By the Grand Canal

Re-reading recently William Riviere's By the Grand Canal has reinforced the strong desire I had in Venice to have been able to see this city in the days before mass tourist travel.

(minus the crane and motor-boats - on the Ponte dell'Accademia, straddling the Grand Canal - would this view have looked much different?)
Set in 1918, a British diplomat involved in negotiating the peace after World War I decamps to Venice to stay in a crumbling palazzo on the Grand Canal where he succumbs to intrigues involving old patrician families and mysterious opera singers.

Riviere's Venice is all oil lamps, brackish air, women in silks of Tiepolo's blues and yellows, walled gardens, labyrinthine canals and gloomy churches ...

Finding glimpses of daily life for locals intrigued me (see Venice's vanishing population) ... in backstreets and squares

and behind shuttered houses

amongst the proud history (the winged lion of San Marco in Venice's flag, below, with six tails - one for each sestier of the city)

Passing by a second-hand book shop one day, I noticed this tabby cat on a trestle table covered with old prints and books, determinedly batting its paw under a box of prints (searching for a mouse, I thought?). It was the title of the book next to it  that caught my eye - Non Toccare il Gatto (don't touch the cat) ... I had to take a picture. 

Later I found two photos on Flickr (taken by different people at different times) of what seems to be the same cat on the same table with the same book - clearly fixtures and a good ploy for luring customers. I also discovered that the book is a translation of English writer Mary Stewart's (1976) mystery novel Touch Not the Cat.

Our last evening in Venice fulfilled the purpose of the trip: a birthday celebration! Walking through Piazza San Marco on the way to dinner, the square was glowing in golden light ... 

Dressed to party, my girls paused for a photo under the flags ...

Turning left along the Grand Canal, I snapped these gondoliers putting their boats to bed ...

only realising much later that it was the exact spot where the cover picture on my copy of Riviere's book was taken!

Passing the Bridge of Sighs lit up by the sinking sun ...

we were headed for a wonderful treat - the rooftop terrace of the Danieli ...

where children and adults gathered at a long table on the edge of the terrace with spectacular views of the city and lagoon

The Danieli is built around the Dandolo Palace and a long time ago gave a perfect vantage point for Venice's powerful merchants to watch boats returning from the East with their bounty.

while the sun set around us 

and the moon rose

Much later, walking back through Piazza San Marco, we found it flooded by the high tide (acqua alta) seeping up through the stones ...

Time to whip off the party shoes and prepare to do some serious wading ...

 ... to the accompaniment of musicians who played on regardless through rising waters! Il Titanic?

By early the next morning the square was dried out and quiet. There was just time to find a café open for coffee ...

with a view to the pigeons and early risers on the Piazza, before heading for the waterway and home ...

Arrivederci Venezia!

A day on the Venetian lagoon

The day starts well with coffee and cornetti at an outdoor café in the lovely Campo Santi Giovanni e Paolo ...

... also known as the campo delle meraviglie (square of marvels) because it houses both the Scuola Grande di San Marco (detail of its gorgeous facade with patiently-waiting dog below left) and the Basilica San Giovanni e Paolo (below right) where no fewer than 25 doges are entombed. 

Unfortunately I was only able to take a couple of pictures inside the basilica before being politely ejected for wearing a sleeveless dress, hence not being covered with due modesty. (Mea culpa - I should have known better; my daughters, dragged around cathedrals from infancy, had thought to bring scarves).


We head off past the Scuola (below, now a hospital - like no other I know!), alongside the canal ...

passing a lone gondolier ...

and a villa to dream of ...

This one would do nicely too ...

... one's laundry and transport both sorted, ma certo!

Our destinazione: the lagoon, to the vaporetto station of Fondamento Nuove, to catch a boat to the islands ... 

(No, not this one, but the Maria Vittoria, anchored nearby, was much prettier than the vaporetto).

Just under an hour later we hop off a tightly crowded boat to explore the island of Torcello in the north end of the Venetian lagoon

Torcello is a bit like a ghost island - there are no cars and a tiny population of well under a hundred people. But it used to be a thriving city: way back in the 5th century it was settled as a refuge by people escaping barbarian invasions. By the 10th century it had a huge population and was far more powerful politically and economically than Venice. 
Hard to imagine now ... as the lagoon around the island turned to swamps, and a breeding ground for malaria, it was gradually deserted ...

leaving behind these lush, semi-abandoned gardens and ruins, surrounded by the green swampy lagoon and an eerie quiet ...

... as well as the basilica of Santa Maria Assunta, which goes back to 639 AD and has awe-inspiring Byzantine mosaics lining walls, ceiling and floors. Nothing about the outside of this place prepares you for the beauty and grace of the inside. Sadly I have no photos - not because I was thrown out this time, but because photography is strictly forbidden. But see here for Jan Morris's lyrical description in the Financial Times of both the island and what she calls "the most moving church in Christendom".

We have lunch on the island, in the garden of Locanda Cipriani ...

right under the pergola below, a setting we might never want to leave

and even the long wait on the jetty and a hot, crowded vaporetto ride back to Venice seems a small price for this day on the lagoon.

Buongiorno Venezia

Arriving in Venice, the journey from airport to city is like no other ...

The water taxi hurtles across the open sea, churning up waves in its wake; in the tilting landscape the city emerges, much the same as it must have looked to arriving travellers arriving by sea centuries ago.

In the Grand Canal the morning traffic is picking up ...

... a honeymoon couple are just up, and taking in the view from their hotel room balcony

Facades lining the Grand Canal all fading, elegant grandeur ...

There's calmer waters in the smaller canals, but it can be a tight squeeze ...

 ... and will we really fit under these bridges?

These people seem to be wondering the same thing ...

Could this be the most romantic dress shop in the world? I fantasise about working in a place like this, arriving by boat every morning ...

I'm always astonished by the deep blue-green colour of the water in Venice canals - it can't be that clean, so how does it manage to look so beautiful?

Looking up the narrow steep sides now, the buildings are less grand but every one seems a thing of peeling, layered history 

and if you crane your neck right up, the rooftops are things of detailed beauty in themselves

Images of gondolas and gondoliers floating down canals are clichés of course ...

... but when we finally arrive at our hotel we find the back views are of a gondola parking-lot

where it's time for a gondoliers' morning tea-break and a bit of a chin-wag in the sun ...

Buongiorno, Venezia ... now it's time to unpack and explore.


Photos taken early this month, on a jubilee weekend escape; more to follow.