice: All the usual ones really. Bellini, Titian, Tintoretto, Canaletto and many others from the Venetian School. Aldus Manutius, a printer who invented italic type and established the modern use for the semicolon. Marco Polo, the famous explorer (and airport). Vivaldi of course. Elena Cornaro Piscopia, the first woman in the world to receive a doctorate degree. Casanova, the famous womaniser and 18^th century version of Russell Brand. More recently there has been George Clooney and Elton John.

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So there you have it, a completely thorough and rigorous investigation into the differences and similarities of Venice and Wolverhampton. I have to say Wolverhampton has done remarkably well for itself, I thought Venice would beat it hands down, but it held its own and in my opinion has come out victorious. Fred did it for me!