Page 161 - Ath Airport Profile
P. 161
T
The long, drawn-out breath of the craftsman erased any scientific
notion of time. The bubble was ritualistically born like a star spat
out of some black hole to be hurriedly placed in the oven and
transformed into Murano glass. Close-up on Venice: A wintry, still,
ritualistic city. However, Veneto’s capital is still reverberating from
the waves caused by the futuristic Calatrava Bridge over the Grand
Canal that divided Venetians, bringing them out of their traditional
sotto voce calmness. “It cost us 6.5 million euros and you would
think it’s about to crumble all over Piazza Roma,” complains the
driver of my water taxi.
Despite the controversy, that fluid glass line is yet further proof
to me that the city doesn’t surrender its fame without a fight, and
that it continues inventing ways to remain in the limelight either
through its renowned Mostra, its restless Biennale or, of course, its
comedia dell’arte carnival.
Venice issearebnyiwtyoradnfdormfulultiidcubletauurtayl,opulence
Is this thanks to the untamed ingenuity of its citizens, who from in the buildings and their courtyards is the most fruitful way to
the 5th century onwards and forced by Huns’ invasions, tamed an experience Venice. The best way is walking around at the crack of
unwelcoming lagoon dotted with 118 islets? Venice has no equal. dawn or at night, avoiding the crowds and queues that translate
It’s the city of water, a byword for fluid beauty and multicultural into hours of waiting to enter St Mark’s bell tower. It’s a thousand
opulence. times better at seven in the morning amidst the serenity of St Mark’s
It was once the gate to the East, until 15th century discoveries Square, where the precious Café Florian is empty and the espresso
displaced its dominance of the seas. And this eastern reference aroma spreads like a tide.
permeates the otherwise predominantly gothic Doge’s Palace, with Following that, wandering in the grandiose Doge’s Palace, retracing
its pink colour alluding to a mosque as well as works of its master the steps of Titian at the Accademia, the countless bridges, the majestic
painters like Tintoretto. It’s enough to see his painting “Saint Mark Teatro La Fenice that Verdi loved so much and the unexpected
Saving a Saracen from Shipwreck” or to compile a list of Arabic gardens, the melancholic palaces, the dazzling frescoes, the golden
words that have made it into the city’s vocabulary: arsenale, sofa, drawing rooms and “our” San Giorgio dei Greci (St George of the
tariff, to be sure of the Venetian cosmopolitanism which was ahead Greeks). In the waft of moisture mixed with petrol and seaweed,
of its time. On the other hand, you have the baroque, festival-esque in the unexpected arias that emanate from the prima donnas next
Lido, Visconti’s Venetian Riviera, with Hotel des Bains awakening door washing their stairs.
nostalgia for a Belle Epoque, which nowadays cringes by the casual Venice is inextricably tied to nature; and to understand it, you have
audacity of shorts for breakfast and jeans for dinner. Thomas Mann’s to feel its rhythm, as John Berendt noted in his novel, “The City of
white linen suits and hoop petticoats in Death in Venice seem like Fallen Angels”. You have to feel the tide, the waves, the lagoon, all
incomprehensible retrospectives that occasionally take their revenge these elements that defined it and continue to do so—its fate that
by stimulating fashion designers’ imagination. wants it sinking in three hundred years if the Mose Project to save
Once more, the “Serenissima”, as it was called: the “Most Serene” it (scheduled to be completed in 2011) does not succeed.
Venetian empire, manages to balance on its contradictions with a Till then though, Venice can float in its legend that peaks during its
Renaissance style pirouette. It fiercely retains its identity, despite Carnival, one of the most atmospheric and, at the same time, unique
the approximately seven million tourists it welcomes per year— in the world. The setting assumes a different dimension, especially
something that true Venetians are used to, not those coming from now that the city is endowed with some new, theatrical hotels that
Mestre further inland. It’s the old residents who’ll travel to the other distance themselves from the prohibitive logic of grand hotels in a
side of town to buy their favourite and completely unpretentious city that is anyways extremely expensive.
cicheti—the local kind of tacos. Palaces have turned into “ca” (an abbreviation of casa), whispering
Such an attitude, an urge to escape from the skin deep culture of their individual identities, the refined décor, the welcoming familiarity,
sightseeing, to get stuck in the alleys and the canals, to lose yourself like the Ca Maria Adele or the Ca Sagrado.
Masks are the alpha and omega of the Venetian Carnival, and,
161
The long, drawn-out breath of the craftsman erased any scientific
notion of time. The bubble was ritualistically born like a star spat
out of some black hole to be hurriedly placed in the oven and
transformed into Murano glass. Close-up on Venice: A wintry, still,
ritualistic city. However, Veneto’s capital is still reverberating from
the waves caused by the futuristic Calatrava Bridge over the Grand
Canal that divided Venetians, bringing them out of their traditional
sotto voce calmness. “It cost us 6.5 million euros and you would
think it’s about to crumble all over Piazza Roma,” complains the
driver of my water taxi.
Despite the controversy, that fluid glass line is yet further proof
to me that the city doesn’t surrender its fame without a fight, and
that it continues inventing ways to remain in the limelight either
through its renowned Mostra, its restless Biennale or, of course, its
comedia dell’arte carnival.
Venice issearebnyiwtyoradnfdormfulultiidcubletauurtayl,opulence
Is this thanks to the untamed ingenuity of its citizens, who from in the buildings and their courtyards is the most fruitful way to
the 5th century onwards and forced by Huns’ invasions, tamed an experience Venice. The best way is walking around at the crack of
unwelcoming lagoon dotted with 118 islets? Venice has no equal. dawn or at night, avoiding the crowds and queues that translate
It’s the city of water, a byword for fluid beauty and multicultural into hours of waiting to enter St Mark’s bell tower. It’s a thousand
opulence. times better at seven in the morning amidst the serenity of St Mark’s
It was once the gate to the East, until 15th century discoveries Square, where the precious Café Florian is empty and the espresso
displaced its dominance of the seas. And this eastern reference aroma spreads like a tide.
permeates the otherwise predominantly gothic Doge’s Palace, with Following that, wandering in the grandiose Doge’s Palace, retracing
its pink colour alluding to a mosque as well as works of its master the steps of Titian at the Accademia, the countless bridges, the majestic
painters like Tintoretto. It’s enough to see his painting “Saint Mark Teatro La Fenice that Verdi loved so much and the unexpected
Saving a Saracen from Shipwreck” or to compile a list of Arabic gardens, the melancholic palaces, the dazzling frescoes, the golden
words that have made it into the city’s vocabulary: arsenale, sofa, drawing rooms and “our” San Giorgio dei Greci (St George of the
tariff, to be sure of the Venetian cosmopolitanism which was ahead Greeks). In the waft of moisture mixed with petrol and seaweed,
of its time. On the other hand, you have the baroque, festival-esque in the unexpected arias that emanate from the prima donnas next
Lido, Visconti’s Venetian Riviera, with Hotel des Bains awakening door washing their stairs.
nostalgia for a Belle Epoque, which nowadays cringes by the casual Venice is inextricably tied to nature; and to understand it, you have
audacity of shorts for breakfast and jeans for dinner. Thomas Mann’s to feel its rhythm, as John Berendt noted in his novel, “The City of
white linen suits and hoop petticoats in Death in Venice seem like Fallen Angels”. You have to feel the tide, the waves, the lagoon, all
incomprehensible retrospectives that occasionally take their revenge these elements that defined it and continue to do so—its fate that
by stimulating fashion designers’ imagination. wants it sinking in three hundred years if the Mose Project to save
Once more, the “Serenissima”, as it was called: the “Most Serene” it (scheduled to be completed in 2011) does not succeed.
Venetian empire, manages to balance on its contradictions with a Till then though, Venice can float in its legend that peaks during its
Renaissance style pirouette. It fiercely retains its identity, despite Carnival, one of the most atmospheric and, at the same time, unique
the approximately seven million tourists it welcomes per year— in the world. The setting assumes a different dimension, especially
something that true Venetians are used to, not those coming from now that the city is endowed with some new, theatrical hotels that
Mestre further inland. It’s the old residents who’ll travel to the other distance themselves from the prohibitive logic of grand hotels in a
side of town to buy their favourite and completely unpretentious city that is anyways extremely expensive.
cicheti—the local kind of tacos. Palaces have turned into “ca” (an abbreviation of casa), whispering
Such an attitude, an urge to escape from the skin deep culture of their individual identities, the refined décor, the welcoming familiarity,
sightseeing, to get stuck in the alleys and the canals, to lose yourself like the Ca Maria Adele or the Ca Sagrado.
Masks are the alpha and omega of the Venetian Carnival, and,
161
