Romance in Venice & Paris (Chapter 2 - Venice)

I will post the pictures soon once my friends have uploaded them from their cameras. You will find the pictures beautiful because Venice is architecturally a beautiful place. The Rialto Bridge, the Basilicas, the Gondolas in the setting sun, the San Marco Plaza, with gondolas lying its banks, facing the blue sea. Images of Romance. But, I did not find Venice romantic at all. Romance, is not about a place, but about the people that make a place.

Venice is made up of many residential quarters of middle-rise classical apartments. But on the first day, as I walked around and sat in a Gondola across Rios (rivers) in the City, I hoped I would see the local people peering out of their windows, or hanging their clothes out to dry, or standing and chatting on the streets, I hoped I would hear the sounds of music and the hearty laughter sounds coming from the houses, I hoped I would see houses displaying original works on art that I could peer on through the glass panels. I hoped and hoped. But all I saw were large throngs of Chinese toursits, barely a hint of local activity, throngs of commercial stores selling either the fasion goods of the day, the LVs, the Armanis, the Disneys, or souveneir shops selling identical and photocopied works of art, or masquerade masks. And I thought back to consumerism, and then thought, isnt Tourism a result and form of consumerism too?

I imagined, how romantic it would be, if I and a lover, were sitting in a gondola under the setting sun, and around us were the locals in their boats returning from work, the sounds of children playing on the cobbled pavements, masquerades with people all in masks! The banter in Italian, the Grazies and the Ciaos! And everyone looking at us, an odd Chinese couple, foreigners who carried an air of mysticism! Yes, it must have been like that before. But now, in my Gondola, I saw more than 10 gondolas pass me, and in ALL of them, were Asian tourists. Rialto Bridge crowded with Asians taking the ultimate beautiful pictures, the type that one can find in postcards, and all around, I hear Chinese, Japanese, even Malay. And I find it really surreal, where am I? Romantic? My goodness.

I read the travel guides, and am informed that most locals have shifted out of Venice to mainland Italy in search of better job opportunities. Left in Venice are the locals who wish to make a living out of the booming tourism industry. And I imagined again, of a time in Venice, when finance did not rule the day, when trade was only a part of life, where there was time for masquerades, music and art. When the days were spent trading, but the nights spent amongst parties. Not the wild parties of booze and little else of today, but those of music and discussions on the arts. I imagined of a time, when the Arts itself were an industry, in which many indivual artists worked and shared views. I imagined a time, where locals went around in slow leisurely, Gondolas. But really, that's not possible in today's fast paced world, is it?

At Piazza San Marco, the biggest open public square, there stand beautiful strutures of the Basilica, the Dolges Palace all dating back more than 600 years. But I found Trafalgar Square in the middle of London far more atttractive. My simple reason: Trafalgar Square had far more people sitting around. And I thought, is it only the financial centres of the world today, the Londons, the New Yorks that can attract huge numbers of people. Did Piazze San Marco use to be full of people everyday in the past, when Venice was the Trading Capital of the world?

The day I left Venice however, on Monday, we woke up earlier and took a walk around the city at 8am. And finally, I saw some local life. People walking to work, not unlike how they do so in Singapore, London or Cardiff. As we walked the streets, I saw individual local artists at work on ther Murano Glasses, paintings. And in the hotel, I saw brochures of many musical performances in the Chiesas, and Basilicas. I regretted it being too late for me to catch at least one performance. But maybe then, some life still exists in Venice. No longer the thriving Arts Capital, but where some remnants of a proud and distinguished heritage lives on.

The social studies textbooks in Singapore expouse the Venice lesson to be one of the failures of corruption in politics leading to a fall in Empire, the lessons I gathered however were : What are the effects of tourism on local culture, and local identity and sense of place? What are the effects of consumerism on arts and culture? What kind of concentrations of people will consumerism encourage?