Exploring Venice: A Journey Through Its Unique Beauty

I remember watching a television documentary in the 1960s about the glories of Venice that persuaded the child I was then that the city was slowly but surely sinking into the sea. So it was with some relief that I finally visited in 2006 and discovered that it had not yet slipped beneath the lagoon. At the time, Hazuan Hashim and I were filming the Venice Dance Biennale. When we weren’t filming, we wasted no time drifting through the mysterious and beautiful city, uncovering its many treasures—among them, its bars.

Venice is unique environmentally, architecturally, historically, and visually, and it rarely disappoints. For centuries it has drawn visitors from across the world, but today over-tourism is widely regarded as one of the most urgent challenges facing its population of around 250,000 people. The port city welcomed more than 13 million visitors in 2019, and many locals are now leaving as a result. In 2023, UNESCO warned that Venice could be placed on the list of World Heritage Sites in Danger, as the combined pressures of climate change and mass tourism threaten to bring about irreversible change.

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