The wife and I have just got back from 4 days in Venice. (Celebrating our 1st Wedding Anniversary as it happens). For those of you who know her and are really bored, the photos are on the wife's Facebook entry.
Venice got me thinking about a couple of things though - conservation of ancient things (why, how, should we, in what manner), and more generally what a city exists for.
We went just after 'Carnevale' had finished, and before the main summer tourist season, and so it was supposedly 'low' season for the tourists. Despite that, they appeared to be in the majority, certainly around the San Marco area, which seemed to me to be worse than Cambridge's King Street in Summer. Wandering around the city, and trying to get lost in various places I was astonished by the types of buildings we walked past. Every third retail space was either a restaurant or a hotel. At least every other third was a tourist shop of some kind (Carnevale masks, Glass retailer, etc.) Of the remaining third, I would estimate almost all are services to the existing population and tourists that would not be required if the city didn't exist (ie Banks, Post Office, Bars, Fashion shops, Hospital etc.)
So why does the city of Venice exist? If there was no city there, you certainly wouldn't consider building one in its location - but then that is true of a great many of the worlds great cities. The native population of the historic centre (the bit thought of as Venice proper) is a staggeringly small 62,000 - less than Stevenage, Gosport, Wellingborough, Barrow-in-Furness or Bolsover. (And incidentally, about a fifth of the population of New Orleans forced to leave due to Katrina that has relocated elsewhere on a permanent basis). Of those 62,000 a huge proportion would be out of work with no tourists. I came to the view that the city exists almost solely for the tourist trade that exists with it. Maybe a city can exist solely for the things that it has done in the past, for the architecture, geography, and history that caused it to be - but have since passed it by - but it feels, to me at least, very false. Beautiful undoubtedly, and fascinating geographically, with a host of artistic treasures to be admired and commended, but ultimately, above all the rest, false.
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4 comments:
Maybe, but when chunks of it start sinking, we'll miss it!
Oh, I wouldn't disagree - that was going to be the 2nd part of the post that I never got around to writing. Clearly we want it to survive, and tourism is the best way of getting money into the Venitian economy to try and keep it up. I was just thinking that there was a strange feeling and atmosphere and trying to work out what it was.
Yes, the strange atmosphere can't be denied - I like it though. As long as you spend as little time as possible in the real tourist hotspots, I actually find Venice very relaxing. I spent a week there in August, and had some very relaxed times sitting by cafes and bars in the piazzas and streets that lie further away from the Grand Canal.
Nice post. Venice is one of the world's heritage places, so the rush is common. Thanks for sharing your experience with us.wellingborough wedding
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