Letter From Venezia

It was the best of decisions. It was the worst of decisions. It was, if you believe Italy’s Transport Minister Maurizio Lupi, a triumph for the city of Venice. It was he who announced on August 8 that beginning in …

The image of a gondola has for over a century been synonymous not only with Venice, but with European tourism in general. None of the continent’s other famous tourist icons—not the Eiffel Tower, not the Colosseum—so succinctly embodies all at …

“I must count as half-lost the year I spent in Venice before I took a house upon the Grand Canal,” wrote the once-influential American writer and editor William Dean Howells. “There alone can existence have the perfect local flavor.” Though …

Soon after starting an Italian-English language exchange with a young Venetian here I made the bold assertion that there are ten essential words or phrases in every language that will unlock not just the underlying logic of the language, but …

Everyone knows that people on vacation, let loose from the rigors of their daily lives and desperate for a good time, are prone to do some pretty dumb things. And as everyone has long known—from the ancient Greeks, through Shakespeare, …

When it came time to buy our Christmas tree this year, we once again had to do so without the use of a boat, which my six-year-old son, Sandro, who seems to have a native Venetian’s strict sense of life’s …

“Hey, bub, how’d you like to buy an island in the Venetian lagoon for 99 euros?” At a half dozen locations around Venice these days this is the opportunity that’s presented to you—though not exactly in these words.    To …

Childhood is in the details. Perhaps this is obvious, I don’t know. But it occurred to me recently that as much as we adults might, in depicting childhood, get caught up in the sweep and swoon and sentiment and swim …

It’s easy to be completely overwhelmed by the spectacle of Venice. For nearly a thousand years people have been describing it as nothing less than a feast for the eyes, and in our present ever-more visual culture it’s common to …

  The unveiling at the end of this summer of a large new piece of playground equipment in the park on Sant’Elena where Angelina and Brad used to take their kids during the filming of her movie The Tourist, reminded …