By Giles Elgood
VENICE, Dec 5 (Reuters) – If you find the crowds that swirl
around St Mark’s Square and the Rialto a little dismaying, why
not take a look at Venice through the eyes of a different type
of visitor — the writers who have haunted its canals and
palazzos.
The list is long. One website describes nearly 200 literary
works with links to Venice, from “The Merchant of Venice” to
“Death in Venice” and, more recently, Michael Dibden’s “Dead
Lagoon”, an Inspector Aurelio Zen mystery. (bit.ly/11uRrlG)
Here are two novelists — Simon Raven and Anthony Powell –
who set books in Venice, both published in the 1970s and both
highly readable. Some locations can be found without too much
trouble, others will need more effort.
Powell and Raven both wrote multi-volume novel sequences
charting British social life in the 20th century, the latter’s
“Alms for Oblivion” series more scabrous than the former’s
stately “A Dance to the Music of Time”.
In “The Survivors”, the last in his 10-novel opus, Raven,
once described as having “the mind of a cad and the pen of an
angel”, brings his characters to Venice for a writers’
conference.
Delegates attend a party at the Scuola Grande di San Rocco,
where surly waiters serve “perfectly revolting drinks”, in
contrast to the Tintorettos that of course can still be seen on
the walls of one of the city’s most stunning buildings.
The book also draws attention to the little-known island of
San Francesco del Deserto, scene of the burial of Cambridge don
Daniel Mond, who has died while staying in a palazzo hired by
two businessmen running a casino in the hope of staving off
financial ruin. Monks will show visitors around, but you will
have to make your own way by boat from Burano.
In “Temporary Kings”, Powell also assembles his characters
at a cultural conference, and sets one scene in the gardens
where the Venice Biennale art exhibition is held.
The restaurant overlooking the water where the American
playboy tycoon Louis Glober hosts a tipsy lunch is not named,
but you could recreate the atmosphere anywhere nearby by
ordering rounds of Punt e Mes vermouth and Strega liqueur.
Like Raven, Powell also has his characters meet at Florian’s
in St Mark’s Square, an historic cafe with a pricing structure
that means its drinks become even dearer once the orchestra
starts to play.
These days, drinkers must contend with tourists lining up to
photograph the cafe. Powell described something similar when he
wrote of crowds in the square moving “rhythmically backwards and
forwards like the huge chorus of an opera”.
So if you want something cheaper and more secluded, the
trick seems to be to find neighbourhood places.
These need not be far away. Well worth a visit are Do Mori
and All’Arco, tiny bars near the Rialto that also serve
cicchetti, small open sandwiches with fish or seafood, excellent
with a glass of chilled, white Friuli wine. Cheaper than
Florian’s, but none the worse for that.
(Editing by Michael Roddy and Andrew Heavens)