I never thought I would get to see Venice. City of canals and bridges. City of people and pigeons. City of rain and rivulets. Yes it rained for four days covering the buildings in a singular drab grey. Even the bright blue, red and yellow gondola poles were drab grey! But if any city as going to rise above such conditions it is Venice. Exploding in historical colour, the streets traverse the canals by an endless succession of the most beautifully crafted bridges and on each bridge stands a tourist taking a photo of a passing gondola. But the real beauty is the bridges themselves, the biggest and best of which is the Rialto, standing like a cathedral across the Grande Canal. Perpetually covered in people crawling over it like ants, this old lady needs some tender loving care, if ever the world economy recovers to allow such things. The Bridge of Sighs is the opposite, glorious, beautiful yet remote, moody and austere. It seems to me that people are what bring any artifice to life and in Venice, of all cities, this is the most true. Except for the pigeons....
Venice is a well known travel destination and it is hard to discover new experiences. But the traveller can still bring new senses to the reader. I have now walked the length of the city from the bus station at Roma Station to the Rialto bridge, from St Mark's Square to the Academie. For me two things stand out, the bridges and the piazzas or more correctly compi since all the squares were originally fields except St Marks which remains the only true piazza. Today they make wonderful open spaces linked by narrow alleyways or calle where people pour through like water through canyons. Then over the canals linking the calle are the bridges, old new, large small. stone wood, the variety just boggles the mind. They are as numerous as traffic lights in any other city and some are gorgeous while the Rialto Bridge stands at the centre like queen bee surrounded by her cohorts. Rialto Bridge, dominant grand and glorious, she creates a focus for all that is mad about Venice. It is a people place gone bonkers, in the absence of cars, alleys lead to restaurants lead to shops lead to bridges lead to people lead to the Rialto bridge.
Masks. A city of shops selling masks, the masquerade is in February but that doesn't stop the mask shops selling masks all year round. That and the famous Murano glass that is made locally and these together make up the main artisan crafts of Venice. And every street has a coffee shop, gelato shop and a high fashion shop. The repetition is overwhelming but works in Venice.
There is little or no air pollution, Venice is a city devoid of the motor car, usurped by a surge of humanity, that doubles the local population. Humanity that bustles, jostles and pushes all the way from dawn to way past dusk. I am sure the Bridge of Sighs is photographed every ten seconds as the human collective snaps it on their iphone, ipad or digital camera. Venice has succombed to the digital age. Finally to St Mark's square with its Capanile, Doge's Palace, St Mark's Cathedral and Bell Clock Tower with two Moors striking the hour. People lining up for admission,people feeding pigeons, people jumping in the air for digital snapshots, and again if the first snap did not work. Uploaded to facebook in ten seconds. People eating at restaurants and drinking 10 euro coffee because it is St Marks Square in Venice. Humanity, mass swirling, mass humanity taking photographs, riding gondolas, lining up upon raised walkways to gain entrance to edifices. Seething, clicking, lounging, laughing. Venice, the serene people city, love cherished and adored. Truly deserving of her name: Serenissima !
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