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stand close together, Palazzo Mocenigo Ca’ Vecchia and
Palazzo Contarini delle Figure. Lord Byron stayed at the
first in 1818 while beginning his epic poem
Don Juan
.
The
Romantic poet fell in love with many women in Venice,
but eventually eloped with Teresa Gamba Guiccioli, the
young wife of the elderly Marquis Guiccioli who lived next
door. The lovers would catch sight of each other at their
adjacent landing stations, for in those days aristocrats
came and went only by water.
On the opposite bank stands the enormous Palazzo
Ca' Rezzonico, whose heavy façade dwarfs all the other
palazzos. It was here that the poet Robert Browning died
in 1889, still mourning his wife, Elizabeth. The Brownings
were the most romantic literary couple of their day: she
had to defy her father to elope with the penniless poet.
Their son, 'Pen', decorated the chapel of Rezzonico in
honour of their love – his talents being of a more practical
sort than his parents. A talented painter, he married an
American heiress in 1887 and, with her financial security,
worked only on projects that he enjoyed, mainly nudes
that shocked the British art market. Venice has always
bred licentiousness as well as love.
According to Simon Rees, who lectures on the city for
Martin Randall Travel, this was a favourite destination
for English travellers (and, latterly, Americans), because
as a republic (until the late 18th century) it was relatively
PHOTOS
PLAIN PICTURES
independent of the Pope’s authority and so much more
tolerant in matters of morality than the rest of Italy. “After
crossing the Alps, travellers would make their first stop
at Venice, cash letters of credit and view some of the
art treasures,” he says. “Visitors like Byron were also
attracted by the perceived – and actual – libertinism:
the casinos, the masked balls, the carnivals and so forth.
Palaces on the Grand Canal were crumbling even then and
their impoverished owners were only too happy to rent
rooms to visiting
Inglesi
,
so there was always a chance of
living above your station with a view of the Grand Canal.”
Approaching the wooden majesty of the Ponte
dell’Accademia, we pass the darkened 17th-century
Palazzo Giustinian Lolin, where the poet Gabriele
D’Annunzio fell in love with society hostess Olga Levi in
the 1920s. On the opposite side, Peggy Guggenheim lived
and loved at Palazzo Nonfinito (‘unfinished palace’). This
odd stump – real name Palazzo Venier dei Leoni – is
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