Daniela de Rosa
Venice is a woman
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Table of contents
INTRODUCTION
WHY VENICE? THERE IS A REASON. AND MORE THAN ONE.
CUSTOMS AND TRADITIONS OF THE SERENISSIMA REPUBBLICA'S WOMEN (AND THEIR MEN)
VENETIANS OF YESTERYEAR
VENETIANS OF TODAY
THE INSIDER’S ADVICE
WHEN TO VISIT
WHAT TO PACK
HIGH WATER
HOW TO GET THERE
HOW TO GET AROUND
GOING SOLO
Cannaregio
Castello
San Marco
San Polo
Dorsoduro
Santa Croce
Giudecca
VENICE WITH CHILDREN
FIFTEEN ‘MUSTS’
GO ALL OUT
FREE (OR NEARLY)
OUTSIDE VENICE
THE LIDO
PELLESTRINA
MURANO
BURANO E MAZZORBO
TORCELLO
SANT'ERASMO
LE VIGNOLE
SAN LAZZARO DEGLI ARMENI
MESTRE
WHERE TO STAY
WHERE TO EAT AND DRINK
FOR A SNACK
COFFEE TIME
DINING AS IT SHOULD BE
SHOPPING
FOR THE WARDROBE
FOR THE NIGHTSTAND
FOR THE HOME
FOR THE LARDER
STAYING OUT LATE
DORSODURO, WHERE STUDENTS HANG OUT
THE CLASSICS
HYPER-CHIC HOT SPOT
BASIC SERVICES
LAUNDRIES AND MORE
HAIRDRESSERS
COSMETICS
BEAUTY AND GYMS
PHARMACIES
FUN FACTS
TEN COMMANDMENTS FOR THE SMART TRAVELLER
USEFUL NUMBERS
FURTHER INFORMATION
IN LITERATURE
IN FILMS
ON THE WEB
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
VENICE IS A WOMAN
Daniela de Rosa
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INTRODUCTION
Travel guides age quickly. More than their own
writer. Since I tried to describe the feminine side of Venice – and
I’ve been the first in doing so – Venice itself has changed. Not
much, because it’s the same amazing city it has always been, but
enough to require a new book.
While you explore it, while you stroll along its
calli, you can listen to the
playlist on Spotify I have specifically compiled for your stroll.
Venezia has been visited by the majority of people at least
once. I lived there for ten years and I go back regularly for
weeks, sometimes months. It could be the most difficult city to
visit and, for someone who loves photography like me, impossible to
be shot at. Everything has already been seen, told, photographed.
It’ really difficult to find something original. Therefore, I don’t
want to tell you what you can find in Piazza San Marco or how good
is a coffee in Caffè Florian. I want to convey the unicity of this
strange place, sole shaped, such as Tiziano Scarpa in his book “
Venezia è un pesce” (a beautiful book, in my opinion),
that needs to be savoured slowly, on foot, leaving behind the rest
of the world at each step. Let’s be frank: Venice has not got any
better in the last 20 years. On the contrary. Politic has favoured
a ruthless tourism, 30 million people arrive every year, step on
every single
masegno, go up every single bridge, fill its
calli. The meagre population (not much more than 53.000,
as a display in the Campo San Bartolomio pharmacy shows) can’t
breathe under this burden, not always polite and respectful, but
craving cheap souvenirs, and dreams to stuck into their backpacks
to bring home.
However, I’m sure that you someone offers a weekend in Venice
or if you are presented with an excuse to visit t again, you’ll
never say no, even though you have visited it a million times.
Because the charm Venice exudes (together with the smell of rotten
water rising from the canals, in summer more than ever) is
something unique and no other place in the world has it. Therefore,
get ready for a new discovery. Follow me and find the Venetian
women inside yourself. And remember not to bring your heels.
You can find all the places mentioned in this guide
in this map, that I compiled specifically for you.
"No city was superior to Venice for its number of high-profile
women, beautiful in body as in spirit and mind.Roman ladies were pretty, but not always chaste (...) those
that lived in the Caucus were pretty (and still are), but cruel and
vindictive at the same time.Only the Athenians could be compared to the Venetian women in
regards to their beautiful figures, liveliness, their graceful
speech - but the Venetians surpassed them in their softness,
modesty and subtle wit.”Eugenio Musatti, “La donna in Venezia”, Draghi, Padova, 1891.
WHY VENICE? THERE IS A REASON. AND MORE THAN ONE.
Venice at sunset: is that a reason enough?
That’s easy: it’s the city that everyone wants to see at
least once in their lifetime. It was built on the water, against
all odds of construction and has withstood the test of time
throughout centuries without changing much; it’s both an
anti-modern yet anti-conformist city. It’s quite an architectural
feat: building a city - and what a city indeed! - on wooden poles
stuck in the mud and mire… it’s nothing to sneeze at. Yet the
handful of people from Veneto fleeing from the barbarians around
400 A.D. did just that - they built the city on the water, counting
on the fact that the enemy wouldn’t be able to reach them through
the swamps and lagoons. Even if only for this reason - to see how
an “aquatic city” lives and breathes centuries later - it would be
worth seeing.
But there are other reasons too: Art, for example. In its age
of glory (that of the Serenissima Repubblica), Venice was busy
building, decorating, and embellishing. Among its palaces, museums,
works of art - its array of cultural assets is dazzling. And then
there's romanticism: they say that Venice is the most romantic city
in the world. It's true. But it's worth seeing without having to
wait for the love of your life to walk with arm in arm through the
narrow streets because it is also a safe city that is well-suited
for women, provided they're not wearing heels (but
we'll talk more about
that later).
CUSTOMS AND TRADITIONS OF THE SERENISSIMA REPUBBLICA'S WOMEN (AND THEIR MEN)
Like all touristic cities, Venice is filled with... tourists.
That is also young ladies and women, maybe in small groups, that go
there to take in the scenery and monuments. There are some
Venetians who are convinced that these women only want to have fun
with the locals, and they've created a proper "Club for Flirts",
with the goal of 'conquering' as many foreign women as possible.
They have a scoreboard and point system: Swedish women are worth
less than Spanish women because they're easier to conquer, for one
thing.
… And so on and so forth. They 'work' in the neighbourhoods
around Piazza San Marco, and when all is said and done, they run
off to tell their friends how it went. In short, they're real
gentlemen. It's not easy to pick them out of a crowd, as they don't
exactly go around wearing a particular uniform. But if you
encounter a flirty local guy, keep this in mind. Whether you play
along or walk away, that's up to you.
George Sand, 1833
