By: Martina Celegato
Submitted: 2009-06-17 03:05:50 | Word Count: 650
About Venice we could talk for hours, describing its numerous beauties and its particularities. It is a city different from every other in the world and by now everybody in the world knows that. For this reason millions of tourists run here every year to be fleeced by restaurateurs and shopkeepers. But nobody can do without it and even this is one of Venice’s characteristics. In the end a city built on the water, instead that on the ground, can only be different from everything else and have rules of life different from other cities.
As we arrive in Venice, we are immediately captured by its atmosphere that suddenly appears magic and different from every other city in the world.
In Venice there are no cars, there are even no bikes or bicycles. Instead you are thrown in a magical atmosphere, with medieval palaces and canals. The atmosphere and the landscape are not the ones of a modern city, but of a city in a fairy tale, remained unchanged since the days of knights and ladies.
[ advertisement ]
Walking among streets and lanes or “calli”, as are called the streets of Venice, we are constantly surrounded by monuments and churches that for themselves are masterpieces to be admired for free.
Venice is also called the “City of lovers” because, precisely because there are no cars, it can allow long and peaceful walks, surrounded only by the sound of the water that laps its shores. Venice seems to be a fortress in which the time has stopped, in which there are no apartment buildings or highways. All this without counting that in Venice there are some of the most beautiful paintings and finest original works of a lot of famous Italian artists such as Jacopo Tintoretto, G.B. Tiepolo, Titian, Veronese, Bellini, Giorgione etc…in its churches, museums or palaces.
Beyond being a real heaven on heart for the lovers of modern art, Venice dedicates every two years one of the most important exhibition in the world to contemporary art: the Venice Biennale. Always in Venice it is possible to visit the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, full of masterpieces of contemporary artists.
But the peculiarity of Venice is not just in its architecture, for example the traditional mean of transportation is the “gondola”, the only boat in the world of 11 meters lenght and weighing over 600 kg that can be maneuvered with lightness and ease by a single person and even with only one oar, has become for millions of tourists the very symbol of Venice.
Another peculiarity is the Venetian masks that now are used in Carnival costumes but once the Venetians used them during the whole year and in some places. The reason was the most obvious, that is not being recognized. And here for example, they used to wear masks when participating in the gambling at the Ridotto, because they did not want to be recognized by creditors, who otherwise would not have given them respite. Women used to wear masks not only for not being recognized, but also for beauty. When they went to the Selvadego inn, they used to put on a velvet mask to bring out the whiteness of the face.
Venice is full with locals, bar or restaurants where all people can eat the typical Venetian “cicchetti” (type of appetizers) and drink some wonderful spritz (kind of aperitif), maybe listening to some great jazz music played by some fabulous players. And in the restaurants it is possible to eat some typical dishes, especially based on fish that will satisfy your hunger and your taste after having enriched your mind during the day admiring the numerous beauties of this city.
