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Travel by the Book: La Serenissima: The Most Serene City of Venice

Fiona Knudson - Lending Services Supervisor —

It all began with a DVD about Venice borrowed from the library...

Until recently I was something of a stay at home. I’d often joke about being a Hobbit, but what I really suffered from was an unreasonable fear of the unknown. All that changed the day I took ‘Francesco's Venice’ home. Watching the charismatic, chain-smoking Francesco Da Mosta bringing the history of this incredible city to life filled me with a passionate desire to go and see Venice for myself.

Luckily I already had a willing accomplice in my mother, so we embarked on months of planning and reading. I haunted the 914’s in the travel section at the Library, finding everything I could on Rome, Florence and Venice, pouring over city guides, museum guides, etiquette and language guides. I walked through Venice in my head with Donna Leon's CommissarioBrunettiand read (many times) the fantastic 'Venice is a fish' by Tiziano Scarpa which describes the essence of Venetian culture. I was more than ready to go, and the next thing I knew we were disembarking from the train at Santa Lucia station in Venice.

A mad impulse had led me to The Grand Canal and it was right in front of me, every bit as breath-taking as described. We found our hotel which was thankfully close to the station (no cars and lots of cobble stones), and set about exploring. The city was positively humming, the busy canals filled with all sorts of water traffic, the narrow streets and bridges crammed full of tourists and hawkers.

Life must actually be fairly awful for the locals when the tourist season is in full swing. There are only about 60,000 native Venetians still living in the city, many forced out by the excessive prices, and they have to contend with the 20 million odd people that visit their city annually. I was keenly aware that I was just another person adding to this problem but felt marginally better as we had not arrived on one of the gigantic cruise ships that damage the delicate eco-structure of the surrounding lagoon.

There is a lot to see and do in Venice; the Rialto Bridge and market, St Mark’s square, the Doge’s Palace with its famous bridge of sighs and it’s far more than a day trip could ever satisfy. We spent four days engrossed in trying to capture something of the soul of the place, both mentally and digitally, and still could have stayed another week. Venice’s faded grandeur is a photographer’s dream. Watching the sunlight reflecting off the canals and shimmering over the building facades was a real pleasure and trying to photograph it was a challenge to say the least – one probably best left to the professionals but a lot of fun anyway.

Travelling on the water is a fantastic way to get around. Our research had saved us money by explaining that the best travel option was the vaporetto or water buses – but only when using the cheaper three day pass. The boats are crammed full of tourists and speckled with the odd local quietly cursing the bolshie visitors. If you’re not a fan of playing sardines then walking is a great option too. Getting lost down the narrow calles and crossing the myriad of bridges is all part of the experience.

We were determined to also experience the real Venice that Francesco and Tiziano had described, and discovered that this was best achieved by walking away from the major sights. We wandered around the quieter Cannaregio district where many of the locals live, visited the Jewish Ghetto and had a very enjoyable picnic on the Island of Muarano, made famous for its glass-makers. In these peaceful areas offer a glimpse of real day to day life, and my favourite photo ended up being of washing strung across a narrow street.

Had I been lucky enough to have seen Francesco in Venice (which I expect would have been as likely as finding Wally), I would have stopped to thank him. His passion for the city and its culture inspired me to become a traveller. And now the best advice that I could give anyone is to get out of your comfort zone and enjoy all the wonderful places those books might take you.

My Recommendations (all available from Dunedin Public Libraries):

Commissario Guido Brunetti Mysteries. Donna Leon (fiction).
Francesco's Venice: The Dramatic History of the World's Most Beautiful City. Francesco Da Mosta (DVD)
Francesco's Italy: Top to Toe. Francesco Da Mosta (DVD)
The Gardens of Venice and the Veneto.Jenny Condie
Great Museums of Italy. Valerio Terraroli
History of Italian Renaissance Art: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture. Frederick Hartt
Mango Languages. Dunedin Public Libraries’ Subscription Language Resource
My Venice and Other Essays.Donna Leon
One-Day Italian. Elisabeth Smith (sound recording)
Top 10 Venice. Gillian Price
Venice & the Veneto.Susie Boulton
Venice From the Water: Architecture and Myth in an Early Modern City. Daniel Savoy
Venice: History of the Floating City. Joanne Marie Ferraro
Venice is a Fish: A Guide. Tiziano Scarpa
Venice Revealed. Peter Ackroyd (DVD)