The Alleys of Venice
What are today’s iconic images of Venice, heirs to serene Canalettos or luminous Turners?
Possibly not the forests of selfie cameras held aloft by the slowly churning crowds of day trippers (visitors to Venice are overwhelmingly one-day visitors, from cruise ships or mainland accommodation), or the shuffling files of walkers along the main arteries or over the Grand Canal’s bridges. Who would spend more than a mistaken few minutes among these scenes, unless out of necessity and with gritted teeth, in order to visit church, palace or museum?
What else? There’s the orderly bustle of watercraft, best observed, perhaps, from the Fondamente Nove, off which there is laid out a lattice-work of navigation channels. They go to and from the airport and the big inhabited islands in one direction and along the main shore in the other. Passenger traffic mingles with commercial barges and the medical boats from the hospital – with the occasional water hearse bound for the Cemetery Island.
Away from the broad quays, great squares, grand palazzos and exquisite churches, there’s the Venice of narrow alleys, tiny courtyards and little canals without footways.
Their sheer jumbled profusion defeats any ordinary navigation skills of the occasional visitor, distracted by the deep shadows alternating with the sunlight playing on the soft-coloured walls. As if inhabiting an Escher drawing, one may find oneself back at the starting point (or somewhere that looks similar). Or you may be slyly and suddenly debouched into the melee of St Mark’s far from your intended goal.
Parades of small shops and cafes nestle within the mazes. More Venetians than tourists are encountered. When darkness falls, these places gradually empty. The alleys and passages are ill-lit, the occasional feebly yellow lamp. Anyone who has seen the sinister but wonderful film Don’t Look Now will recall the dread that, in the film, imbued these quarters of Venice.
The experience of this Venice of back alleys and canals is like no other city experience, both in its present state and its connection to past conditions. But then all of Venice, howsoever experienced, is unlike any other city.
Sept/Oct 2022
