Love amidst the Clouds

Published: 2008 - August/September, Culture, Venetian Itinerary

Black gondolas floating silently on the calm waters of the Lagoon, while the night fog blankets the canals. Nobles wrapped in robes hiding their faces with the collars and tricorns, while the gondolier lies alongside the shore. The lord hides his look and with slow paces crosses the threshold of a main door without any sign. It is a scene relived many times in some areas of the timeless city during the nights of every season.
The above mentioned example is described in the memoirs of Casanova, an established symbol of the figure of the mysterious lover, clever in devising any trick just to crown his dream of a night of love. These days when there is much talk about reopening the brothels, Venice, symbol of a city of romance and love, brings out from the memories the tales tied to secret love that have characterized her throughout the centuries. A past perhaps never forgotten about the Serenissima comes to light, not the one of churches and art, but that of the libertine vice of pleasure, of the respected courtesans and great lovers. If the French poet Apollinaire identified Venice as “the sexe femelle d’Europe”, there must have been some reasons. Apollinaire referred to the previous century, the Eighteenth, time when the Lagoon’s city stood-out as the capital of pleasure, of love and transgressions. In reference to this, an unknown traveler wrote “Venice does not have a bordello, she is it.”   
Great personalities have written pages about the erotic stories of the Lagoon’s capital: Casanova, poet Giorgio Baffo, the courtesan Bianca Cappello or Countess Maria Tarnowska, the main figure of a great trial held exactly in Venice. In a cosmopolitan city like Venice, the phenomenon of courtesans was tolerated and at times even encouraged. Based on a census of 1509, they numbered 11,164. From the middle 14th century, they lived near Rialto “al Castelletto”, but lived also around the San Cassiano area, in the homes owned by the noble Trapani family, in Venetian Cà Rampani, now area of the carampane, in Venice synonym of old prostitute. The area of Rio terà delle Carampane reached all the way to the ‘ponte delle Tette’ literally ‘The Bridge of the Breasts’; from this bridge the courtesans used to show their bare breasts to lure passerby. Rumors had it, that it was an imposition by the then government to “dissuade sailors form sinning against nature.” Activities and behavior by the courtesans were regulated by the Repubblica. It was banned for them of leaving through the “corsi” (bridges of boats set-up for festivities) different than the Rio della Sensa at Sant’Alvise, which thus became the “corso delle cortigiane.”
There were two classes of courtesans: low and high rank. They were envied, especially by the noble-women, slaves of thousands formal rules, for the freedom they enjoyed and important friendships they were able to keep. Elegant clothes, often without the yellow neckerchiefs imposed by the ‘Consiglio dei Dieci’, Council of the Ten’ in addition to learning the gifts of the erotic arts, the courtesans studied classic literature, music, singing and dancing. Just like the Greek courtesans, they mingled with the artists of that time, but were well accepted even amongst ambassadors, princes and doges. One of the most famous courtesans in history, heroin of the 16th century, was Veronica Franco, Venetian born from a middle-class family, was famous also for her sonnets and poetry. Among her suitors were the noble Enrico di Valois, son of Caterina dé Medici, and heir to the throne of France.  
Venice of the thriving and rich trade could not but be liberal toward these women. And, it continued to be so until the Merlin Law came into effect, when, amidst the tears of the many patrons, even the famous bordellos of El Gazetin and that of Calle della Mandola had to close forever their windows. That day closed a chapter that many well thinkers wished of never reading about this city suspended in time, a novel certainly less romantic that those narrated on the pages of endless books, which had Venice as an environment, but just as much fascinating and capable of creating dreams.