Rush hours in Venice

Imagine a world without cars. Or pickups, vans, sport utility vehicles or semi-trailer trucks.

It is quite amazing how much space you have left in such a world for other things, when you take the motor vehicle out of the equation.

There is no rush hour, because in Venice there is no rush!

Sior Roba in foggy Venice

VENICE, ITALY - JANUARY 05: The face of the statue of Rioba is seen as thick fog shrouds Campo de Mori and the all the city on January 5, 2012 in Venice, Italy. Venice woke up this morning under a heavy blanket of fog adding to the atmosphere of the city. (Photo by Marco Secchi/Getty Images)

Fog shrouds Venice

Venice woke up this morning under a heavy blanket of fog adding to the atmoshere of the city.

Vaporino

When you walk in the winter fog, there seems to be no division between water and embankment, life and death, love and hate. You feel that you can walk through walls, through sky, through time.

My Venice is the Venice of winter, the Venice of Cannaregio, the Venice of fog. Walking down the Fte Nove  in la nebbia, wearing rubber boots against the high water, it is hard to tell where terra firma leaves off and sky and water begin. The city seems to hang in the air like a mirage. Sounds bounce off the waters and deceive you with their closeness or farness. Figures appear and disappear around corners. The past beckons. It is quite possible to believe that it can take you and never give you back.

Related articles

• The peaceful pleasures of Venice in winter (seattletimes.nwsource.com)