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Nobody arrives in Venice and sees the city for the first time.
Depicted and described so often that its image has become part of the European
collective consciousness,
Venice can initially create the slightly anticlimactic feeling that
everything looks exactly as it should. The water-lapped palaces along the Canal
Grande are just as the brochure photographs made them out to be, Piazza San
Marco does indeed look as perfect as a film set, and the panorama across the
water from the Palazzo Ducale is precisely as Canaletto painted it. The sense of
familiarity soon fades, however, as details of the scene begin to catch the
attention - an ancient carving high on a wall, a boat being manoeuvred round an
impossible corner, a tiny shop in a dilapidated building, a waterlogged
basement. And the longer one looks, the stranger and more intriguing Venice
becomes............
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from Destination guide
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..Then, of course, there's the inexhaustible spectacle of the
streets themselves, of the majestic and sometimes decrepit palaces, of the
hemmed-in squares where much of the social life of the city is conducted, of the
sunlit courtyards that suddenly open up at the end of an unpromising passageway.
The cultural heritage preserved in the museums and churches is a source of
endless fascination, but you should discard your itineraries for a day and just
wander - the anonymous parts of Venice reveal as much of the city's essence as
the highlighted attractions. Equally indispensible for a full understanding of
Venice's way of life and development are expeditions to the
northern and southern islands of the lagoon, where the incursions of the
tourist industry are on the whole less obtrusive..............
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