Secret and Sublime Venice

Venice can neither be described nor explained. It is something that deals with light and atmosphere, that leads you from secret alleys to narrow canals, from miniature bridges to carved marble palaces.

This is a city that knows how to pay court to all its visitors. Before venturing into this real maze, take the Serenissima’s pulse at the Caffè Florian . Established since 1720, under the arcades of the Procuratie Nuove (Procuratorships) the place certainly is the best observing point. In the XIXth century, it used to be the headquarters of Venetian patriots who appreciated the private rooms with their crimson velvet sofas and walls painted with allegorical figures. The Austrian officers met on the other side of the San Marco Piazza, in the quiet rooms of the Caffè Quadri. This explains why today the orchestra only plays Viennese waltzes, a real misfortune for Vivaldi’s city.

Around this piazza, dominated by a 98 m high campanile, revolves the historical center: San Marco Basilica with its mosaics all ablaze with light and color on the façade, and the ducal palace, residence of the Doges whose décor on walls and ceilings recall the glorious past. Isn’t it a true theater setting invaded by not shy winged creatures? « Here the pigeons walk and the lions fly » used to say Jean Cocteau, referring to the emblem of the town, topping a column in front of the lagoon.

Venice never stops dazzling those who stroll about the narrow streets, nose up, to the Rialto Bridge. Here, an unpretentious church shelters a rare Titian or Tintoretto painting in its sacristy, there, a vaulted bridge steps over a little canal. In the morning, on the other bank, on San Polo side, not far from the « Fondamento dell’Olio », the matrons fill their baskets at the pescheria (fish market) in highly colored and perfumed scenes.

In order to feel the city’s heart, you have to go alone in the Venice of the Venitians. Don’t miss the Dorsoduro, the South-West part of the city, it conceals secret gardens and tiny flowered yards. Students, merchants and workers live here the ordinary life of the ordinary run of mankind, away from ostentatious palaces and monuments.

The Caffè Florian, Venice, Italy. 

The emblem of Venice, where « the pigeons walk and the lions fly » (Jean Cocteau).