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For every resident Venetian, hundreds of visitors pour into the city each year to savor its gilded charms.
Most will take in this view across San Marco Basin. Many could find themselves in acqua alta-high water.
J
more beautifully framed than Venice. Neither land nor water, but
shimmering somewhere in between. the city lifts like a mirage from a lagoon at
the head of the Adriatic. For centuries it has threatened to vanish beneath the
waves of the acqua alta, relentlessly regular flooding caused by the complicity
of rising tides and sinking foundations. but that is the least of its problems.
Just ask Mayor Massimo Cacciari, broody, "Venice is such a lovely city, said the director
mercurial professor of philosophy, nuent in of a cultural foundation. From his window you
German, Latin, Ancient Greek; translator of could look across the San Marco Basin-with
Sophocles' Antigone; a man who raises the level its unending flotilla of speedboats, gondolas,
of political intellect to just short of the strato- and water-buses called vaporetti-and beyond
sphere. Ask about the acqua alta and Venice to the Piazza San Marco, epicenter of Venetian
sinking, and he says, ~So go get boots," Let them tourism. "Really. it is a huge theater. If you have
wear boots. the money, you can rent an apartment in a 171h-
Boots are fine for water, but useless against century palazzo with servants and pretend you
the flood that causes more hand-wringing are an aristocrat."
than any lagoon spillover: the flood of tourism. Please take your seats. In this play, Venice as-
lumber of Venetian residents in 2007: 60,000. sumes a dual role. There is Venice the city where
Number of visitors in 2007: 21 million. people live and Venice the city tourists visit.
In May 2008, for example, on a holiday week- Lighting, sets, and costumes are so beautiful the
end, 80,000 tourists descended on the city like heart aches, but the plot is full of confusion, the
locusts on the fields of Egypt. Public lots in ending uncertain. One thing is certain: Every-
Mestre, a mainland part of the municipality one is madly in love with the title character.
where people park and take the bus or train to
the historic center, filled and were closed. Those "BEAUTY IS DIFFICULT:' Mayor Cacciari said,
who managed to get to Venice surged through sounding as if he were addressing a graduate
the streets like schools of bluefish, snapping seminar in aesthetics rather than answering a
up pizza and gelato, leaving paper and plastic question about municipal policy. He quoted
bottles in their wake. Ezra Pound (the American poet, buried in
La Serenissima ("the most serene one"), as Venice) quoting Aubrey Beardsley's line to
Venice is known. is anything bul. The world William Butler Yeats. a kind of literary game of
steps into the exquisitely carved font of the telephone-but then indirection is as Venetian
city, guidebook in hand, fantasies packed along as the curves of the Grand Canal.
with toothbrush and sturdy shoes. Splash! Out Cacciari. whose reputation for arrogance
spill the Venetians. Tourism isn't the only rea- rivals his reputation for eloquence, seemed to
son for the accelerating exodus, but one ques- be in a mood as black as his hair and luxuriant
tion hovers like a haze: Who will be the last beard. (Not a streak of gray on his 63-year-old
Venetian left? head. ~Does he dye his hair?" I asked a press
VANISHING VENICE 95
luscious decay is a constant. as is
maintenance. Repairing a foundation
Frezzeria. Ahead is the Correr Museum and damaged by flooding means draining
deaning ladies on hands and knees with buckets the canal, then clearing it of mud.
and brushes. She crosses the Piazza San Marco, To live in Venice is costly, but localS
blissfully empty in early morning. "I step on the like this couple at the Casino of
paving stones and fall in love with the city all Venice willingly pay the price.
over again;' she says. Another bridge, a brisk
walk across the Campo San Filippo e Giacomo, playa beam over facades of stucco and stone
and she arrives. It is exactly 7:58. until the cylinder of light picks out a roundel
Listen. Venice should be heard as well as seen. of carved stone. called a patera. depicting some
At night the eye is not distracted by the radiance fantastic beast that slithers, prowls, or flies. It is
of gilded domes. The ear can discern the slam of then, while the city sleeps and he is rapt in the
wood shutters, heels tapping up and down the contemplation of a touchstone of its past. that
stone steps of bridges, the abbreviated drama of he reclaims his Venice from the crowds that fill
whispered conversations, waves kicked against the streets. squares. and canals when it is day.
the seawall by boats, the staccato of rain on can- Gherardo Ortalli, a professor of medieval his-
vas awnings, and always, always, the heavy, sad tory. finds his path less poetic. MWhen I go out
sound of bells. Most of all, the sound of Venice in the campo with my friends, 1 have to stop
is the absence of the sound of cars. because someone is taking a photograph of us as
Often Franco Filippi, a bookstore owner if we are aboriginals," he says. ~Perhaps one day
and writer, cannot sleep. and so he gets up and we are. You go and see a sign on a cage. 'Feed the
threads his way through the maze of streets. Venetians: When I arrived 30 years ago, the pop-
flashlight in hand. stopping now and then to ulation was 120.000. Now it is less than 60.000,"
VA~ISIlING VENICE 97
Tronchllllo. an
8J1iflclal )slaod
made 01 dredglld
caoal mUd. ~rves
as a parking lot
tor uattle trom
tho maiolaod.
SACCA
SAN BIAGIO
,"
,i.
V\RG_ w .......".,~" SlAF.
SOURCE. crTY Of val",E; """...........; """"Nte'" ""NICE_TOURIS.. """""'.
"The city is consumed by tourism;' says Sal- come for a few euros?" He glares. "} cannot
vadori, seated in his office in the 16th-century be worried about hotels. I have to think of the
Palazzo Contarini Mocenigo. "What do Vene- Venetians. My battle is for the city. Because
tians get in exchange?" A frown as his brow Venice"-his voice softens, he touches his
plummets. "Services are strained. During part chest-"is my heart."
of the year Venetians cannot elbow their way Tourism has been part of the Venetian land-
onto public transportation. The cost of garbage scape since the 14th century, when pilgrims
collection increases; so does the price of living:' stopperl en route to the Holy Land. With the
Does it ever, particularly when it comes to resi~ Reformation of the 1500s, tourism lagged, but
dential property. A 1999 law that eased regula- regained momentum in the 17th century as
tions on the conversion of residential buildings upper-class Europeans, intent on acquiring the
to tourist accommodations exacerbated an fine sheen of cultural experience, embarked on
ongoing housing shortage. Meanwhile, the a "grand tour:'
number of hotels and guesthouses since 1999 $0, what's so different about tourism now? I
has increased by 600 percent. ask Ortalli, after he has settled into his office.
"Yes, there was the grand tour;' he replies. "But
"PERHAPS TO HELP;' Salvadori says, "we put then people were invested in hospitality. Now,
a city tax on hotels and restaurants. They say Venice gets giant cruise ships. The ship is tcn
tourists will not come-but I say, tourists won't stories high. You can't understand Venice from
PLACES TO S'rAY Of Venice's six districts. or seslieri, pajamas for the Duke of Windsor and sport
Cannaregio has the most residents, San Marco the most shirts for Ernest Hemingway. "It's like leaving
tourists. A 1999 law made it easier to convert residences
Into hotels and guesthouses. further diminishing the the house where you were born;' said Susanna
housing supply for locals. Cestari, who had worked there 32 years, pack-
ing boxes for the move.
In August 2007, Molin Giocattoli, a toy store
so popular an adjacent bridge was called the
Bridge of Toys, closed. Since December 2007,
ten hardware stores have gone out of business.
In the Rialto market, souvenir sellers have
Accommodations
established replaced vendors who sold sausages, bread, or
• Before 1999 vegetables. Tourists will not notice. They do not
• After 1999 visit Venice to buy an eggplant.
They do, however, come to get married. The
tourist machinery has incorporated weddings-
720 in 2007. Predictably, nonresidents who
married in Venice that year outnumbered resi-
dents by nearly three to one. Should you wish
to tie the knot, the marriage office of the City of
Venice will oblige for $2,400 on weekdays. On
weekends, $5,500. Would the happy couple like
the ceremony broadcast on the Internet? One
hundred ninety dollars, if you please.
As for Carnival-once a charming, neigh-
borhood event, now a commercial frenzy ("a
cultural hijacking:' Robert C. Davis, a profes-
sor of history at Ohio State University, wrote in
Venice, the Tourist Maze)-sensible Venetians
ten stories up. You might as well be in a helicop- leave town.
ter. But it's not important. You arrive in Venice, One thing the Venetians haven't abandoned is
write a postcard, and remember what a wonder- their cynicism. When the exodus is complete, if
ful evening you had:' the city ends up as nothing more than an exqui-
The malady is chronic. The onset of infection, site, gilded bonbonniere, "Who will be the last
says art historian Margaret Plant, dates to the Venetian left?" a woman whose family reached
1880s, when the city "was fetishized, and its face back generations was asked. "I don't know," she
was turned resolutely to the past. At tbat point replied. "But certainly the last Venetian will
zealously guarded Venice became a commodity want to be paid for it:'
city, a package of the totally picturesque. Its own Meanwhile, plans for the city's salvation ap-
citizens were confirmed as a lower order:' pear and disappear with the regularity of the
The contagion seeps down streets, climbs tides, but the stakes couldn't be higher: Tourism
bridges, and crosses the piazza. "There goes in Venice generates $2 billion a year in revenue,
another pie<:e ofVenice:' Silvia Zanon, the teacher, probably an underestimate because so much
said sadly when La Camiceria San Marco, business is done off the books. It is, reports the
a clothing store located near the Piazza San University of Venice's International Center of
Marco for 60 years, had to move to a smaller, Studies on the Tourist Economy, "the heart and
less prime spot because the rent had tripled. soul of the Venetian economy-good and bad:'
The shop, quintessentially Venetian, tailored Some people suggest that Venice's wounds are
'palazzo del
Camet1et tghl
The ground floor
01 this 161.h-century
building f\oOd$-----''..1
when the acqua alta
reaches 3.4 leet The
.stone facade shows
moderate damal1O.
~ nDE l..£VEI...
-
HOW OFTEN?
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city', 001011"111 floo<l
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1-0-- L----_ L" __ ,~,
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zaro \ida lave!,
BUILDING AND CANAL-WALL DAMAGE rllCQt<led 1r11897
• ExtenSive Of moderate
Minimal
, Circles mark buildings most likely to
flood, due to location and structure,
About half ot surveyed walls and build· when area is undetwater,
ings show damage. Turbulent waves
caused by motorboats (moro ondoso)
can accelerate the deterioration of canal
walls. When sediment accumulates in
canals and clogs sewer ~nes, sewage
seeps into adjoining canals and damages
brick and mortar. Dredging sediment
helps limit damage.
N
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,
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THE SEA
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The gro
01 this 1
buildin~
when tt
reache!
slone f,
modera
Fl",inforced
."
How it wOft(s
Hollow steel gates
filled with water lie ltat
in housing caissonS
buill into the lagoon
bed at each inlel
Lagoon of Venice
..Ii.mocco
Inlet
~
,." .",~.
.... ,
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Sand. slit,
and clay 46lt
Sand
Clay
Lagoon bed
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t.n\oI$ _10 oeM
r_OCIIIe_
10_1_
BEYOND TliE BRINK
Number of times water rose to a level of 3.6 feet or higher.
u 36
31 31
• , 3 , 3 3 • 5
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Adriatic Sea