Wonderful Venice. Shiny flourishing center of the nautical world in earlier centuries then down in the dumps after Vasco da Gama found a sea route to India. Still you can only admire its characteristics including water all over the place, the century old architecture, the Carnival, the Film Festival, all the constant vibe and of course the absence of cars which forces you to use your lower limbs or one of them Gondolas.
The oddest thing is this jewellery box of an island is continuously sinking. I’m not talking about the floods (about 100 per year) but its predicted disappearance into the sea. Against the floods the Mose project is now seem completed – huge gates stop water from coming into the lagoon – after more than 10 years and 35 people jailed for corruption… We’ll see.
Now back to Gondolas. The Dorsoduro district does not differ from other areas of the main island, however there is one compelling spectacle worth visiting and that is the Gondola workshop. It is a ‘behind-the-scenes’ place where you can watch them being made outdoors. The centuries-old tradition is almost touchable as workers proceed with their daily routine in front of us. Well, I mean across a tiny canal. Which stinks, alas. Not very much but it does.
Venice nowadays overcomes its former distinctive nature of emitting unpleasant odours. Although raw sewage – or most of it – end up in the canals you can barely tell that from the smell of sea water and its flora. Public opinion agrees on different kinds of whiffs are actually present more often during summer and some of them are, well, malodorous. But that’s all tolerable and forgettable when you go out to the end of the district and watch the vista. It’s simply mesmerizing.
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