A View of Venice

The sight of a gigantic cruise liner crossing the end of one of Venice’s narrow canals as it makes its way along St Marks Basin towards the Guidecca Canal is really amazing. People bustling between the beautiful buildings of the city will stop and gaze as a tower block on the move glides by.

I don’t suppose I should find it surprising that a city which is built in a lagoon and which grew on the back of seafaring and trade should play host to these floating pleasure palaces but, somehow, they seem incongruous, almost a threat to the delicate buildings which they seem to dwarf.

The wash of a liner may not actually sweep away the palaces which it passes but one real downside to this spectacular display is that these vessels disgorge up to two thousand passengers at the port at the western end of the city; two thousand people who make their way to St Mark’s Square and then proceed to lose their individual identities in the crowds or, even worse, the queues at the tourist attractions.

I have to confess to being guilty of committing the cardinal sin of making a one day visit to Venice not just once but three times. On the last of these visits, seeing the lived-in buildings on Guidecca made me determined that we should give Venice the time it deserved and not just treat it like the world’s most elaborate theme park. It took a few years to get around to fulfilling this ambition but this September we hired an apartment and spent a week exploring and discovering this unique city.

We had a great week and, in what may be some kind of record, we didn’t visit Saint Mark’s Basilica or the Doge’s palace and we didn’t have one of the famous gelati!