A JEWELLED CITY, BEQUEATED BY THE RICH
tunes awaited the merchants who traded there.
Ah, yes, the merchants. As a schoolboy, I was always puzzled. Why did Shakespeare select Venice for his famous play if he’d never been there?
By the time we had dragged our suitcases from the vaporetti pier to our hotel, I understood. By 1598, when Shakespeare was writing his story, the ostentatious wealth of Venice would have been the talk of Europe.
For centuries the city was stuffed with merchants like Shakespeare’s Antonio, and as wealth and beauty went together then, guys like him built… and built with style – including erecting many, many churches. By trying to bribe God, the Renaissance rich bequeathed us a jewelled city. The view from our hotel room, for instance, was of the facade of Santa Maria del Giglio across the street. In most European cities, a 17th Century church such as this would be the most famous local place of worship. But in Venice, despite there being a Rubens Madonna And Child and John The Baptist at one altar – it’s just one of 139 churches scattered around town.
A short walk from the vast Piazza San Marco past the pink Doge’s Palace is the lagoon.
With more time, I’d like to have crossed the Bridge of Sighs from inside the palace to the prison next door, from where Casanova is said to have escaped in 1755. But we had a date with a boat to take us on a tour of some of the lagoon’s other islands.
Not more than a couple of feet above sea level is Torcello which takes about 45 minutes to reach Its great days were between the 7th Century, when a cathedral was built – the oldest remaining building in the lagoon – and the 12th Century, when a sparse but beautiful Byzantine church went up next door. Athough the cathedral has a stunning mosaic of the Last Judgment, there are fewer than a dozen inhabitants left.
Centuries ago, Venice’s two tides a day made it the cleanest city in Europe .But with so many tourists today, Mother Nature might not work so well any longer. In case you’re wondering, septic tanks in the major hotels now take care of much of that problem. For the rest… the tides in the canals, and the dredgers, still have a job to do.
Ray Connolly’s Being Elvis, published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, is out now, priced €18.20.