As the city came to life after the pandemic, gondoliers and tourists alike sat back, laughed and let fun and pleasure prevail
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It’s the Venice Biennale. Art aficionados flock to the Giardini, where each country has its own pavilion and its own art: they gossip, plot, criticise and do a little business.
Not so the gondoliers. Here they snatch a moment off duty to lark and frolic; young men, lithe, relaxed, off-duty, throwing gondola cushions back and forth. At a nearby restaurant, tourists scoff delicious Venetian dishes – truffle ravioli for me. My photograph reminds me how delicious it was. Venice offers untold pleasures: the brisk divide between formal tourists and local providers disappears. All enjoy its beauty, coloured houses, ancient pavements, the quayside, the glimpse at every moment of something beyond.
Joan Bakewell is a writer and broadcaster
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