 Anyone
who visits Venice will realise, even if only due to the "impracticality"
of the city, that this city is unique, different to all the others. But why?
As (almost) everyone knows, there are no cars and this alone upsets the traditional
idea of a modern city. Here you have no choice but to walk!!
The public transport ("motoscafi" and "vaporetti" as we Venetians
call them), meet the needs of the inhabitants but can only go around the historic
city centre or along the Canal Grande and sometimes it is quicker on foot.
You'll say there are taxis ... but even those can't go everywhere, and, to be
honest, they are a bit expensive.
Going on foot also transforms certain jobs: in the morning the "ecological operators"
go from house to house collecting the bags of rubbish, bread is delivered from
the bakers with handcarts or sometimes even in wooden boxes that young boys
balance on their heads. In general, food and goods are transported by boats
as far as is possible and are then unloaded - almost always by hand - on to
other handcarts that someone pushes along streets, across bridges and inbetween
"legs" until they finally reach their destination. The difficulties this
involves can only be understood by those who decide to move around the city
pushing their own little child in a push chair.
On the other hand, this "pedestrian" city allows those who have bigger
children to let them play and run around the streets without worrying, since
they are so far from the dangers of a city "with cars".
Adults, too, can forget some of the problems of a life "on wheels"
once they step on to the Venetian streets.
Here, there is no pollution from exhaust fumes or the fear of being fined for
having parked illegally, no traffic-lights and queues at the petrol stations
and the jams you see here are only at Carneval but in this case, all you need
do is follow one of the "natives" through the labyrinths of streets
that lie off the beaten track to avoid the hold-ups and jams (nearly always:
unfortunately bottlenecks such as over the bridges across the Canal Grande are
inevitable).
Without a doubt, the best way to spend your time in Venice is to go off the
beaten track.
If you leave the standard itineraries, you will discover the true side of the
city, with its merits and its great problems, the silence and odour, but also
the walls that are falling down and the canals that reveal their smelly beds
at low tide. Obviously, not everything is perfect; Venice isn't only palaces,
churches, museums and works of art but also highwater, rats, magnificent pieces
of architecture that are in a state of decay and the continuous exodus of the
inhabitants to the mainland due to the high cost of living and the exorbitant
prices of houses.
 In
any case, everyone is free to visit the city in the way they like: walking in
the fog, lazing about in the sun at the Zattere and enjoying an icecream, spending
the days in museums or churches, looking for characteristic corners to paint
or photograph, zigzagging from osterias ("inn") to "bacaros"
(tavern), studying in the libraries, shopping in exclusive shops or at stalls,
going for a ride in a gondola; but no matter what you do, you are going to have
to walk.
Therefore, prepare yourselves ... a decent pair of comfortable shoes and off
you go into the labyrinth of calli, campi, rughe, salizade and fondamente,
either losing your bearings or finding magnificent hidden corners, magnificent
views and famous palaces, impressive basilicas or tiny churches. All you have
to do here is remember that everything goes slower, not a lot, but enought to
make life less hectic.
translated by C.Cawthra
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