Venice - Italy - page 315

It's Not Over Till the Fat Lady Sings
Venice was home to Italy's very first opera house, the Teatro di San
Cassiano (1637), which gave way to the glorious Teatro la Fenice (The
Phoenix Theater)

(Campo San Fantin; % 041-786575; € 7; English
tours at 12:20 and 3:20pm) in the 18th century. Celebrated as one of the
world's great indoor opera spaces, the lavish arena had an unfortunate his-
tory of burning to the ground; in 1996—160 years after the last such
disaster—the world mourned when the Teatro was once again gutted by
fire because of the misdeeds of two lackadaisical electricians trying to
cover up unfinished repair work. They are now sitting in prison, while—
after years of painstaking redesigning, hard labor, and attention to deco-
rative and fire-safety details—La Fenice is once again staging world-class
performances. Reconstruction was based on plans by architect Aldo Rossi,
who died before the project was complete, but who added a massive base-
ment with water tanks designed to prevent future pyrotechnic disasters.
Much of the finer detailing of the theater's interior was re-created
using close analysis of Visconti's first color film, Senso (1953); the first 10
minutes were shot inside La Fenice. Enter the 1,076-seat auditorium, and
you are immediately struck by the glint of 24-karat gold leaf; around 1,672
sq. m (18,000 sq. ft.) of it was used throughout the building, most of it
in the auditorium, where it sets off the frescoed floating cherubs and mer-
maidlike busts protruding from just beneath the ceiling. Above the vel-
veteen Molteni seats, a massive chandelier hangs as if in homage to that
famous scene in Phantom of the Opera. The reconstruction cost in excess
of € 50 million. If you're at all attracted to theater, dance, and opera, you
should try to attend a performance here; see my discussion in “Nightlife”
on p. 333.

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Downstairs, the museum's rooms are dedicated to the more frivolous aspects
of Venetian social life: Board games, gambling paraphernalia, and some ladies'
footwear you really wouldn't want to get your feet into—one pair has 70cm (28-in.)
platforms!
Two significant “towers” are also found on Piazza San Marco. As you face the
Basilica, on your right is the rather humble Campanile di San Marco (Bell
Tower of St. Mark's)

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, which affords a 360-degree view of the city. Join the
queue for the elevator which travels up almost 100m (328 ft.) to the bell stage,
where you can squeeze past other tourists for this unique look at the city in splen-
did panorama. Originally built in the 12th century, the Bell Tower functioned as
a beacon for passing ships; in 1609, Galileo used it to demonstrate his telescope
to a group of local politicians. In 1902 it actually collapsed in its entirety and was
rebuilt exactly as it had been a decade later. On May 9, 1997, eight armed men
claiming to be “soldiers of the serenissima Venetian government” used a truck to