A city in a dream

Breaking through the clouds as our plane descended, the city's waters shimmering like jewels in the evening sun, its islands look like two interlocking hands — Venice!

The city

Entering the city is like going deep into a dream. The evening lights reflecting off the waters create a magical effect, people pass to and fro in their boats and the narrow cobbled streets and stone bridges echo with footsteps and laughter.

The sombre silhouettes of majestic buildings huddle together, reaching high into the darkness. There is a restless magic between the water and the heavens.

With excitement and a sense of adventure we explored this ethereal fusion of dream and reality. This romance is made of both present and past.

Our hotel, the Ca'D'oro was an old palazzi (palace), and we had the choice of entering the building by foot or by boat We soon discovered that almost all buildings give onto the canals with the back accessing the street.

They stand shoulder to shoulder, awash in their own reflect-ion; their styles spanning eight centuries, all compete with each other. Arches, pillars, columns, angels, sculptures, all sumptuously decorated, vie for attention.

A narrow street echoing music led us to the grand open doors of an ancient music hall where Vivaldi's Four Seasons was playing. The musicians were in period costumes and at once we were catapulted into another epoch, of grandeur, frivolity and exuberance.

You get the impression that the face of Venice hasn't changed for 200 years, although today its palaces are boutiques, hotels or apartments, warehouses are museums and convents are centres of art restoration.

The city is crowded, mostly with tourists, but you can cross roads and squares freely without fear or danger of traffic. The crowd thins considerably the moment you go off the beaten track and come into closer contact with the city.

Prohibitive living expenses have forced the Venetians to move to the mainland or the suburbs and many houses and palaces stand empty, but not without owners. A guide told us that many celebrities have holiday getaways in this city frequented for about a week in the year.

The crowded streets open onto campos or squares at regular inter-vals which were the commercial centers hosting markets and fairs. Curious cylindrical stone structures revealed themselves to be cisterns with an ingenious filtration system using stone and sand to collect fresh water.

Passing a bakery we glimpsed delicious breads stuffed with olives, sun dried tomatoes, herbs and spices. We tried to buy one of these temptations using some very bad Italian, but the young woman behind the counter surprised us with perfect English and French.

We chatted a while and she told us that she is a language student studying Japanese and Sanskrit. She explained that since living is so expensive in Venice, people work hard sometimes having two to three part time jobs. And the olive bread was excellent.

Everywhere feels humid. The perpetually wet streets, the mossy walls and the warm sun and blue skies are a contrasting pleasure. However, sometimes dramatically varying tides bring water onto the streets and campos, flooding everything, and in July and August the canal gets undesirably smelly.

The heart of the city, St. Marc's place, is dominated by the Basilica containing magnificent gilded mosaics that cover the domes, walls and even the floor. The adjacent Doge's palace today houses government offices.

Venice is pigeon territory — you see many tourists standing arms outspread holding grain or bread to have their photo taken as a meme-nto. What they get is a photo of numerous pigeons clustered together in the shape of a human. It's not unusual to see the occasional tourist and even his pet poodle being chased across the campo by a dozen overeager birds.

The vaporetto, or motorboat bus, along the central, serpentine Grand Canal dividing the city to facilitate navigation, is an ideal way to appreciate the spectacular skyline, the waterborne lifestyle and the monumental architecture. It runs until 1am, but it can be quite expensive (5 euors per ride) and defaulters are heavily fined.

You walk a lot in Venice and in 40 minutes you can cross the city from north to south provided you know your way. Inefficient and incomplete signage mark the main tourist sites, which along with the Grand Canal are essential landmarks for orienting your-self. Being occasionally lost is normal as some smaller lanes don't exist on maps but that's part of the Venetian adventure.

The history

Fleeing the marauding Goths heading for Rome, the mainland population sought refuge in the low-lying uninhabited islands on the submerged banks of the Adriatic Sea, a location inaccessible to the invading army. Thus protected by nature, Venice was fou-nded in AD421 from the ashes of the Roman Empire. Important commercial ties with Byzantium gave this young city strategic and political power.

Venice is a mosaic of about 100 islands in a tidal lagoon. To adapt, the first builders used wooden stilts as the foundation and 15th century buildings still stand today, a tribute to the solidity of their construction.

The numerous islands, each with its own water source, church and bell tower are connected by countless bridges, once private property and crossing costs the traveller.

The four main architectural styles are Byzantine (12th and 13th century) with ground floor arcades and galleries, Gothic (13th to 15th century) with arches and windows with geometric cutouts and profiles, Rennaisance (15th and 16th centuries) with its harmonious symmetry, arches and columns and Baroque (18th century) with its dense ornamentation.

The six districts

Besides the San Marco district, Dorsudoro district's Accademia contains the world's largest collection of Venetian art. Only 200 visitors may admire the works at a time to avoid over-crowding.

Nearby, the emblematic baroque church Santa Maria della Salute. The magnificent Ca'Rezzonico palace contains furniture, furnishings and art of 18th century splendour.
San Polo and Santa Croce districts host the elegant 14th century Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari gothic Franciscan church.

Cannaregio contains the first jewish Ghetto (16th century) near an old foundry called geto in the local dialect, from which the word 'ghetto' derives. The Ca'D'Oro museum is the finest example of gothic architecture in Venice.

Castello's Rialto Bridge marks the first settler's point of arrival and is a beehive of activity with shops, boutiques and restaurants. The arsenal to the east is the ancient shipbuild-ing site, unique in Europe and a product of Venice's maritime might.

Text & Photos: Suhail Shaikh