Hi,

I have to write a little article and am in need of a evocative quote about Venice. I'm familiar with most of the typical Byron, Henry James, and so on.

Any particular favorites out there?

thanks in advance!

[title edited for clarity]

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Colleen,

My favorite american writer Mark Twain RR

I have some favorites:

Venice ... "A splendour of miscellaneous spirits." ~ John Ruskin

"It is held by some that this word VENETIA signifies VENI ETIAM, that is, come again, and again, for however oft you come, you will always see new things, and new beauties." ~ Sansovino

"If you read a lot, nothing is as great as you've imagined. Venice is - Venice is better." ~ Fran Lebowitz

"In the winter, Venice is like an abandoned theatre. The play is finished, but the echoes remain." ~ Arbit Blatas

"To build a city where it is impossible to build a city is madness in itself, but to build there one of the most elegant and grandest of cities is the madness of genius." ~ Alexander Herzen

Quotations about Venice

My beautiful, my own
My only Venice-this is breath! Thy breeze
Thine Adrian sea-breeze, how it fans my face!
Thy very winds feel native to my veins,
And cool them into calmness!
~ George Gordon Noel Byron "The Two Foscari"

Venice once was dear,
The pleasant place of all festivity,
The revel of the earth, the masque of Italy.
~ George Gordon Noel Byron "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage"

Until it seems the whole city
will be covered with gold pollen shaken
from the bell-towers, lilies plundered
with the weight of massive bees . . .
~ Hilda Doolittle "Tribute to the Angels"

A city for beavers.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

It is the city of mirrors, the city of mirages, at once solid and liquid, at once air and stone.
~ Erica Jong

White swan of cities slumbering in thy nest . . .
White phantom city, whose untrodden streets
Are rivers, and whose pavements are the shifting
Shadows of the palaces and strips of sky.
~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow "Venice"

This was Venice, the flattering and suspect beauty-this city, half fairy tale and half tourist trap, in whose insalubrious air the arts once rankly and voluptuously blossomed, where composers have been inspired to lulling tones of somniferous eroticism.
~ Thomas Mann

Underneath Day's azure eyes,
Ocean's nursling, Venice lies,
A peopled labyrinth of walls,
Amphitrite's destined halls,
~ Percy Bysshe Shelley "Lines Written among the Euganean Hills"

Streets flooded.
Please advise. ~ Robert Benchley, telegram from Venice to his editor

Venice, the only place where you can get seasick by crossing the street. ~ Anonymous

Venice would be a fine city if it were only drained. ~ Ulysses S. Grant

...and my favorite is this one:
Venice is like eating an entire box of chocolate liqueurs in one go. ~ Truman Capote
Brenda

Quote from Jan Morris 'Venice'

Wherever you go in life, you will feel somewhere over your shoulder a pink, castellated shimmering presence, the domes and riggings and crooked pinacles of the Serenissima

My very favorite...

There is something so different in
Venice from any other place in
the world, that you leave at
once all accustomed habits and
everyday sights to enter an
enchanted garden.
Mary Shelley

Are you familiar with Lisa St Aubin de Teran? This is from my favorite of her books, Venice: The Four Seasons.

'Autumn in Venice is one of air and light. Filigree mists begin to finger their way through every available space.

Thick blindfolds of fog tease and decoy. The pigeon-back hues of grey and mauve take over, first alighting on, and then obliterating the burgendy leaves of the virginia creepers.'

My favorite quote about Venice is in Ruth and Shannon's book "Chow!Venice"

It is the last line on page 10 in the introduction.

"Smile and be happy. You are in Venice."