How can people find Venice romantic? The canals smell, the pidgeons are a nightmare, the heat in the tourist season is unbearable and the city's historical and literary legacy is carnivalesque orgies and deadly pedophilia.
Although we also visited Venice on the trip, it was the German Rhine Valley with all its castles that so utterly captivated a friend of mine that he declared he wanted to spend his honeymoon there. Feudalism is always more romantic than republics, even if they are La Serenissima...
Personally, I would consider the misty, foggy Celtic lands, the homelands of Tristan and Iseult and other famous amorous couples, most romantic. The Celts just have a native genius for romance. Just see what the introduction to an old Norse text says:
In ancient times there occured in Normandy something that was widely told, about two young people who loved each other so much that they at last paid with their lives for the intensity of their love. Of these two young lovers Bretons made a lay which they called "Tveggja elskanda ljóð", the Lay of the Two Lovers...(no pun intended in the original Norse! ) _________________ Wer fremde Sprachen nicht kennt, weiß nichts von seiner eigenen. = Those who don't know foreign languages, know nothing of their own. (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)
Last edited by Fredrik on Thu Feb 15, 2007 7:42 am; edited 1 time in total
How can people find Venice romantic? The canals smell, the pidgeons are a nightmare, the heat in the tourist season is unbearable and the city's historical and literary legacy is carnivalesque orgies and deadly pedophilia.
Heu, were you thinking about this ?
The story of Venice is that of triumph and decadence of mercantilism. However, an abundant (foreign) literature has flourished out of the rotten remainings of La Sérénissime.
"romantic" is a very sujective concept, actually I'm not sure to really understand what it could mean, as long as each one has a different vision of it. I don't think a place in itself is romantic as its own, but the kind of trip with your loved one made there is.
Any beautiful and/or exotic place can be romantic.
Location: San Francisco, Noord-Kalifornië, Noord-Amerika
Posted: Fri Feb 16, 2007 12:39 am Post subject:
Uriel wrote:
New York City, though?
It can be incredibly romantic at night. Once I went to a free jazz concert at the South Street Seaport, which is in Manhattan, on the East River, not far from the Brooklyn Bridge. When it started getting dark and the lights came on, and especially when the lights on the bridge came on, I was overcome by the beauty of it. That's the sort of ambience that's made for romance.
I agree with Fredrik about the "misty, foggy Celtic lands." And specifically, being in some little cottage on the coast in some such place (as long as it had all the amenities) with a person of my choice sounds exceedingly romantic.
I thought Venice was very romantic, but I was there in 1970, and it might be quite different today.
After reading the version of Tristan and Iseult in these books, I can never look at that romance as anything but a horror story, I'm afraid! King Mark's revenge on his runaway child bride was pretty graphic and brutal. Cornwell tells the Arthurian saga more as a straightforward historical novel about life in 500 AD Britain, and it sure wasn't pretty -- or anything like the romantic legends!
*For sure* Fredrik thought of Tod in Venedig because it's by his favourite author, who he tell everyone about all the time.
Yeah, Thomas Mann ruined Venice for me. (But the canals stink away.) But he also made Denmark an even more delightful destination than it already is!
_________________ Wer fremde Sprachen nicht kennt, weiß nichts von seiner eigenen. = Those who don't know foreign languages, know nothing of their own. (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Join! (free) 
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
)
