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and
vaporetto
, hauling shopping bags across bridges and along canals, eager to reach
your modest apartment in your glorious city.
Afternoon
Even if work is busy, you can't put off your break for a quick lunch at a backstreet
bacaro
(bar) for too long - otherwise, you'll be jostling for elbow room at the counter with
sculptors, harpsichordists, sushi chefs and dreamers passing as accountants. Judging by
the crowd, a newcomer to town might think the Art Biennale must be happening - but no,
it's just an average Wednesday in Venice. At your neighbourhood
bacaro
, the server
whom you've known since school days immediately recognises you're in a rush, and pre-
pares an extra-heaped plate of
risotto di seppie
(squid risotto) on the double while
forestieri
(mainlanders) wait. Being Venetian may seem like an uphill struggle some days,
but it does have its perks.
Towards the end of the workday, you coordinate with friends to meet for a drink; there's
no particular hurry to get home. Like most Italians, you may have lived with family mem-
bers until well into your adulthood: but unlike other Italians, more than half of Venetians
live alone. There are statistically more women then men in Venice, which makes for a
somewhat skewed dating scene. But with as many visitors every day to Venice as there are
Venetians, there are fresh possibilities perpetually on the horizon. Though you dodge
crowds in major thoroughfares by taking winding
calli
(backstreets), you might chat, joke
and flirt with visitors who linger over happy hour, kicking off promptly at 6pm.
NOALTRÌ VERSUS VOALTRÌ (US VERSUS THEM)
The usual outside-insider dynamic doesn't quite wash in cosmopolitan Venice, whose excellent taste in imports
ranges from Byzantine mosaics to the Venice Film Festival. Bringing a world-class art collection with you is one
way to fit in, as Peggy Guggenheim and François Pinault (founder of Palazzo Grassi and Punta Dogana) dis-
covered. But you don't have to be a mogul to
Venexianárse
, or 'become Venetian'. Of the 20 million visitors
each year, only some three million stay overnight, and staying in a locally run B&B is a chance to experience
Venice among Venetians. You can eat like a Venetian, attempt a few words of Venet, or learn a Venetian craft. But
the surest way to win over Venetians is to express curiosity about them and their city - so few rushed day trippers
stop to make polite conversation that the attempt is received with surprise and appreciation. As you'll find out,
those other 17 million visitors are missing out on excellent company.
