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| Lock seller on the Accademia Bridge |
Perhaps the title of this post gives the wrong impression and I should say "symbols of love for sale," as actual prostitution would, in the long run, be less unsightly than what I saw being sold on the Accademia Bridge this afternoon.
Where and when did this fad of sweethearts scribbling their name on a lock and then defacing a bridge with it began? I know that it's certainly not an old Venetian tradition, as I don't recall a single lock on a bridge when I visited as a teen in the 1980s, nor do I recall a single lock on the Accademia Bridge when I used to cross it nearly every day for a month at the beginning of the '90s. Did it come from some Hollywood movie? A pop song?
Whatever its origins, it no longer symbolizes anything to me besides petty vandalism. And of the least original sort, too.Now, I understand that when we are in love we do stupid things and ridiculous things and even clichèd tacky things. I have perhaps done some of them myself (I'm not admitting anything here). And when we are in love we are also capable of the most obnoxious and narcissistic behavior, believing as we do at such times that--as the old Smiths' song memorably puts it--"the sun shines out of our behinds."
And perhaps if there was ever a time when only 10 or 20 locks adorned the Accademia Bridge they may even have been a bit "cute" and had the air of spontaneity about them.
But now that there are 10- or 20,000 of them on the bridge and sunshiney-butted couples buy them from some guy with a magic marker whose night job is selling those glowing whirly-gig thingies in Piazza San Marco, it really is no longer even vaguely cute. It is stale and, yes, a stupid act of vandalism.
For please remember that Venice is a city groaning beneath such budget problems that students have to supply their own toilet paper in some schools. The city really doesn't need to direct funds to cutting off the thousands of locks that at some point really should come off. Unless the city--heeding the advice of an Italian politician who once said, "If you ignore a problem long enough it tends to resolve itself"--is simply to going wait for them to rust away.
I feel for the guy whose job it is to sell them, and who's just trying to scrape together a euro or two, but if the local authorities are going to allow this to go on, then perhaps we'll see the day when some clever entrepreneur sells small cans of spray paint to sweeties wanting to really leave their mark on the city. Actually, judging by the city's quantity of graffiti, perhaps some entrepreneur already does.
If lovers visiting Venice really feel the need to follow a path already laid out for them in expressing their love, may I suggest something taken from a movie I have actually never seen? The film is called A Little Romance, and though for all these years I believed Brooke Shields to be its ingenue star, a quick Google search just revealed to me that it was Dianne Lane. Laurence Olivier was also in it, and I believe it was he who advised the young lovers that if they were to kiss in a gondola beneath the Bridge of Sighs at sunset their love would last forever.
Now doesn't that sound more romantic than buying a cheap lock from some guy with a magic marker? Sure, a gondola ride may be insanely expensive, but lovers, after all, are supposed to be out of their minds.
For more on this topic: http://veneziablog.blogspot.it/2013/03/love-for-sale-part-2-crime-self.html
http://veneziablog.blogspot.it/2013/05/love-for-sale-revisited.html
Totally agree. I really wish they would stop these locks they do look unsightly and as you say in these tough economic times resourses could be better used. For the life of me I do not know (or perhaps I do which is worrying) why the Police do not clamp down on these Sellers, they are the same ones with the bags, jelly toys etc. If the Police in Venice ie a city with no easy escape route cannot stop them then Lord help the rest of us!! Anyway I have had my rant!!!!!
ReplyDeleteYou and I both (have had our rants). The bags and jelly toy sellers are annoying--especially when you have a young child and they actually target the child (which seems below the belt to me but, alas, is no different than major corporations)--but at least they don't actually do physical damage to the city. What these guys on the bridge are selling and what the obnoxious sweeties are buying is vandalism pure and simple. Where are the cops? Well, it must ultimately not be that important to the authorities to stop as there are at least a half dozen guys loitering on the Accademia at all times.
Delete22 month ago I took that photo in Carrara - some Emanuela and Massimo felt that their marriage and love should be announced and chose a way that looks to me a less...lemming-style.
ReplyDeletehttp://img189.imageshack.us/img189/9531/imgp3080a.jpg
Emanuela and Massimo's declaration will leave a nasty mess of sticky tape around that post when the paper has been blown or washed away. What is it with these people? Nobody but a few close friends and family knows or cares who they are. That goes for the "lock people" too. If the lock is meant to symbolise eternal love, let them remember there are bolt-cutters and divorce lawyers. What the Italian politician said could also be said of diseases.
ReplyDeleteCarrara is a small town, I think the ads were placed in the block where a lot of locals know the newlyweds. And there is a chance Emanuela and Massimo have removed the announcements themselves after a day or two - somehow I can't see this happy new couple as uncaring citizens...
DeletePeople really communicate in such tiny cities, here is another (blurry) photo shot in Pietrasanta:
http://img849.imageshack.us/img849/2954/imgp3301a.jpg
The older women were approaching the happy bride all the time, asking her: - So you've just married, bella? How old are you? 22? Brava! -
So people are genuinely sympathetic to the young ones, they really care and share the joy.
I don't know if either you, Sasha, or you, Bert, have noticed a variation on the photo Sasha took in Carrara that appears in large letters on the wall of the Arsenale near the Celestia stop? In a large ugly spray-painted sprawl a couple (whose names I won't mention) expresses their thanks "to everyone" (a tutti). I guess this was cheaper than buying and mailing thank you cards after the wedding.
DeleteI'm willing to bet that the scrawl on those old bricks will outlast the love... But, in any case, perhaps I should start my own little business near the vaporetto stop and at one end of the long metal catwalk that runs along that long wall, offering other lovers the chance to scrawl their sentiments beside what's already there. All I need is a can of spray paint. The sad thing is that I'd probably not lack for tourist customers.
Okay, I have my cranky-pants on too! I hate this insipid, uninspired, juvenile trend! Plus, part of the "ceremony" is to throw the keys into whatever body of water said bridge spans.
ReplyDeleteI love "A Little Romance" however. Now that is a love story.
There's been a run on cranky-pants, Susie, due to the subject of this post. I didn't know about the key throwing, but I guess if you're going to vandalize Venice you might as well pollute it, too.
DeleteA Little Romance is a good movie? I know nothing about it except that Bridge of Sighs bit. Should I finally see it after all these years?
It really is a sweet movie and Sir Laurence Olivier is very funny. There are beautiful scenes shot in Paris, Venice and Verona, which for the scenery alone, make the movie worth watching.
DeleteYes, the throwing of the keys into the water is worse than the locks themselves IMO.
I watched the trailer of the movie on Youtube with Jen & Sandro; she's up for watching it, I'm not entirely sure, Sandro has no interest at all, in spite of the fact he has his own little romance going with a classmate... Maybe Jen & I will watch it. It's good to know it's worth watching.
DeleteI was stunned to see how many more of these (expleted) locks there now are on the Accademia Bridge, in just one year.
ReplyDeleteSigned: Foundation Member, Cranky Pants Inc.
Wouldn't it be nice if they cut them off some day and posted a sign at each end of the bridge stating that it is forbidden to attach locks to the bridge? But perhaps it's not...
DeleteYvonne, we are co-members of two different groups, The Bad Crowd and Cranky-Pants, Inc.! I wonder how this will look on my resume? They are rather lofty groups, don't you think?
ReplyDeleteIf you're going to run at all it better be with a bad crowd, or why bother? Cranky pants, however, just don't sound very comfortable.
DeleteI'm so pleased to have found your amazing blog! I always feel slightly shameful that I am just another tourist when I visit the greatest city on earth, so I do like to learn as much as I can about life in Venice,in order to try and avoid some of the faux pas I am sure must annoy Venetians intensely (over and above the sheer number of us pesky tourists!)I had wondered what on earth was going on with the locks, which I only noticed for the first time last year. Until I can get back again, I will console myself with reading your new posts and going back and reading the old ones. Thank you x
ReplyDeleteWith very rare exceptions--such as the English-speaking tourist who unfortunately poured out a long filthy stream of curses right in front of my very interested 5-yr-old son when he was asked to remove his huge rucksack in a rush-hour vaporetto--individual tourists are not the problem, it's the sheer quantity. But the people in power in Venice have tied the city to mass tourism and show little sign of kicking the easy greedy lazy habit & pursuing more sustainable ways for the city to survive (a problem it has faced since the end of the Republic).
DeleteI've lived here nearly 2 1/2 yrs and I was shocked the other day when I saw how many locks now befoul the bridge: I think it's only rather recently that the sellers have basically set up shop there.
Before we moved here I was happy to discover blogs on Venice that gave me a sense of the city day-by-day at the present moment--which even the best book can't really do. I'd be happy if my blog could do something of the same sort for people who aren't here, and I thank you very much for your comment.
I'm so glad I found your wonderful blog! I haven't lived in Venice for years now, but try to get back to visit friends there every few years. Reading your blog takes me right back to many wonderful memories!
ReplyDeleteI'm so disappointed the "lucchetti d'amore" tradition has come to the Accademia! It was started by a scene in a book (later made into a film) called "Tre metri sopra terra"... the bridge in the film is in Rome and the police there finally clamped down on it. Hopefully Venice will follow suit! Here is an article about the Ponte Milvio getting cleaned up: http://qn.quotidiano.net/cronaca/2012/09/10/770354-roma-rimossi-lucchetti-amore-ponte-milvio.shtml
Thanks so much for your kind words, Val, and thanks so much, too, for revealing the origin of all those increasingly ugly locks on the bridge! Here's hoping that if the police in Rome, where it originated, finally decided to take action, then perhaps those in Venezia may get around to it also. I'd buy a lock cutter myself, but the ones that the Rome police are using look quite serious--and expensive.
Deletewhat a great blob! I live in Venice and you wouldn't believe how many people agree with this. It's not only the Accademia bridge but all the rest too.
ReplyDeleteThank you Anonymous, I'm sorry to have missed your comment for so long. If only visitors knew how much residents disliked the locks perhaps some of the visitors wouldn't put them on. But, alas, others would, and do, no matter what.
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