142. The Curiosities of Venice

ULRICH MAGIN finds himself overwhelmed by oddities on a visit to Venice, where miraculous churches rub shoulders with haunted palaces, and holy relics compete with tales of sea serpents and sunken lands for his attention. Could La Serenissima be the world’s most fortean city?

Venice is an assault on the senses. As a tourist, you don’t have just 10 palaces to explore, but hundreds; not five or six major churches, but dozen upon dozen. This sensory overload creates a kind of dizziness: the eye can’t find a place to rest, and on top of that, everything you normally expect from a city is turned upside down. There are no cars, only pedestrians, and the public transport consists of boats. There are no streets (with a few exceptions), but only gaps between houses, dark, narrow and slit-like, which serve as channels for people on foot. You can’t go much more than 200 yards in a straight line without ending up at a canal; and if there is no bridge, as is often the case, you’re…

You're reading a preview of

Fortean Times (Digital) - 1 Issue, 446

DiscountMags is a licensed distributor (not a publisher) of the above content and Publication through Zinio LLC. Accordingly, we have no editorial control over the Publications. Any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers or other information or content expressed or made available by third parties, including those made in Publications offered on our website, are those of the respective author(s) or publisher(s) and not of DiscountMags. DiscountMags does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, truthfulness, or usefulness of all or any portion of any publication or any services or offers made by third parties, nor will we be liable for any loss or damage caused by your reliance on information contained in any Publication, or your use of services offered, or your acceptance of any offers made through the Service or the Publications. For content removal requests, please contact Zinio.