venezia, italy
By February of 2021, it had been a full year since Italy marked its first case of COVID in the Veneto region. A few months prior in November of 2020 the government created and implemented a color system that declared the level of severity and lockdown terms for each region. These colors were yellow (lowest), orange (medium) and red (don’t leave the house or the carbs will ticket you) and were based on the total number of active cases and deaths in the region.
It’s worth its own moment to discuss the tediousness and frequency of these colors changing during that first year. So for now I’ll just say that after several weeks and months of red for the entire country over the holidays, when Veneto turned yellow in February and we were allowed to travel within our region, our first stop was Venice.
Never again in our lives will we have Venezia to ourselves the way we did that weekend. If you’ve ever been there, you can tell by the photos below just how empty and scarce the islands were. The “take” of this was that many businesses were closed, or only open very brief hours. The “give” was that we spent days just wandering down every back alley and canal getting as lost as possible. With every turn, I couldn’t help but think how imaginary (and insane) this city is. Who dreamt this idea up in the first place?
Don’t believe anyone that tells you Venice is over-rated because to stand there and think that the St Mark’s Basilica began construction in c. 829 and that structure itself is standing on man-made islands that began construction in the 5th - 7th century AD… Unreal. And here we were, in 2021, watching the Amazon Prime boat speed through canals delivering packages to locals.
Nothing can compare to how lost and in perspective this city can make you feel. Her dazzling and drifting and leaning. How romantic and how many secrets she has buried beneath.
