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Uday K. Chakraborty

To any traveller Venice is still a romantic interlude. Its real beauty is the loveliness of it as a whole, a supreme ensemble of architecture in an incomparable setting.

Marco Polo once wrote — "Every time I describe a city, I am saying something about Venice." In much the same, yet strange, way you'll feel as if you've never really left the place, even if you've been there just once. Venice does that to you with her canal linked cities, Gondola rides and midsummer carnivals.

As the aircraft approaches the Leonardo Da Vinci airport on this second trip, the romance of the city and its ethereal charm are as potent as ever. Outside the airport, one would find three options to reach Venice — water taxi, steamer and the bus. We chose the comfortable airport shuttle bus, the least romantic and cheapest of the three. We arrived at the Piazzala Roma terminus, and started walking along the Corso della Genta. This, as we found out, was not a street but a Venetian phrase to mean "the flow of people" that roughly parallels the Grand Canal, snaking through the heart of the city from the Piazzale Roma, via the Santa Lucia Railway Station, to St Mark's Square. One can follow it intuitively without asking for direction.

Every five minutes, you cross a canal, by walking up and down those miniscule arched bridges, humped to allow boat traffic through. The narrow lanes, on the way, are packed with small shops and tiny restaurants. Everything happens at a leisurely pace.

There are no cars in Venice, and if you arrive in one, you'll have to park it in one of the lots or garages at Piazzale Roma until you are ready to leave. People walk, and traffic moves on water.

For your aquatic journey, you have a few alternatives. First, of course, are the Gondolas. Experienced travellers say that they are better to be watched than rented due to the atrocious cost and other hassles. But what is a trip to Venice without a gondola ride? In which case, to avoid an unpleasant situation, inquire about current rates at your hotel or local tourist office, and strike a bargain with the gondolier before hand.

Fortunately, you can have a sample ride by taking the canal ferry, called traghettos, to cross the canal, at numerous points along its way. Also the little steamers that make up the municipal transit system are cheap and fun. The Veporetti number 5 meanders for over an hour through various interesting parts of the city. But, we took number 1, which chugs leisurely along the whole length of the Grand Canal.

Lined with some 200 marble palaces, built between the 12th and 18th centuries, the Grand Canal has been called the finest street with the finest houses in the world. We were travelling upstream. On the right are the Palazzo Vendramin-Calergi, where Wagner died, now the winter home of the Municipal Casino; Golden House with its ornate facade and Palazzo Mocenigo, where Lord Byron lived. On the left is the Palazzo Pesaro, which houses the modern art gallery, and Palazzo Rezzonico, an architectural jewel that now houses the civic museum of 18th- century art. And, of course, the magnificent arched bridge spanning over the canal at Place Rialto. All these, coupled with hundreds of gondolas and their fancily dressed gondoliers, make an environment, which turn this three-km ride through the Grand Canal intoa truly memorable experience.

There is a gaudy and carnival atmosphere from Easter to October, with midsummer explosions sometimes as crass as they are colourful: the landing stages jammed with tour groups, long lines for frozen custard by the Doges' Palace, the big Lido ferries packed with sun scorched day trippers to the beach, and hawkers and hustlers in action all over the place.

Venice in winter is a totally different experience: placid, gray, a trifle melancholy, and startlingly, strikingly visible. Suddenly, there is no one and nothing between you and the noble palaces, the soaring churches and the dark canals.

Off-season Venice has all the Venetian charm minus its inconveniences. One morning, we walked into the Church of St. Mary's while a mass was on and there was no tourist around. We took all the time to absorb the beauty of some of the greatest masterpieces by Titian — "The Assumption" and the "Madonna of Ca Pesaro".

Venice was the home of such famous Venetian Renaissance masters such as Titian, Gorgione, Veronese and Garpaccio. The Academia is the museum with the finest collection of seminal works by these great painters. Many other works of art are displayed in churches or palaces where they can be seen in appropriate settings.

Undoubtedly, the centre of life in Venice and claimant of the best outdoor setting is fabulous Piazza San Marco (St Mark's Square), more Levantine than Renaissance, and a focal point for tourists, the populace and 5,000 or so pigeons.

And, it is painfully beautiful when suddenly on a late winter afternoon, the rain trickles to a halt, the curtains of cloud part, and trapezoids of sunlight reheat the ancient stones. Then there is an inexplicable sense of renewal as the cafe tables are set up again in St Mark's Square and pigeons and waiters swoop out from the dark arcades while an orchestra begins another syrupy melody.

Napoleon called this huge marble square the finest drawing room in Europe. Bells chime, flocks of pigeons chiss-cross against the sky, violins play, couples steal a quite moment in the sunset. And the tourist takes it all in from a congenial cafe.

Nearby, one can admire St Mark's basilica, the Doges palace, the ninth-century bell tower, the clock tower where giant bronze moors have struck the hours for five centunies, the old law courts, and the old library, which now houses the archaeological museum.

Basilica di San Marco is a masterpiece of Venetian Byzantine architecture. Its huge domes and imposing facade of variegated marble and sculpture has five large doorways. Over the central doorways are the famous four bronze horses brought here after the sack of Constantinople. Inside, the place is full with precious art, rare marbles, and magnificent mosaics and Byzantine gold work.

Next to the basilica is the pink and white Doges Palace. The finest room in the palace is the Grand Council Chamber, containing paintings by legendary Venetian painters including Tintoretto and Veronese.

The palace is connected to the Old Prison by the famous Bridge of the Sighs, which takes its name from the lamentation of prisoners supposedly taken across the bridge to be executed.

Then, it was time to take an elevator ride to the summit of the 324 ft-high, red campanile, bell tower, in St Mark's Square. It is the traditional vantage point from which to admire Venice. The view on all sides is breathtaking from the red-shingled rooftops and countless domes of the city to the distant islands that dot the wide lagoon.

As the sun sets in this most poetic of all the world's cities, the old red brick buildings are burnished by a splendid, rosy glow that is reflected, then refracted, in the waters of the canals. There is a special light in Venice that transforms every building into a palace.

To any traveller Venice is still a romantic interlude. Its real beauty is the loveliness of it as a whole, as a supreme ensemble of architecture in an incomparable setting. This is the true wealth of the place.

Picture by the author

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