Beyond Carnival of Venice dreamlike beauty resists invincible years, fashion and periodic threats of collapse. When the sun goes down, the city impossible, far from any logic, is more than ever the world of fantasy and romantic ideas.
There is nothing more reveledor to awaken to the reality of Venice to travel its winding main street at dusk. The vaporetto or water buses traverse the Grand Canal from the train station of Santa Lucia to the Rialto bridge drawing a perfect zigzag through the heart of the city. When changing the sunset, the sun tinged with gold and pink palazzos and churches emerging from the water. It is even better after dark: the swarm of tourists is scattering by small canals and the buildings are lit.
If you have not been off the last rays of sunshine to reach San Marcos, the sunset view from the belfry summarizes the raging beauty of this city, lounging in the mud. Down in the square, there is no choice but to accept the sweet cross of tourists and queues and exclamations share caused by the great Byzantine work with many people and similar congregation of pigeons. In one corner of the square lies the legendary Harry’s Bar, where it is essential to try their famous Bellini, a sweet cocktail of wine, champagne and peach juice that lured great artists-and drinkers, as Charles Chaplin, Orson Welles, Truman Capote or the ubiquitous Hemingway.
Much quieter is the sunset from the top of the church of San Giorgio Maggiore, on the other hand, in the island of Giudecca. In any case, we must leave the vicinity of San Marcos to enjoy the night mysterious atmosphere of Venice, far more intense in quiet gondola ride water by the tiny alleys.
One of the best places to get lost is the neighborhood or sestiere of Dorsoduro, where gondolas factory’s oldest city, Squero di San Trovaso, with abundant and suggestive establishments with an aperitif of Campari or enjoy a romantic dinner. The restaurant are bar pool, walk to the Giudecca Canal, offers both options. Merodenado by the maze of streets leading channels reaches the delightful squares, which here are called campi-Santa Margherita, which houses the Margaret Duchamp cocktail bar.
The fateful Fenice, burned twice, also resists, like the rest of the city, years and hardship. Reopened in 2003 and since then the program shows first. There is no better stage than this, in place since the late eighteenth century, to hear an Italian opera or a work of Wagner, the great composer who died in love with Venice in the Palazzo Vendramin Calergi. On the banks of the Grand Canal, this palace in 1500, with the typical gallery, houses from the late nineteenth century the glamorous Casino, which for years moved his summer home in Lido, another suggestive nightlife destination.
Located 10 kilometers from Venice, Lido Beach is one of the most cinematic of the city thanks to the masterful work of Visconti’s Death in Venice, which was shot in the opulent Hotel des Bains, crowded at the Mostra of Hollywood stars and other film professionals. It was in this hotel where Thomas Mann, who wrote the novel on which the film is based, succumbed to the beauty of the young adolescent Tadzio after spending a hot summer on the beach.
Venice is a city that is lavished on nightlife, except for feasts. The largest and most well-known plaintiff is the Carnival, all the parties since the seventeenth century, with an air of intriguing and delicious. One of the most luxurious masquerade balls is Il Ballo del Doge, held in the Palazzo Pisani Moretta. The fortunate who paid the stratospheric entries, participate in these annals of excess you can see in action the elaborate costumes by Antonia Sautter, responsible for designing the masks that were used in Stanley Kubrick’s posthumous film Eyes Wide Shut. For all other mortals, his shop, Maison Sautter, Frezzeria Street, offers a good example of the exuberance of the eighteenth century fashion.
The carnival has raised concerns about the health of the foundations of the city by the number of curious calls. So you have to evaluate other less famous nightlife but perhaps more beloved by the Venetians: the Redeemer, held the third weekend in July. This holiday begins at sunset and extends overnight, recalls the terrible plague that struck the city during the sixteenth century, which is why the Venetians were entrusted to Christ the Redeemer in the church that sent erect. During Saturday night the city lights with a firework display that thousands of residents out to watch from their boats at the Giudecca Canal. The lagoon and sky wave, and the city demonstrate, again, a wonder of light and dark water.