When the future Venetians fled from the barbarians and then survived on islands unsuitable for life, natural selection took place. Energetic and enterprising people - the Venetians - survived. They built a beautiful city, and now they are performing an equally difficult task - preserving it and resisting alterations.
The Dispute Between the Gondola and the Vaporetto
Almost everyone who has not been to Venice is sure that there are no streets in this city, only canals. In fact, that is not so, or rather, not quite so. This is the view of a hurried tourist, a view from the water. Yes, there are canals and people sail on them, but all of Venice, down to the last remotest corner, can be walked from Cannaregio to Castello, from Santa Croce to San Marco. The muddle of streets, dead ends and narrow passages add extra intrigue to a walk. Of course, numerous tourist signs prevent you from getting completely lost, but it is easy to get lost for half an hour. What is more, it is simply necessary. For only by getting lost do you get to know and feel Venice - the last medieval stage set of Europe.
You quickly get used to the fact that there are no cars here. This is the only city in the world where all streets are pedestrian. Pedestrian zones are hardly surprising these days; they exist in every major European center. But the streets of Venice are completely pedestrian. Even on fairly wide streets, you don't expect a motorcyclist or a police car to suddenly appear from around the corner. The only pity is that everywhere the tourist is followed by a strong smell of gasoline. There are no cars, but the smell and noise are the same. Boats, motorboats, vaporettos, water taxis - all of them fume, smoke, and burn diesel fuel.
All goods in Venice are transported by motorboats - from wine bottles to coffins. If only gondoliers would suddenly undertake to carry not only tourists but also goods and local residents! Passenger motor ships move slowly along the canals. From Piazzale Roma, where cars and buses arriving from the mainland end their journey, along the Grand Canal to Piazza San Marco takes 20-25 minutes by vaporetto. And an experienced gondolier, if he wanted, could deliver straight to the spot twice as fast, almost like a water taxi, only more romantic and without noise. But these are pipe dreams. Times have changed; the gondolier charges 50-100 euros for a half-hour ride (bargaining with a gondolier is a special art), he is allowed to seat no more than six people in the gondola, and he works slowly, without undue exertion.
Originally the gondola was intended for both people and goods. But technical progress has weaned people from unnecessary physical labor. Who in rich Venice would now strain themselves with an awkward long oar for less than a hundred per hour? Besides, the gondola itself is not cheap - from 8,000 euros.
Why Buratino Has a Long Nose
Venice is the birthplace of Buratino. Or rather, not Buratino, but Pinocchio. Or even not Pinocchio, but his prototype, which was not a fairy-tale hero at all, but a quite real messenger of death. A mask with a long nose-beak, a cap and a long black cloak - the clothing of a medieval doctor who, during the Great Plague, walked from house to house and tried to help the sick. The beak was tightly stuffed with rosemary and thyme mixed with Indian spices. Medieval residents did not realize that bubonic plague was carried by fleas living on black rats. They thought the disease was blown in by the wind from the south, from the Ottomans and Moors, and that is why they wore masks.
Thus history decreed, but the plague turned out to be the most terrible ordeal for the Venetians. Wars and revolutions did not bypass the city that had fled from the barbarians, but no battles were fought in it, and houses and residents did not suffer. Local people were merchants, and merchants cannot exist without deceit and wars. The Venetians started no fewer than a dozen wars with the Turks, yet they always fought with money, ships, and mercenaries, but not with their citizens.
No one remembers this now, but in all the Turkish wars, Venice was an ally of Russia. There is a legend that the cunning Venetians were friends with Russia (unlike its eternal enemies Genoa, Naples, Sardinia, and all the other Italian kingdoms) only because they constantly needed piles of Siberian larch, since other wood quickly rotted in the salty stagnant water. The legend seems convincing at first glance. But it is unlikely that larch was transported from Siberia - too far away, and it is much closer - in the Carpathians. Moreover, for at least 150 years (approximately the age of the oldest pile available for viewing), piles have been made from local Mediterranean pines.
The Birthplace of Fashionable Plaster
The Grand Canal, curved like an 'S', was not dug out as it might seem, but is of completely natural origin. Along its banks stand in a tight row the palaces of the Venetian nobility: Palazzo Correr Cantarini, Ca' Pesaro, Barbarigo, Vendramin Calergi, Contarini Fasan, Contarini delle Figure, Corner Canal Grande, Balbi, San Luca and many others. These names are historical and architectural markers, so it is clear what the palaces look like: 'Venetian' windows, pointed arches, vaulted entrances, sloping tiled roofs, and inside - paintings, old furniture, silk wallpaper, marble steps worn by time, and peeling but not faded Venetian decorative plaster.
There was always a shortage of land in Venice, so even the richest palaces rest on the island with only part of their foundation, albeit a large part. But the façade always overhangs the water, resting on piles covered with mussels, trampled by crabs, and gnawed by waves from motorboats. Because of this overhang, it seems that the houses stand on water or float on a giant submerged pontoon. And it seems that sooner or later they will collapse, and the fish will not be surprised - the mullet has long been accustomed to basking on the white marble steps descending into the water.
But Venetians do not remodel their houses, although by all standards they are all dilapidated and in need of reconstruction. If Venice were in London, its houses would be neatly cleaned inside, massive iron beams would be placed under the facades, Venetian plaster would be replaced with pseudo-Venetian, on a plastic base, which is now in fashion among designers. But in Venice, houses are not demolished or restored, but patched up discreetly, and even rotten piles are not rushed to replace. That is why we all like Venice so much. We see that despite all the efforts and money of the United Nations, it will soon be gone. Of course, everything can be restored, but it will only be a mock-up, a dummy. And yet you walk around Venice and you see that all the stones are hewn, bricks are laid, columns are installed, beams are thrown across using old building technologies, with secrets that died with the craftsmen.
The most famous of Venetians
The most famous bridge for lovers in the world is in Venice. Although for a long time it had nothing to do with lovers, but was a very unromantic and sinister place. The bridge connects the Doge's Palace and the prison. In the palace, Venetian rulers, the doges, sentenced criminals to death or to the galleys, and after the sentence the guard led him to prison. The Bridge of Sighs is covered, but has windows. And the condemned man could for the last time, with a sigh, look at the free world, the canal, the piles, the gondolas and relatives weeping in the gondolas.
It is unknown when the tradition arose, but now it is believed that a kiss under the bridge prolongs love. Now passing under the bridge is an important point in the route of any gondolier. The gondolier warns in advance when to start kissing, and under the bridge he even urges on those who hesitate or are not too much in love.
The most famous of lovers is also from Venice.
Giovanni Giacomo Casanova was born in 1725 into the family of an actor and the daughter of a shoemaker. In his youth he studied at a theological seminary and prepared to become an abbot, but his passion for debauchery and carousing soon made him take off his cassock. Subsequently he was an officer, a musician, a court adviser, a Muslim merchant, a cardsharp, a secret agent of the Prussian king Frederick the Great, a chemist and alchemist, a translator, a friend of the Marquise de Pompadour, a physician, a guest of Catherine the Great, a prisoner of many prisons, a traveler. And in any capacity, a professional lover. A profession, as is well known, is what allows one to earn a living. Casanova earned by finding beautiful girls, teaching them manners and the art of love - and profitably selling them to rich customers. Of course, he also fell in love, but not always with beauties. By today's standards, Casanova's list of amorous victories is not impressive. Researchers count in his memoirs 122 seduced women, among them 12 elderly ladies - those over sixty. And that is over 39 years. What is the reason for his fame?
Casanova earned his fame not so much through adventures and the number of seduced ladies, but through his ability to tell stories. Whatever happened to him, he immediately turned the event into an interesting story. "I spent two weeks going around to lunches and dinners, where everyone wanted to hear in detail my account of the duel." Only a very talented storyteller can talk for two weeks about a quite ordinary event without boring anyone. And indeed, the memoirs "History of My Life" are considered the most fascinating of all books ever written by adventurers.
Usually in the Venetian Doge's Palace, tourists are taken along the royal Giant's Staircase, then shown the huge painting by Tintoretto "Paradise" and Veronese's "Apotheosis of Venus", the bronze fountains in the inner courtyard, the Hall of the Grand Council and the Voting Hall, then along the Censors' Staircase they are led to the Bridge of Sighs. Another tour, through the prison dungeons and secret labyrinths, is conducted by prior appointment.
Inside, the palace has a confusing layout that for some reason has not been touched to this day. Here remain the torture chambers, and the "Casanova's basement", because he also was imprisoned in the Doge's Palace prison. And in the Great Hall, where the adventurer was interrogated, hang gloomy paintings by Bosch. Casanova first sat in the palace prison Piombi, and then in the Wells Pozzi - these casemates were so called because sea water always stood there. In the end he escaped from prison through the roof. How he climbed over the slopes (though at that time the roof was lead), one can imagine if one looks at the palace from the side of St. Mark's Cathedral.