Venice is ...

Venice is a temptress.  At first glance, she beckons you from across the lagoon with tall, pyramid-topped campanile* and imposing grey stone domes. 

Her lacy 16th century palaces float daringly a mere meter above the lively waters.  Tempting public squares and lean, sinewy canals offer brief glimpses of deeper delights. 

As you arrive, her beauty mocks her fame – all photographs are mere caricatures.  The timelessness of what lies before you is dazzling. 

Tintoretto painted canals and palaces as backgrounds to his saints, Caneletto sketched postcards for 18^th century travellers.  And it opens before you, unchanged – solid Rennaissance palazzos shoulder-to-shoulder along the Grand Canal, barges and gondolas churn the green black waters, the serene arch of the Rialto bridge hovering over busy human activity.

Cooly demure under a warm sun, Venice is ancient and stunningly ageless.

  

Venice is enchanting. Turn away from the bustle of the canal-side Fondamente** and plunge into her haphazard, shoulder-width alleys.

In the endless maze of leaning gothic dwellings, hunch-back bridges vault lazy, turquoise canals.  Sudden turns may dead end or lead to unexpected squares fronting on massive stone churches. 

Amidst the cool half-light, random sunbeams spotlight tumbling amethyst wisteria and blood red geraniums.  Stand on the arched back of a bridge and feel the pull of curving canals and twisting streets, enticements to discover what treasures lie beyond.

Venice is unfathomable.  It takes time to link the glimpses you are offered, to get a broader sense of her many charms.  But you never achieve an all-encompassing view.  Nowhere can you stand back and survey all she has to offer.  Her sestierri (six districts) must be explored slowly, calli-by-calli, campo-by-campo. 

And in the end, Venice is a vixen.  She jostles you with her crowds of tourists, rushes you from San Marco to the Rialto, blinds you with trashy trinkets and over-priced boutiques, and sends you on your way.  She leaves you with fantasies of what might have been – in another time, with more time. 

Venice is … without parallel.

(*bell tower  ** canal side quay)

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