DK Travel : Venice : History & Culture

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Death in Venice, Thomas Mann

A portrayal of desire and decadence amid the fog.
Elena Lucrezia Corner Piscopia

It was inconceivable for the church in 1678 that a woman should teach religion, so the University of Padua awarded this child prodigy and the first woman graduate (1646–84) a degree in philosophy, instead of one in theology to which she aspired.
Ernest Hemingway

This US Nobel Prize winner (1899–1961) experienced Italy first-hand as a volunteer ambulance driver during World War I (recounted in A Farewell to Arms ) and he was wounded near Treviso. Across the River and into the Trees is set in Harry’s Bar (see Harry’s Bar).
Ex Ospedale degli Incurabili

A cavernous, labyrinthine construction that takes up a lengthy stretch of the Zattere, this erstwhile hospital is undergoing vast renovations to adapt it for the Accademia Art Institute, scheduled to transfer here and leave the historic galleries room for expansion (see Accademia Galleries). The building dates from the 1500s, founded to shelter women with incurable venereal diseases, and later took in orphans and a trade school. Legend has it that St Francis Xavier, ordained in Venice, was sent to serve here with his companions on orders from Ignatius Loyola. More recently, it has served as a juvenile court.
Farmacia Ponci

The “Casa degli Speziali”, the oldest pharmacy in Venice, carries on its business in modern premises alongside its restored 16th-century rooms. Displayed on original briarwood shelving adorned with Baroque statues in Arolla pinewood, are rows of 17th-century porcelain jars for medicinal ingredients; for safety reasons poisons were kept in a rear room. Pharmacies were strictly regulated and totalled 518 in 1564, the year their guild was formed.
Fondamente della Misericordia and degli Ormesini

Parallel to the Strada Nova but worlds away from the tourist bustle, these adjoining quaysides have a real neighbourhood feel. There’s a good sprinkling of osterie (wine bars) alongside Mexican and Middle Eastern restaurants, a continuation of former trade links: the word “ormesini ” derives from a rich fabric traded through Hormuz, now in Iran, and imitated in Florence and Venice. Ormesini leads into Misericordia and to the towering red-brick Scuola Grande building. Currently closed for restructuring, it served as the city’s basketball team headquarters for many years.
Fondamente Nuove

This lagoon-side pavement, opposite the cemetery island of San Michele (see San Michele), is an important jumping-off point for ferries to the northern islands and sports one of the city’s rare petrol stations. The ample quaysides were not constructed and paved until the mid-1500s; until then the waterfront reached back to Titian’s garden (No. 5113, Calle Larga dei Botteri) allowing him unobstructed views of the Alps on a clear day, which delighted this native of Cadore.
Francesco Guardi

A prolific landscape painter, Guardi (1712–93) successfully captured the light and atmosphere of Venice in decline.
French

Impressionist Monet and writers Théophile Gautier and Marcel Proust were attracted to the city in the late 1800s.
Germans

The former German trade headquarters Fondaco dei Tedeschi attracted artists such as Albrecht Dürer.