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| City Guide - Venice - City Overview | ||
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City Overview Few can forget their first sight of Venice (Venezia), rising like a fairytale from the murky lagoon. Once little more than an island refuge for fishermen, Venice grew to become one of the world's most powerful republics, her fortune wedded to the sea in whose muddy flats she sank her dainty heels. Situated in the northeastern corner of Italy at the head of the Adriatic, the city was quick to realise her natural assets. Uniquely poised between East and West, she dominated the trade routes between Asia and Europe, and by the fifteenth century her empire stretched from the Alps to the island of Cyprus. Venice combined the exotic with the pragmatic. Silks, spices and Marco Polo's tales of the East went hand in hand with a thriving shipyard and mercantile prowess. A unique system of government gave the elite control of the city, their power divided into a series of political bodies culminating in the Doge. The Doge had the last word in matters of government, but his power was deliberately curtailed to avoid outright dictatorship. In essence, Venice established a system of government that appeared democratic and thus maintained stabilility - even though only 2% of the population played an active role in the city's politics. While internecine wars raged across the peninsula, Venice primped, preened and counted her shekels. But in the 1480s, the Portuguese discovered a new route to the East around the horn of Africa and Venice's monopoly on Eastern trade was shattered. So her decline began. Her unrivalled setting, sumptuous architecture and magnificent art began to attract Europe's nobility. The city became a playground for bored aristocracy whose ready money propagated cads, courtesans and the famous carnival - a two-month romp of wanton excess. In 1797, Napoleon annexed the city, ending the republic in the year of its 120th Doge. Her wealth and independence sapped, Venice sat back on her gilded laurels and let history wash over her. In 1846, the island was finally linked to the mainland by railway and twenty years later Italy was unified. Today, Venice is in danger of becoming a floating museum. Every year, from April to October, a tidal wave of tourists submerges the city, drowning out any semblance of real life. Every year 1500 citizens leave Venice in search of work and cheaper living costs. Beautiful and damned, Venice's unique geography could be her undoing. The city is sinking. Rising water levels cause the city to flood up to 40 times a year, but the construction of steel floodgates across the lagoon remains on hold. From November to March, visitors should take their wellies and prepare to cross St Mark's square on duckboards. August and July are worse still, when the canals stagnate and city groans under the weight of tourists. For a glimpse of this faded dowager in all her glory, visitors should come in misty-eyed March or sepia-tinted November. The milky light gilds the city's domes and spires and no masterpiece in the Accademia can compete. |
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