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Venice, the great survivor.
April 6, 2020
I've had good times in Venice.
I've seen so much, learned so much, met so many. Today Venice is suffering. A city that has hosted visitors and traded with all nations for longer than a millennium is closed for business. To tell my stories would be to disrespect Venetian citizens, to minimise their hardships. I can only say...
... that Venice is the great historical survivor.
Venice started from nothing. In a far-flung lagoon, refugees sought safety from the succession of barbarian invaders who ravaged the Italian peninsula as the Roman Empire collapsed. From their marshy, inaccessible islands, Venetians kept intruders at bay. They survived.
And they have been in survival mode ever since. Changing international trade patterns precipitated centuries of financial upheaval. Italy's fractured and violent history — with city-states fighting each other, the Church and international foes — proved socially and economically damaging. The waters that once protected Venice now threaten it. Acqua alta (flooding) is happening more frequently and more severely. Today's mass tourism puts at risk a delicate ecology and is measured against the economic benefit it brings to the city.
So Venice is no stranger to disruption.
It has been seeing off challenges to its existence for a thousand years. It will again. Venice will continue, and then I'll tell my stories.
Gondolas and Venice are inseparable. Think of one and the other immediately follows.
The petrochemical plant at Port Maghera has been responsible for significant pollution and damage to the fragile lagoon ecosystem. It is justifiably held by many Venetians to be public enemy number one. Just as concerning is the impact of climate change and rising sea levels for a city built on water. Worrying issues indeed, and there is another problem - sometimes overlooked, often discounted - of equal significance. arm photo here to side of text. Venice belongs to the world. And the world agrees, it seems, if tourist numbers are anything to go by. Visitors from all parts of the globe descend on the city each year, totting up more than twenty-five million visitations. This represents an environmental impost to a geographically small area, and massive disruption in the day-to-day lives of its fifty-five thousand residents. Look at it from their point of view. Their city is consumed by tourists.
After all this time and writing and research, all those edits and redrafts, countless workshops and mentoring sessions, I can now say that it's official. My manuscript, 'Under a Venice Moon' will be published by Hachette Australia in April next year. I'm both delighted and grateful. More news to follow when I come down to earth!
maracam48@gmail.com