For the romantic honeymooners,
Venice might be the place they’ll want to visit. Consisting of 100 islands and
150 canals it has its unique travel format - the gondolas and its gondoliers.
In films, the gondoliers, apropos of nothing but good nature, burst into a song
for the gratification of their passengers. Inevitably the romantic song turns
out to be, ‘O Solo Mio’, to the disgust of the Venetians who complain that the
song originated in Naples and is not a local composition.
But even more memorable are
the 400 plus bridges which connect the many islands of Venice.
Best known is The Bridge of Sighs, connecting the
Doges’ Palace’s interrogation rooms with the dungeons. In its time, the Doge's
Palace was the centre of power where denunciations, elections, executions,
intrigue, and inquisitions took place. In order to make accusations easier to
make the power brokers came up with the Bocca di Leone, or ‘lion’s mouth’, a hole-in-the-wall box
where citizens could post denunciations of their foes and disliked neighbours.
The most famous one in its own time, and still in existence is the one attached
to Doge’s Palace.
The bridge offered prisoners of the Venetian Republic a final opportunity to view the
city before they were led to their cells or to the executioner. The Italian
name for the Bridge of Sighs is Ponte dei Sospiri.
A less grim bridge is the Bridge of Breasts, Ponte delle Tette, leading to one of the red-light
districts of medieval Venice.
In the 1600s, Rio Terà delle Carampane became a
specially designated ghetto where the city had decreed all local streetwalkers
must live. To encourage the passers by using the bridge, the ladies of the
night would uncover their breasts while sitting in the windows from where they
could be easily seen. Hence the name, Bridge of Breasts.
Ponto del Soccorso or Bridge
of Salvation/Assistance is named after the church Santa Maria del Soccorso and
the Casa del Soccorso, which were part of a charitable institution aimed at
aiding unwed mothers and other women who ‘had lost their virtue’.
The complex was founded by poetess, courtesan and
philanthropist Veronica Franco (1546-1591), who used her network and cultural
authority as a successful author to push her social reforms to aid these women.
Her passionate support of defenseless women and strong
convictions about inequality are described in the book, ‘The Honest Courtesan,
Veronica Franco, Citizen and Writer in Sixteenth-Century Venice’, by Margaret
Rosenthal.
Some of the people who enjoyed what
Venice had to offer included Lord Byron, Charles Dickens, and Proust.
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