Old and Sexy

If you took any town or city in the States, aged it until the facades of the buildings were falling apart (bricks crumbling, stucco cracking off, blocks falling out), and then arranged its underpinnings so that it was sinking into a vast body of water, people would move out, property values would plummet, and the whole place would be slated for demolition.

Not so Venice.

This two-millennia old city boasts a stunning network of canals that replace streets. The city is technically a tight little archipelago of islands with buildings and cobblestone walkways built right up to the edge of the water. Since the whole thing has been sinking since it was built, the stonework now descends into the water as if the masons had built everything up from under the sea.

There are no cars in Venice proper. There’s a huge parking structure on the northwest side of the island, and that’s it. Once you’re in Venice it’s into a boat or on your feet. You either ride a gondola, public ferry (vaporetti), or private boat down the canals or hoof it along tight sidewalks with four-storey buildings closing out the sky. The network of unplanned walks and bridges produces a maze that would make any rat cringe in fear and give any civil engineer a migraine. But if you’re a tourist with a digital camera, it’s a great place to wander and get lost.

But it’s old. And it’s not old in the way that your vintage 1965 Barracuda is old. It’s decrepit, falling apart, and sinking. The crazy thing is, that’s what makes Venice so sexy. In fact, walking by the large buildings that have just undergone serious facelifts, we noted that they stick out like sore thumbs. And the “feel” of Venice is just not there anymore. We want patches of walls where the brick peeks out from behind the stucco; we want marble statues that are stained black from aeons of rain; we want sidewalks that are just a little uneven (and may soon be crumbling at the edges); we want doorsteps covered in green moss and licked by the lapping waves. That’s Venice. That’s why people come here. That’s why we’re here.

And people will continue coming here. At least until 2306, when every room on every “ground” floor of every building will be submerged. Then perhaps it will become a destination for scuba divers.

But until then: Viva la olde and sexy! Viva la Venezia!