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| The setting sun yesterday in a hazy sky above the Chiesa del Santissimo Redentore |
...you try to appreciate each hour of them if you're a resident.
I mean, who could have imagined just 10 days ago that at, say, high noon, there would be no line to get into the basilica of San Marco? That you could take the main thoroughfare connecting Piazza San Marco to the Rialto, the Merceria, and not once find your path blocked by at least one head-phoned tour group of 75 folks lumbering along at a Zombie Apocalypse pace? That in the late afternoon you wouldn't have to thread your way through a mass of at least 1,000 day-trippers filling the Riva degli Schiavoni, all waiting for their various lancioni, or shuttle boats, to return them to their tour buses?
That, in short, you might not feel obliged to avoid the historic center at all costs?
Now that the Biennale has closed, and in these weeks before Christmas, the city is almost unrecognizable--in the best way imaginable. It feels as if the city itself has finally been freed from a very long and very intense migraine: its face no longer distorted by the usual stress, its breath finally coming easily. It's marvelous.
It won't last.
The marketers have cooked up their brand new New Year's "tradition"--it's all of about 2 years old, I believe--of "A Kiss at Midnight in Piazza San Marco" and the hoards will come and basically ransack the place, scaling the facade of the Palazzo Ducale in order to take "selfies" and leaving behind their trash and bodily waste. Perhaps our grandstanding mayor, Brugnaro (who recently offered Venice as the site of an international anti-terrorist summit between Obama and Putin--only to be completely ignored), will even extend the hours of the bars for the night as he did on Redentore.
But why get ahead of myself? Venice seems for these few weeks to belong temporarily to its residents. This is something to savor.
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| These are not actual "mordi e fuggi" (or bite and run) tourists being removed from Venice yesterday, but some figures from the Chinese artist Lio Ruo Wang's Venice Biennale installation in the former convent of San Salvador |
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| Fewer crowds mean the chance to notice details you've missed for years--such as these seasonal ones--though they're located in obvious places |
It is absolute paradise to walk freely along even the most narrow of streets. It sounds like I'd better savour each moment of this rare joy.
ReplyDeleteYes, Yvonne, it's so nice that I worry I shouldn't mention it at all, lest tour mongers start scheduling for these weeks too. (Shouldn't there be a law that assures at least a few weeks each year be kept free of mass tours?) But the kind of visitors who research a place like Venice before they visit, read blogs on it, etc, are not usually the kind of visitors that people complain about: they aren't the "hit and run" sort.
DeleteCould you elaborate on the "No Mafia" banner in the background of the second photo?
ReplyDeleteNot in any detail, Anna, but I know generally I've seen headlines in the local paper about how the mafia has established itself in the Veneto region, including Venice. Of course, depending on who put up the banner, he, she or they might have a more specific criminal element in mind.
DeleteI spent a week in Venice in October and by the Rialto market I saw a large text saying 'El cuor non se vende', which I believe means 'The heart is not for sale'. I'd be interested to know what this relates to. Ritva
ReplyDeleteA few years back, Ritva, there was a plan to reconfigure the docks at the western end of the city for the benefit of--surprise, surprise!--cruise ships. This reconfiguration would have left the suppliers of the Rialto market with no place to go but to the mainland to unload their fish & produce etc, thereby destroying the Rialto market altogether. Protests by locals put a stop to these plans, but there's a continued wariness that no venerable site is safe--not even an area that's functioned as a market place for 1,000 years--in a city that puts tourism above all else. Thus, the sign: "The heart [of Venice] is not for sale." An account of the plans & the protests may be found here: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/mar/13/venice-rialto-market-tourism
DeleteThanks for the information and the link, Steven. Indeed if the Rialto market is not safe, then what is! When in Venice I found an interesting leaflet in the Toletta bookshop titled 'Dear tourist' written by Paolo Lanapoppi. The numbers of tourists visiting Venice annually are staggering and it does make one think again before planning another trip. Another interesting read I picked up on this trip was 'Se Venezia muore' by Salvatore Settis. I wish someone would distribute this book to all of the decision makers in Venice. -Ritva
DeleteI remember the Lanapoppi book, Ritva, but I need to look at the one by Settis--thanks for reminding me of it. I think the decision makers in Venice are very aware of the kinds of figures you mention, but the figures relating to short-term profit seem to rule the day and impede creative consideration of other alternatives. Alas, this is the case not only in Venice.
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