Venice
need to know
(
400
)
number of pedestrian bridges across
Venice's canals
(
118
)
islands that make up this archipelago city,
many of them semi-submerged
(
24
)
amount in centimetres Venice has sunk in
the last century
easyJet flies to Venice
from 14 destinations. See our insider
guide on page 132. Book online at
easyJet.com
easyJet Holidays
Two nights B&B at the four-star Rialto
hotel departing on 19 March, including
flights from London Gatwick, costs £147
per person. easyJet.com/holidays *
Pesaro Palace
In a 15th-century building on the Grand
Canal, rooms have Wi-Fi, air conditioning
and TVs. Book at hotels.easyJet.com
has a long, unrivalled history among literary lovers.
It’s here that John Ruskin rented a suite of rooms with
Effie during their second, fateful visit to Venice in 1851.
The film
Effie
will tell the story of how he lost his wife
here to John Everett Millais, a star painter of the pre-
Raphaelite movement.
Ernest Hemingway also stayed here in 1950, when
he was in love with a 19-year-old Venetian girl, Adriana
Ivancich. Fired up on Valpolicella, he wrote the worst
novel of his career,
Across the River and into the Trees
,
about a heavy-drinking American colonel having a fling
with a 19-year-old Venetian girl - and then had the gall
to dedicate the book to his wife, Mary. Adriana’s parents
were horrified, convinced their daughter would be unable
to find a husband once it was published.
As we near the end of the Grand Canal and approach
San Marco, what is now Hotel Monaco hoves into view.
This plain white building with a dining terrace on the
canal was Venice’s only legal casino during the racy 18th
century. Now, compared to the many ornate palaces
that hustle for attention on the canal’s edge, it seems a
decidedly unremarkable way to finish the tour – but looks
can be deceiving. This was the establishment where the
city’s most famous lover of women, Giacomo Casanova,
met many of his conquests, creating a legend that lives
to this day. You could say it's a fitting conclusion to this
literary tour –because, as they say, you should never judge
a book by its cover. Or, indeed, a building by its facade.
Ernest Hemingway stayed
here in 1950, when he was
in love with a 19-year-old
Venetian girl. Fired up on
Valpolicella, he wrote the
worst novel of his career
*
FOR T&CS SEE P157
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