On Venice and co-existing with water
Very recently, I had the pleasure of living in Venice for two months. I got to know the city more intimately than I had ever been able to do as a tourist. I knew Venice was beautiful and I already loved it, but this time the interactions I had with her were different.
First of all, to me (who is always needlessly assigning gender to things), Venice is undoubtedly a ‘she’. This is a conclusion I came to one day while crossing the lagoon on a vaporetto to work. Maybe that thought simply came to me because in most languages, ‘sea’ is a feminine word, and therefore, I associate water with femininity. However, I think there is more to it than that. It’s a matter of energy that I may not be able to fully explain. She is not the stereotype of a sweet, slender, quiet and elegant woman. She is not that well-behaved and kind of rough around the edges. But she is gorgeous in a way that you have never seen before, and with her unique kind of ruggedness, you can’t help but fall in love with her. While she seems cold at first, the more time you spend with her, the more she starts revealing her little secrets and her true identity.
Something that will immediately strike anyone as unique to Venice is, of course, the way water flows everywhere throughout the city. Sure, we have canals in Amsterdam and plenty of other Dutch cities, but this is different. There is no room for cars or bicycles in Venice. The city is walkable, but you will have to learn how to navigate this maze of calle quite well in order not to get lost. You will go up and down many, many bridges and develop strong leg muscles. You will see water almost everywhere. Sometimes you will unexpectedly reach the end of a street and nearly fall into it. While the Dutch are used to dealing with water too, we do it in a very different way. We push it away. Venetians hold it in a tight embrace. They live with the water, they co-exist with it, and they always have. At Fondazione Querini Stampalia, I learned that it is quite normal for the traditional Venetian palazzo to have a sort of gutter in the house so that the water can freely flow into the house in the case of acqua alta. People would originally also enter their houses through a water door, one where they could easily step out of their boat, rather than the front door. Many of the buildings still have those doors, even though I believe they are no longer being used.
I think there is something there about living with nature and the tides. The Dutch may have more of a controlling mindset: man stands above water. Possibly, the Venetian way is more accepting of the circumstances. As humans, we don’t stand above natural phenomena: rather, we have to adapt to them. This is quite a fundamental difference in mindset.
Culturally, it is also a very interesting place. Venetians are standoffish. While I am used to the Dutch type of standoffishness, this kind was different. It’s the kind of attitude that reminds me of the people in my life who uphold a harsh exterior because they have something soft and vulnerable to protect. The locals are cold or rude to foreigners. After a while, I started understanding this dynamic and stopped taking it personally. Venetians love their city: they are proud of their local culture, their dialect, and their food, as they should be (I can’t stop thinking about any of it). There is no other place like this strange little city. Its people see the place they grew up in and love being altered, threatened and even destroyed by mass tourism in very real ways. Of course, this leads to a protective kind of hostility. I don’t think it has much to do with disliking foreigners, I think it is more about protecting what’s left of this heritage.
These are just some of the things I noticed and thought about in the last months. If you are ever in Venice, I encourage you to find those little details. Get to know her beyond the Select spritz and cichetti. She may not be around forever. Cherish and respect her, fall in love with her like so many have, or end up hating her. That’s fine too. Either way, the encounter will surely be a memorable one.