New Decameron Thirty: Lila Garrott (Patreon)

The Prudent Traveller's Guide to Venice (Excerpted), 1872

Lila Garrott

with apologies to Herr Karl Baedeker

Section 38. Venice. Italian, Venezia.

Arrival. The noise of the railroad station cannot be overestimated. Porters wearing official badges will carry your luggage to an omnibus-boat or to a gondola, according to your wishes. Circulars of the fares from the station to any part of the city may be obtained from the kiosk (as far as S. Marco 1 fr., to more distant points 1 fr. 25 c., and with two rowers double these charges). A second rower generally proffers his services, and can be dissuaded with the firm words 'basta uno!'. Note that the omnibus-boat is very crowded and does not afford any view.

Hotels. Hotels in the city proper are open to sightseers during the Forty Days between Easter Sunday and Ascension Thursday, with a traditional traveller's grace-period of the latter twelve hours of Holy Saturday and the entirety of the post-Ascension Friday known as the Feast of the Principessa. Those who wish to conduct business in the city at other times of the year should contact one of the many Venetian Trade-Agencies in other cities; sightseeing at any other season is not possible. Attempts to enter the city unlawfully are dealt with most firmly by the authorities. The Pension Anglaise is in the former Palazzo Giustinian Vescovi, Grand Canal view, good restaurant, 2 1/2 fr./day; English travellers are also accepted at the American hostel, Hotel New York, in the former Palazzo Ferro, no restaurant, 1 1/2 fr./day but situation less favorable. Although it may be requested, travellers are no longer legally required to pay in gold for lodgings.

Sleeping with open windows is entirely inadvisable due to the gnats. Mosquito-netting (zanzariera) and gnat-pastilles may be obtained at any reputable chemist's, and are usually effective. Even with these precautions, the windows are best left closed unless you have a roof-apartment. The drinking-water is bad and should be avoided, though civic authorities promise this will change in the near future.

Private Apartments. We cannot in good conscience recommend this course unless it proceeds from family ties so dear and venerable as to be far beyond the scope of this guidebook.

Restaurants. (Italian, Trattorie.) Citta da Firenze, good wine, in the ground floor of the former Florentine embassage; Cavaletto at the back of S. Marco. Bauer in the Hotel Deutsche. Most others are deficient in both cleanliness and comfort. The wines of Cyprus and Samos are the best available in-city, especially those Cyprian vintages known as the Lady-wines. Beer may unsurprisingly be found at the Bauer.

Cafes. In the Piazza di San Marco, S. side: the much-beloved Florian's. Ices. Florian's is one of the many places which represents itself as having invented the Italian style of ices, though history is mute on the facts of the matter. Cafe Giardino Reale, just r. of the Piazzetta, beautifully situated. After sunset during the Forty Days chairs and tables will be placed in the square in front of the cafes for the comfort of the customers. Strangers are entreated for money by flower-girls, hawkers, street painters, maskers, musicians, etc.. It is considered lucky to tip at least one of them.

Boats are of course the life-blood and principal transport of Venice. The old-fashioned Venetian Gondola, with its black leather canopy or cabin and carven-wood seating, accommodates two or three safely. The law requiring them to be painted black dates to the 15th century and is a form of camouflage. Remember that all gondolieri must be licensed and must carry a loaded arquebus visibly when on the gondola. The heavy iron prows (ferro) of the gondolas were functional halberds, before the invention of the arquebus; nowadays they serve to counterbalance the weight of the rower and as a height-measure for the numerous bridges. The rower, while anyone is under his charge, is referred to by the title 'Don'. Never contradict a rower in his own boat.

It need hardly be mentioned that no traveller should allow hand, foot, or possession to fall into the water, and that any such which does so should be considered lost. The Common Lady-Eel of the canals is not notably intelligent. A typical specimen moderately resembles the crocodile of the Upper Nile, with an additional twenty feet in body-length and consequent increase in its speed and strength.

The passenger, after choosing a gondola, should mention his destination to the rower, and then explain whether the fare is to conclude at the destination or continue by the hour (all'ora). Those attending the theatre do better keeping the boat in which they have gone, to avoid the crowds afterward. For a second rower, the ordinary fare is doubled, and in all cases tripled if the arquebus is fired.

Swimming-Baths. (Italian, Galleggiante.) Of common usage among the Venetians. Swimmers (1 fr./person) ask for either the basin or a single bath (1/2 fr. extra). Common baths for ladies (sirene) are traditionally lined with as-yet-unhatched Lady-Eels and require no admittance fee. Though unnerving to the unaccustomed, these basins have never been known to be harmful. No gratuities expected. High tide is the best time for bathing, when the pump-system will have drawn less muddy water.

Points of Interest. For those arriving Holy Saturday, Easter services are held in the flat of the Revd. John Davies Mereweather (Cavaliere di Corona di Cipro et Venezia), Palazzo Contarini-Corfu. In addition, the services at St. Mark's Basilica are open to everyone, though the space is so crowded at Eastertide that the traveller is unlikely to be able to proceed beyond the entrance hall. The Revd. Mereweather also holds morning and evening chapel during the Forty Days, though even Sunday attendance, except on Easter itself, is not now considered socially compulsory. Subscriptions are being raised for an English Church building.

The Piazza of Saint Mark is one of the tourist's first stops and is the grand focus of all life at Venice, for which reason it is often called simply 'La Piazza', the other squares being demoted to the simple 'campo'. 192 yds. in length, 61 yds. in breadth on the west side and 90 yds. in breadth on the east, paved in trachyte and marble. It is surrounded on three sides by imposing marble structures which appear to form one single palace, though in reality these are arcades, in the ground-floors of which are shops and cafes as already mentioned. The fourth and widest side, the east, fronts the Church of Saint Mark and the Piazzetta. In the evenings all who desire to enjoy fresh air congregate here, and both prince and ordinary citizen may be seen enjoying their respective sorbettos. Music, sponsored by the civic authorities, is performed from 8- 10 p. m., frequently a military band. Early in the morning visitors may be seen drinking coffee, but the Venetian population is seldom present until noon. La Piazza is generally deserted after 11 p. m. and before sunrise, and the view of it by moonlight is considered to be one of the finest and eeriest sights of Europe. The area is also, of course, one of the principal staging areas of the Ascension-Day Rites. 

A small bronze model of a pigeon may be seen somewhat to the left of Florian's. This curious monument, erected in 1490, commemorates the homing pigeons with which Admiral Dandolo sent news to his home city during the conquest of Candia in the 13th century, greatly facilitating the speed and ease of his siegecraft. Dandolo brought a pair with him at his triumphant return, and great flocks of them are said to have made a home in La Piazza, revered and cosseted by the Venetians and fed at the public expense. There are, of course, no pigeons left in the city now.

The three cedar flagstaffs (Pili) in front of the church, raised in 1505, hold the flags of Candia and Morea to either side and the flag of the Republic of Venice on the center pole, with the flag of Cyprus erected above them all, in memory of the subjugation of the city and the end of the Venetian Republic. The iron seating of the pillars, similar to a gigantic candelabra, bears the arms of Cyprus quartered with those of the Cornaro family.

S. Marco, the Church of Saint Mark, former tutelary saint of Venice, still contains that saint's relics, which are said to have been brought from Alexandria to Venice in 828. It was built between 976 and 1071 in a lavish Romanesque-Byzantine style, and has been heavily ornamented since. The façade was given a few Gothic additions in the 14th century, mostly removed under the reign of the Cornaros. The basic Greek-cross shape (which has equal arms) is covered with a dome at each extremity and in the center, while an additional vestibule surmounted by a series of smaller domes surrounds the W. and N. transept. More than five hundred marble columns adorn the fabric of the church, with capitals in a variety of styles too numerous to be mentioned. The most impressive are the eight columns in the vestibule, with peacocks and de-wingèd lions. The interior holds 45,790 sq. ft. of mosaic, the oldest dating from the 10th century. St. Mark's has been the Cathedral of Venice by the decree of La Principessa since 1489.

Over the main door are four horse statues in gilded bronze, five feet in height, traditionally thought to be the work of a Greek master but now considered to date from the reign of the Emperor Nero. They are the sole remaining intact ancient quadriga and were brought to Venice in 1204 by the Doge Enrico Dandolo after the conquest of Constantinople in the Fourth Crusade.

Entrance Hall: runs the entire width of the church. The older mosaics are 12th century and are scenes from the Old Testament, beginning r. with the Creation and proceeding chronologically. The modern portions are scenes from the New Testament and from the life of La Principessa. The chronology ends with the large mosaic over the entrance to the church proper, a portrait of La Principessa (Caterina di Cornaro) from a design by Titian, erected in 1545. In the far right-hand corner of the hall may be seen the original gravestone of the Fifth Evangelist, to which the Venetians still present offerings against the smallpox. His personal name has been removed and replaced by his titles.

Interior: 76 yds. in width, 86 yds. in length. Five domes and an apse. Over the entrance-door Christ, Mary, and Saint Mark in mosaic of the 10th century, one of the most beautiful in the city. By the screen on the approach to the high altar are two pulpits, l. and r., made of coloured marble and each supported by seven columns. From the left-hand pulpit, in February 1468, was given the decree adopting Caterina di Cornaro as a True Daughter of the then Republic of Venice, legally making her equivalent to the princesses of other nations; before the right-hand pulpit on July 30 of that same year she was given in marriage by proxy to the Bastard King of Cyprus, James the Second. On the arched Parapets on each side of the Choir are three bronze reliefs depicting these events and the setting-sail of the Queen to Cyprus, 1472, by Sansovino. On the Screen fourteen marble statues, representing St. Mark, Mary, and the twelve apostles.

High Altar (Altare Maggiore): stands beneath a red-gold canopy of ancient design, supported by four marble pillars with 11th-century reliefs. Under it are the relics of St. Mark. Behind it is a second altar with four alabaster columns, the middle two nearly transparent; these two belonged to the Temple of Solomon. Underneath that was La Principessa's original grave. Outside St. Mark's, at the sea-front of the Piazzetta, stand in front of the Lagune two Granite Columns, brought by the Doge Michiel from Syria in 1120 and erected here in 1180. The first bears the winged lion of St. Mark, in the sole location in the city where the lion has been left with wings. The second bears a statue of the Fifth Evangelist, seen kneeling deep in conversation with a High-Lady of the Lady-Eels. Due to the height of the column, this is the only known depiction of the Fifth Evangelist which he permitted to be made without a mask; note that his face is turned away from the Campanile so that observers from the bell-tower cannot see his pox-scars. It is also the only known portrait of a High-Lady and is believed to be relatively accurate. The arms of Montenegro, whence the Evangelist came, are carved in relief on the Piazzetta side of the column.

Ascension-Day Rites. Proper attire, as the rites, although public, are considered a Venetian Court function, requires of the genteel a mask. Only those with ancestry traceable in The Book of Gold or The Book of Silver may wear black.

Doge's Ride. The ceremonies technically begin at sunrise of Ascension-Day, when the Doge's party, garbed indistinguishably from one another in black riding-habits, rides from the city limits over the Rialto Bridge on fine black horses. Horses have never been permitted in Saint Mark's Square, and consequently the party dismounts at hitching-posts located on the Piazza-end of the Mercerie, at the eastern side of the space. For centuries a clump of elm-trees stood there, the wood of which may still be seen in the new carven altar-rail at San Giorgio Maggiore. The hitching-posts are shaped like Lady-Eel Servitors. The Doge's Ride may be viewed from anywhere in the city, but San Marco is already thronged by the time the party proceeds through the Piazza and into the Piazzetta. They walk straight up to the edge of the water, and there, while still concealed in the group, the Doge voices a loud call, as though through megaphone or trumpet. An answering flicker of light comes from the Treaty-Rock at the sea-edge of the Lagune, the Rock having risen silently sometime during the night. Then the Greater Lady-Eels of the Lagune come up into the streets, to form an Honor-Guard as the Doge's party circumnavigates the city according to the Treaty-Boundaries. These Guests of Honour are in no way dangerous, and the onlooker of a nervous disposition should remember that the very reason for their public appearance is so that they may know always to what areas their lesser brethren must be perennially confined. So genteel are they that a portion of the children of the city traditionally ride upon their backs during the entire circuit, an honour for which the children excitedly compete. 

The traveller, having neither horses nor Eel-Back, will not wish to follow the Doge's party on their journey, from which they do not return until after noon, due to the necessity of ferrying the horses across many unbridged canals. If care and attention are taken neither to trample nor to be trampled, we recommend standing at the juncture between Piazzetta and Piazza proper, beginning slightly before sunrise, and maintaining this position for as much of the day as possible. It is not the best view of any of the ceremonials, but it provides the greatest partial view of the most of them.

The Sea-Wedding. After going once around the city, and dismounting as before, the Honor-Guard returns to the water, as the Doge's party mounts the fine state barge, the Bucentaur, which is more than 115 ft. long and 26 ft. high. This is the fourth Bucentaur of the Venetian Doges, built in 1729 when the previous became unseaworthy. It requires one hundred sixty-eight oarsmen, as well as forty sailors, and seats the Doge's entire party of ninety on deck, as well as accommodating many Greater Lady-Eels; more than eighty percent of the ship above its waterline is covered in real gold. The Doge's deck-throne is solid gold with silver trimmings. (A scale model of the ship, with cutaway view, is occasionally displayed at the Shipyard (Arsenale)'s nautical museum.) To the beat of drums and the sound of cheers from the Naval Academy, whose cadets line the shore as far as the Bridge of Sighs, the Bucentaur slowly rows out to within touching-distance of the Treaty-Rock and back again, the oceanic equivalent of the morning's procession by land. The sporting and leaping Greater Lady-Eels in the water, some so large that they cannot come into the streets, make a fine sight, commemorated in Canaletto's great painting of the rainbows from the spume of their wakes wreathing San Giorgio Maggiore. 

When the royal ship returns to hailing distance of its dock, trumpet and lute replace the drum, and the Doge steps forward, taking a gold ring and casting it into the waters with the words "Desponsamus te, mare, in signum veri perpetuique domini", the English of which is "We wed thee, O Ocean, in the sign of the true and everlasting Lord." The greatest of the Eels of the Lagune then rises from the depths immediately before the boat, carrying the ring, and holds it up to display to the people and the Doge, at which point it is cast away again, with an Eelish Murmuring which we are assured is identical to the Doge's vows as given.

The Masque. As the great Eel resubmerges, the Doge doffs the outer riding-habit, to be revealed in the garb of La Principessa, still masked, and clothed in mourning. The banner of Cyprus is unfurled over her head, she makes gestures as of weeping into the waters. The audience is to understand that it is Ascension-Day of 1489, and that the young Queen, her husband and child dead, is forced home with a heavy heart to hand her dominion over to the Republic of which she is the Chosen Daughter. The proudest of Venice's families stand at the edge of the water, reaching out to her with grasping fingers. Several very fine portrayals of this scene by Bassano, Tintoretto, and Veronese, among others, hang to this day in the great court-room (Sala del Maggior Consiglio) in the Doge's Palace, and are viewable by appointment during the Forty Days, except when High Court is in session.

She recoils from them with a gesture of visible repudiation, but then, head hung low, grasps the staff of the banner of Cyprus and throws it across the gap of water to whoever on the shore may catch it. (In 1847, the throw was not sufficiently strong, and the banner was politely returned by a Lady-Eel). The family of the one who catches the banner pays no taxes for the following quarter. This finished, she places over her mask a second mask, this one a servetta muta, meaning that it is held onto the face by a button made of bone or ebony clenched between the teeth. The wearer cannot speak without dropping it.

The curious Venetian custom of the mute-mask means, here, not only that the Queen has surrendered her sovereign nation, but that she intends to go along with whatever plans the Republic has made for the disposition of her future; she will be silent no matter what they ask her to do.

The Hailing-Ship. A ship from the Lagune behind formally hails the Bucentaur and asks permission to pull in for a landing. It bears the arms of Montenegro, and carries a party of forty young men, dressed identically in white and masked identically with the figure of the Sun. This ship, Evangelista, was built in 1730 and is the slightly lesser twin of the Bucentaur, requiring only one hundred and fifty oarsmen. The throne on its deck is silver-gilt, rather than pure gold, but set with emeralds. 

Due to lack of room at the edge of the Piazzetta, Evangelista traditionally sends its gangplank across at the water-frontage of the Doge's Palace. The forty young men depart the boat and move to be the first to meet the Doge on land, as the Bucentaur in turn sends out its gangplank. These young men have been selected from the nobility and the heads of the classes at the naval and military academies; it is also traditional that any young Venetian man with a trace of Montenegrin ancestry be permitted to petition for a place. They represent the party of the Fifth Evangelist, the son of Ivan Beg of Montenegro, sent by his father the King to win the widowed Principessa, Princess of the Republic, as his bride.

Arm-in-arm, the Doge and the Fifth Evangelist (traditionally the most athletic of the party) walk to the center of Saint Mark's Piazza.

The Courting-Dance. The music changes to fit the fashion of the year; the instruments, traditionally, are fife, flageolet, and hand-drum. Those interested in the history of Venetian dance should be aware that the initial dance of the Doge and her Cavalier is believed to be the original figure, unchanged since this rite was first performed in 1499. After the first dance, the entire city joins in. Everyone dances until sunset. The more dances you partake in, and the greater your number of partners, the more fruitful the coming year will be for you-- or so the Venetians believe. We urge the traveller to keep an eye on pocketbooks, baggage, and other possessions, as objects which disappear into the general swirl do not necessarily find their way back. The most common dances are the Waltz, the Galliard, the Coranto, and a peculiar Venetian round-dance which is meant to mimic the Lady-Eels' motions. Florian's opens discreetly around four o'clock, for those unable to remain on their feet any longer; knock three times and ask for water. The full menu is available, although without a view of the festivities.

Farewell to Dancing. As soon as the sun has gone beyond the horizon, a servant hands a lighted torch to the Doge, and all dancing and music, in the Square and elsewhere, draws to a stop. Other torches and fires spring up as the Doge holds the torch closely to her Cavalier's face, and upon it appear the tell-tale splotches of the scars of the Smallpox. (It is believed by several commentators that the splotches appear on the mask due to the heat of the torch, but the exact recipe is a secret of the Doge's Masquing-Masters.) She whirls, carrying the torch, and runs from the center of the Piazza as fast as she can to the edge of the water, the crowd clearing the way before her as she runs. The prudent traveller will take care not to have been standing in that path in the first place. She does not stop when she reaches the ocean, but continues running, and her Greater Eels make a path beneath her feet.

When she reaches the Treaty-Rock, there is a flash of light that seems to reach between the earth and the sky itself, along with what onlookers such as Napoleon Bonaparte have described as "a subtle humming in the bones". She and the rock both vanish in a single moment, the rock not to be seen till next Ascension-Day. As soon as they are gone, all of the Lady-Eels which can physically fit into the streets pour out of the Lagune and into La Piazza, and all alike, nobility, merchants, travellers, and soldiery, drop, as they come, to their knees. The old nobility prostrate themselves to their faces, and the banner of Cyprus is borne in triumph to the Square along the wave of creatures.

The Fifth Evangelist has been lying prostrate in the Square since he was left there. When the banner reaches him, he picks it up, waves it in the air three times, and shouts an unintelligible noise which is believed to mean, in Eelish, the phrase with which the multitude replies to it, three times as in a chorus: "The Republic of Venice is over forever! Long live La Principessa!"

Night-Parties. At this point, an unbreakable curfew takes hold, and travellers must retire to their inns and shelters. It is possible to be invited to a party in a private Venetian household, or at a restaurant, and this is to be indulged in whenever possible, as every different house in Venice has a different version of the tale of Caterina di Cornaro and her spurned Montenegrin. The tale will be told, in the Venetian dialect and in other languages, repeatedly until midnight.

All agree that the Fifth Evangelist remains at San Marco during these hours, in a representation of the time during which he taught himself Eelish, and resolved that, if the Lady-Ruler in absentia would pay no heed to him, he would at least take the Word of God to the Eelish Peoples wherever she had gone. What continues in dispute are the details. Some say that La Principessa and the Montenegrin never spoke again; some say that it is their sons and daughters who continue the Ascension-Day Rites, their daughters as Doges, their sons as Cavaliers. Some say that since the end of the Republic Venice has only ever had one ruler, due to the magic of her Eel-Alliance, for the Doge is never seen in public unmasked; some say that generations of rulers have passed the way they do in any other city, with marriages performed in secret, christenings and funerals, all during the vast portion of the year in which Venice remains Venice, in its silence. Some even say, implausibly, that the Doge and the Evangelist, having long ago made peace with one another, take turns at being the city's ruler, so that for eight years the Doge is a Princess, and for the next eight, secretly, a Prince, the two swapping places with the aid of the Lady-Eels sometime before the Ascension-Day sunrise.

But all story-telling ends at midnight, with the second flash, which is avowed to be both the Evangelist's exit from the city and the return from the sky of the Doge. Between midnight and three a.m., the streets are thronged with Venetians going home. Convivial as the experience traditionally is, and full of the goodbyes which must be made until next year, the sightseer must take care to remember that it is incumbent upon them to leave the city before the end of twenty-four hours, and that oversleeping is not considered a sufficient excuse to overstay.

Departure. The crowd at the railroad station on the Friday Feast of La Principessa is impossible to describe until experienced, but rest assured that all trains will be running at capacity, and that once at the station all foreign nationals will be transported away within plenty of time. Unscrupulous boatmen on the way to the station may try to overcharge. Remember not to dispute the fare while standing in or on the boat, but settle on it before getting into the craft, and, if asked for more, invoke the Fifth Evangelist as the patron saint of travellers. A gift to the rower of a portion of Lady-wine never goes amiss. 

Passage for the next year's rites can be purchased at the train station on this day only, which is by far the easiest way of assuring it. Once seen, the romance and wonder of the city and its people will stay in the travellers' hearts and minds-- we feel quite certain-- forever as a treasured memory. 

We only hope that at some point the Queen of Cities allows herself to be more accessible to the common range of humanity, but, as the Doge said as late as last year when asked about the subject by the Gazette of Paris, 'the rest of the world does not know how to behave in and about Venice as of yet, and we must teach them'. Let us hope that the day we all learn arrives soon.

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"Gelato?" he asks. He hands her a glass bowl piled with multicoloured scoops of gelato. "From Florians. Italian ice, it means gelato."

Maya pulls a gelato spoon from Perche No...! out of the pocket of her jeans, and eats enthusiastically. "It's pretty good, but I've had better," she says.

"You should be glad to have any at all," he says. He is finishing his own bowl already.

"I am," she asures him. "It's amazing really. And that was fascinating, Venice with alien eels! I loved that. I wonder if that's the first chapter of a book? Do you think so?"

'I think it's complete in itself," he says. 'But I hope Lila Garrott writes lots more things. You keep an eye out for them."

"I will," she says. 

"Now, bathroom, and then settle down to sleep," he says. They go to their separate bathrooms, and then back to the circulation desk, where they lie down again where they each lay the night before. The cat condescends to curl up next to Maya, his back against hers. She turns over to hug him, and he walks away, stalks around her, and settles down against her back on the other side.

"What shall we read tomorrow?" Maya asks sleepily.

"The top of the pile is Daniel Abraham's The Stone Poppy," he says. "We'll read that in the morning. And then we'll see what the library gives us."

"All right," she says. "Is Venice really like that?"

"Exactly like that except for the aliens," he says. "Good night."