The Hedonist’s Guide To Magical Venice

Whether or not you’ve already been lucky to trip in extraordinary Venice or nonetheless yearn to first go to its canals, cozy corners and charming caffès, Magical Venice: The Hedonist’s Guide can raptly take you on a joyful armchair traveler’s journey. Engagingly written by Lucie Tournebize with attractive images by Guillaume Dutreix, the 256-page hardcover (printed this month by Harper Design, an imprint of HarperCollins) is a classy travelogue in a league of its personal.

“For some, the soul of Venice is discovered by wandering its slender pathways, passing the bricks of its salt-soaked facades; others discover it by way of the eyes of a Carnival masks, or maybe inside one of many metropolis’s small squares,” begins Tournebize within the e-book’s introduction. “Every of us has in thoughts a selected picture of Venice, made up of snippets we glean from films, artwork or literature. And once we journey there to expertise our legendary Venice in particular person, stepping on its cobblestone streets and touching its marbled partitions, we’re motivated much more to find what makes up this slightly unusual metropolis not like some other.”

Unusual, sure, as a result of as an alternative of streets, there may be water. As an alternative of vehicles, there are boats. As an alternative of steady land, the jigsaw puzzle complete of Venice is constructed on 118 little islands linked in a lagoon within the Adriatic Sea. A stunning labyrinth. Magical, definitely. “Its waters are like a mirror,” says Tournebize, “reflecting the nuanced colours of the sky. From the pale pink of daybreak to the deep orange of sundown, the lagoon is the one fixed in Venice. As you journey its waters from island to island, wealthy historical past slowly unfolds.”

Elegantly organized, Magical Venice is woven with golden highlights and surprises: fascinating info, horizon-expanding insights, enjoyable diversions and detailed maps of the lagoon system and notable neighborhoods. Studying it will possibly encourage you to decelerate and dream up. Leisurely flip the pages — with maybe a glass of Prosecco or cup of cappuccino at your aspect. Tournebize zeroes in on vacationers’ how-to necessities, in addition to indulge-worthy shops, workshops, museums, eating places, bars, parks and hideaway jewels. Dutreix’s distinctive pictures give Tournebize’s phrases visible life.

“From morning to night, the floor of the lagoon is roofed with boats of all types: lacquered picket taxis connecting town to the airport, vaporetti leaving for Burano, lengthy transport boats, boats carrying firefighters, rubbish collectors, and deliverymen, and small, quiet boats propelled by lengthy rowers,” continues Tournebize. “It’s within the midst of those shallow waters…the place Venice exists. The lagoon is town’s raison d’être. To guard themselves from invading barbarians, the primary inhabitants of the lagoon fled right here in the course of the fifth century. The lagoon has all the time been Venice’s major house: its first situation that have to be confronted earlier than getting into town. To discover and examine the lagoon is to know the Venetian ecosystem, with its smells of the ocean, its typical merchandise and its historical past. The lagoon is studded with treasures.”

Treasures, certainly — immense and miniature, glowing in colours galore. Essentially the most well-known space is San Marco, the center of Venice, the place Saint Mark’s Basilica dazzles, in entrance of which the Grand Canal unites one palace to a different and one other. How greatest to walk alongside that foremost waterway that snakes by way of town like a backward S? Tournebize leads you thru a tremendous maze previous artwork museums, luxurious accommodations, the Rialto Market — on an itinerary that serves up various websites. It’s one in every of many day journeys inside Venice that Tournebize deftly advises.

Her tales, suggestions and lists please aplenty. The marvel of greater than 4 hundred pedestrian bridges that connect the archipelago. The superior craftsmanship of Venetians: fabric-makers of velvets, damasks, brocades and silks; the heady attract of its artisanal mask-makers; the boat-builders, in addition to the navigational experience of the gondoliers. Tournebize profiles leaders in Venice’s cultural and aesthetic scenes, corresponding to design architect Carlo Scarpa, architect Philippe Starck and artwork collector Peggy Guggenheim. She urges you to look behind church doorways, in addition to inside verdant gardens and vineyards.

Oh, the beautiful glasswork! It’s, maybe, Venice’s best consumer-accessible high-quality artwork. Most glassmakers’ ovens are positioned on the island of Murano, a memorable tour. Additionally, go to the Orsoni fornace (photograph of its glass library, beneath) within the district Cannaregio, the place it produces prized mosaics which are exported globally. A tour of its workshop is revelatory.

Tournebize delves into Venice’s culinary gems and libations. She presents a lesson in Venetian coffee-ology. “Italians love espresso,” she says. “The drink unfold all through Europe beginning within the sixteenth century due to Venetian retailers.”

The Spritz, a drink invented in Venice, is symbolic of Venetian’s pre-dinner hour — an aperitivo which commences as quickly because the workday ends.

“It’s mentioned that the primary fork,” Tournebize notes, “referred to as a piron, was invented in Venice within the fourteenth century.”

Most celebrated of all, the Bellini cocktail (photograph beneath) was conceived in Venice through “an opportunity encounter of an American vacationer, a Veronese bartender and [the inspiration of] a Renaissance painter,” explains Tournebize.

“Harry Pickering, the American, was staying in Venice in 1929 together with his aunt, who left him there. His funds shortly dwindled. The bartender, Giuseppe Cipriani, who labored on the Lodge Europa, the place Harry was staying, lent him the sum of ten-thousand lira to assist get him residence. Two years later, Harry was again in Venice and reimbursed Cipriani 4 instances the quantity he gave him. Cipriani now had the cash to understand his dream of opening his personal bar. Inside an outdated rope-making manufacturing unit…he opened [in 1931] what would ultimately develop into the hang-out of Ernest Hemingway, Orson Welles and Peggy Guggenheim.” In 1948, Cipriani’s Bellini was born, made with “Prosecco from the neighboring hills and the pulp of white peaches from Sant’Erasmo,” continues Tournebize. “Its pink-orange hue conjured up the palette of artist Giovanni Bellini, a Venetian painter whose frescoes adorn the Frari and San Zaccaria church buildings — thus the identify for the cocktail was discovered.” The decor of Harry’s Bar at present has not been altered a lot since then — six leather-covered stools on the counter and roughly a dozen picket tables within the eating room. But its worldwide fame has grown exponentially. Cipriani and his household efficiently broadened their expertise for hospitality, establishing star-studded bars, eating places and accommodations in Venice, Europe, the Center East, China, Mexico and throughout the USA.

Venice, town of exceptional creativeness and realized desires. Magical Venice, a journey e-book that captures its spirit.