In the moonlight, her stained palaces are white again… crowned once more with the grandeur that was hers five hundred years ago. – Mark Twain
It is the city of mirrors, the city of mirages, at once solid and liquid, at once air and stone. – Erica Jong
My soul, a stringed instrument, sang to itself, invisibly touched, a secret gondola song, quivering with iridescent happiness. – Friedrich Nietzsche
Now it’s a quiet slow stroll through a familiar maze. There are fewer people, and they don’t rush like they did in the day. In the darkness, the details dim, so each turn in a little alley or along a canal is a gentle surprise. If I weren’t here with you, it would be lonely — but I’m here with you. – Michael
Oh yes, it was my Venice! Beautiful, With melancholy, ghostly beauty—old, And sorrowful, and weary—yet so fair, So like a queen still, with her royal robes, Full of harmonious colour, rent and worn! – Ada Cambridge
You’ve got to see it all in the night – at night, when the great white lily flowers are blackened in shadow, and the darkened water-ways are lost in an impenetrable depth of gloom. You’ve got to hear the stealthy creeping of a gondola and the lapping of the water against the slimy stones as it hurries by. – E. Temple Thurston
The glow of street lights and storefronts makes the piazzas and alleys warm and quiet and comfy. The daytime is bright and colorful and exuberant. At night, Venice wears its pajamas, enjoys a glass of Valpolicella, and puts its feet up. – David
Then, as the sun goes down, a cool breeze blows in from the lagoon, the lanterns come on, the peeling plaster glows in the moonlight, and Venice resumes its position as Europe’s most romantic city. – Rick Steves
October 2024