Nobody arrives in Venice and
sees the city for the first time. Depicted and described so
often that its image has become part of the European collective
consciousness, Venice can initially create the slightly
anticlimactic feeling that everything looks exactly as it should.
The water-lapped palaces along the Canal Grande are just
as the brochure photographs made them out to be, Piazza San
Marco does indeed look as perfect as a film set, and the
panorama across the water from the Palazzo Ducale is
precisely as Canaletto painted it. The sense of familiarity soon
fades, however, as details of the scene begin to catch the
attention - an ancient carving high on a wall, a boat being
manoeuvred round an impossible corner, a tiny shop in a
dilapidated building, a waterlogged basement. And the longer one
looks, the stranger and more intriguing Venice becomes.
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Venezia
Tourist Information
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