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Gondoliers mourn declining way of life in Venetian canals
Source: Agencies |
November 16, 2009, Monday
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A DOZEN gondolas snaked down the Grand Canal on Saturday in a mock funeral procession bemoaning Venice's approach to the dreaded status of living museum, with population in the city now officially below 60,000.
While this symbolic threshold is considered by some to signal the end of the city's viability, Venetian officials say reports of the city's demise are premature, and even the funeral ended with a surprise, bright hope for rebirth.
In fact, while native Venetians have been fleeing the expensive lagoon city for cheaper and easier living on the mainland, the population of the historic center was officially 60,025 as of Thursday, up from the 59,992 it had fallen to in recent weeks.
"They will have the funeral in a living village, not yet dead. And it won't die, even if it goes to 59,999," Mara Rumiz, the city official in charge of demographics, said in a telephone interview.
She said the numbers don't take into account the inhabitants of Venice's islands - including glass-making Murano and the Lido beach - nor the many who are not officially registered, including students. Together, they add another 120,000 souls.
The city's population declined by a steep 100,000 from the 1950s to the 1980s. But Venice must still resist becoming merely a tourist destination, Rumiz said. "It is evident that Venice has to safeguard its residents and attract new inhabitants. If not, we risk that Venice becomes only a tourist mecca, and this is a destiny that we don't want," she said.
While wandering the narrow alleys and waterways of Venice is a tourist's delight, life there is for the hardy and financially resilient. Housing costs and rents drop to as much as a third in the nearby city of Marghera. And just consider an everyday errand like grocery shopping: One would need a water taxi ride to a supermarket, another to get home with the groceries, and then lug the load upstairs.
Yet as if to echo Rumiz's optimism about Venice's fate, Saturday's mock funeral ended with an unexpected bright look to the future. The aquatic procession of gondolas was led by a pink one carrying a flower-draped coffin, watched by spectators lining the canal.
But after a black-caped actor read poetry bemoaning the problems of life in the city, the funeral's "pallbearers" smashed open the coffin and pulled out a flag of La Fenice, phoenix in Italian, the mythical winged creature that rises from ashes and is a symbol of rebirth.
After the surprise ending to the parade, participants uncorked sparkling wine to toast Venice's rebirth and hope for the city's future.
While this symbolic threshold is considered by some to signal the end of the city's viability, Venetian officials say reports of the city's demise are premature, and even the funeral ended with a surprise, bright hope for rebirth.
In fact, while native Venetians have been fleeing the expensive lagoon city for cheaper and easier living on the mainland, the population of the historic center was officially 60,025 as of Thursday, up from the 59,992 it had fallen to in recent weeks.
"They will have the funeral in a living village, not yet dead. And it won't die, even if it goes to 59,999," Mara Rumiz, the city official in charge of demographics, said in a telephone interview.
She said the numbers don't take into account the inhabitants of Venice's islands - including glass-making Murano and the Lido beach - nor the many who are not officially registered, including students. Together, they add another 120,000 souls.
The city's population declined by a steep 100,000 from the 1950s to the 1980s. But Venice must still resist becoming merely a tourist destination, Rumiz said. "It is evident that Venice has to safeguard its residents and attract new inhabitants. If not, we risk that Venice becomes only a tourist mecca, and this is a destiny that we don't want," she said.
While wandering the narrow alleys and waterways of Venice is a tourist's delight, life there is for the hardy and financially resilient. Housing costs and rents drop to as much as a third in the nearby city of Marghera. And just consider an everyday errand like grocery shopping: One would need a water taxi ride to a supermarket, another to get home with the groceries, and then lug the load upstairs.
Yet as if to echo Rumiz's optimism about Venice's fate, Saturday's mock funeral ended with an unexpected bright look to the future. The aquatic procession of gondolas was led by a pink one carrying a flower-draped coffin, watched by spectators lining the canal.
But after a black-caped actor read poetry bemoaning the problems of life in the city, the funeral's "pallbearers" smashed open the coffin and pulled out a flag of La Fenice, phoenix in Italian, the mythical winged creature that rises from ashes and is a symbol of rebirth.
After the surprise ending to the parade, participants uncorked sparkling wine to toast Venice's rebirth and hope for the city's future.
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