IT MAY BE SINKING BUT VENICE STILL CAPTIVATES

Venice is quiet at night. The vaporetto run throughout but not so frequently, so their deep chug is occasional rather than continuous.

But very early morning the first sounds begin. Staying in a front-row 'seat' facing the lagoon, a few doors along from the Doge’s palace,I heard the bustle of the full station of vaporetto on the waterfront getting into gear. In the restaurants down below, there’s the clink of bottles and thud of barrels in preparation for the day’s visitors. The motor taxis get underway, the smaller dinghies too, workmen start hammering, seabirds shrieking, children shouting, café tables are being dragged into position.

Very soon the gentle flow of people over the bridge just outside my window turns into a flood.  A huge cruise liner is tugged across the lagoon to its birth near the Rialto. The clack, clack, clack of suitcases being dragged up and down the steps of the bridge compete with the tolling of bells, the setting up of street vendor stalls, and the incessant hoots and toots and horns of all kinds of vessels. And above and through it all is the ceaseless roar and slap and gurgle of the churning water.

It becomes a veritable wall of sound, such a cacophony that no one noise demands attention. Perhaps this is why it did not disturb me. I wake early anyway and enjoyed listening to the ‘orchestra’ tuning up.

Lest this description should deter anyone from visiting La Serenissima, please be assured that there is another side to this fascinating city. Indeed, I only had to cross the passage from my bedroom along to the kitchen to find peace and quiet, with just the gentle lapping from a backwater canal and the occasional bell toll to be heard. Stay at any hotel or pensione off the main drag, and the sound and the fury of the maelstrom just around the corner will not be heard.

It is amazing how quickly you can be away from the shopping hordes and into delightful squares with less crowded cafes. Here, you may actually meet Venetians. Everywhere is expensive but less so once away from the madding crowd.

Venice is dying: Long live Venice. For years, its imminent demise has been forecast and there can be little doubt that it is on very shaky foundations and that its own citizens are leaving the ship. Last year, one report gives the number of residents at 60,000+, down to 50,000+ this year. They are overwhelmed by some 60,000 tourists daily. No wonder they are moving out.

 The leviathan cruise liners, which everyone but the  authorities acknowledge as contributing to the sinking of Venice, shifting its watery infrastructure, sail up the Grand Canal every day until late autumn, some even throughout winter. The shopping expenditure of the passengers drowns any calls for such ships to be banned. Business today before survival tomorrow.

Yet for all that, despite the noise, the crowds, the expense, it remains a wonderfully beautiful, captivating place. Take the vaporetto across to the Lido and in late summer there is tranquillity and a beautiful beach. Don’t bother with Murano, the island where all the glass is made – and all the same glass and at the same prices as sold in all the shops in Venice.

At top, early morning across the lagoon; below the Bridge of Sighs, packed with tourists; below, one of the huge liners sailing out of the lagoon.

Once away from the area around St Marks and Rialto, and it is magical. Everyone gets lost in the labrynth of calles but it doesn’t matter, you eventually wind up back in the tourist quarter. And it isn’t worth asking locals for directions. I’m sure that as a small gesture of revenge against the daily onslaught, they direct you in quite the opposite direction to that which is correct.

Yet still they come, from all corners of the world, attracted by this watery and subsiding city that once was the centre of the world. If a mega storm comes, who knows how it will survive. In the meantime, those who love the place will continue to brave the hordes and enjoy its unique character.
M.S.

Easyjet do cheap flights to MarcoPolo Airport, and there is a bus or boat service to Venice. British Airways does a Business Class return during the winter for around £430.