Venetian Days

I used to go to Venice for Christmas.  The light there is best in winter.  Fragile sunshine which bounces off the canals and the lagoons.  Sometimes I would stay at the Gritti Palace on the Grand Canal, and sometimes at Locanda Cipriani on the island of Torcello.

At night the streets and passageways were empty.  I would sit alone at Harry’s Bar and have liver and onions cooked in the Venetian style and then walk in the cold night wind across Venice testing my memory and trying not to get lost in the twists and sometimes revelling in being lost and discovering ancient Venice at night in the winter.  

The concierge at the Gritti would call across to Murano and the glass factory that the concierge knew would send their boat to collect me from the landing stage in front of the hotel.  I would buy glass in quantity and the concierge was happy and the factory was happy and the boat driver smoked cigarettes as he drove back and forth.  

The best drivers are fishermen.  They know the hidden channels in the mud used when placing nets.  To go from Torcello to the airport most boats have to go back towards the city and around Murano and then back again to the airport.  A fisherman would know the channels between Torcello and the airport and could drive there directly.  He had to drive fast, to keep the boat up on the plane and his  propeller out of the mud.

I had a room at the Gritti overlooking the Grand Canal.  I ate breakfast there and lunch there and always dined at Harry’s.  I bought paper and envelopes from a small printing shop and glass pens and ink and I wrote letters home sitting at the Gritti overlooking the busy canal with its ferries and taxis and delivery barges.

Across towards the mainland the Alps could be seen in the distance.  They were in another world, far from the sea.

We now have items from Venice available at A Swallow’s Wings.