The Lion in Winter

Try to transcend, for a moment, the cheesiness of a Venetian gondola.

Along with striped shirts and straw canotier hats, the gondola is so over-seen that it’s hard to actually see anymore, let alone appreciate. But step back, blink, consider it afresh — and you’ll behold an extraordinary machine, a truly stunning piece of design.

In this way it’s the perfect emblem of Venice, a city that’s all too familiar, even to those who’ve never been. On the wall of my local Brooklyn slice joint is a comically bad mural of the Grand Canal; I can no longer look at the real thing without picturing that dumb painting. I imagine this happens all the time. From Vegas to Kathmandu, Venice is everywhere. The gondoliere, the palazzi, the ponte, all the icons of Venetian grandeur…they’re so pervasive they lose their power to move us.

But come to Venice in the offseason — come here right now — and something shifts. The angled light of winter retrains the eyes, and you start noticing things. Little things. Weird things. Beautiful things. The wondrous minutiae of daily life in a wholly improbable city. Suddenly, you remember why it’s had a hold on generations of travelers, on artists, on scholars, on you: Venice is a goddamn miracle.

This struck me anew on a recent visit, as I found myself marveling at the ingenuity of a forcola. Hand-carved from walnut, this curious little fulcrum juts out of the gondola’s starboard side, allowing the oarsman to steer, swivel, pivot, and propel with uncanny precision. I’d seen it, but never thought about it — until my friend Ben Schott relayed its fascinating backstory. (Ben knows about things like forcolas, one reason I love Ben.)

You can look at something a hundred times and still not comprehend it. Which is how I’ve long felt about Venice.

Thankfully, we have Pavia Rosati to lead the way. Pavia, who cofounded the excellent travel site Fathom (and happens to be married to Ben), masterminded this month’s Further Guide to Venice, and it may be my favorite installment yet. To unlock the mysteries of La Serenissima, Pavia enlisted some fantastic expert guides — including Skye McAlpine, Alberto Bof, Lee Marshall, Clara Zanardi, and Missy Robbins, plus Ben on the magical forcola — who help us see this overexposed yet undervalued city in a whole new light.

Speaking of light, we dispatched the brilliant Vanessa Vettorello to Venice in early December to photograph a city left largely to the Venetians. (Yes, people still live here, despite talk of mass exodus.) Vanessa’s gorgeous pictures place local life front and center: an elderly woman embroidering lace, laundry lines strung over a canal, kids with backpacks en route to school. With the summer crowds long gone, a quieter and lovelier Venice emerges. Between Vanessa’s images and Pavia’s whipsmart guide, I hope we restore some luster and freshness to a city you might’ve forgotten you adore.

We’re all about islands this month, on (or just off) four different continents.

• Some 3,000 miles south of Venice, Mark Ellwood explores São Tomé and Príncipe, the two-island nation in West Africa where a visionary chocolatier is working wonders with the local bounty.

• Melinda Fulmer ventures waaaay out into the North Atlantic to uninhabited (by humans) Sable Island, where a herd of wild horses has thrived since the 1730s.

• Adam Graham checks in from Japan’s winter playland of Hokkaido, home to the best skiing and seafood in the Far East.

• Back in warmer climes, our own Hillary Richard learns to breathe easy (or not at all) on a freediving excursion in Turks and Caicos.

• Michael Condran captures a dreamy “Moment” from one of our favorite Caribbean getaways, a clifftop retreat at Jamaica’s westernmost point.

• Photographer Greta Rybus immerses herself in thermal hot springs around the globe, the subject of her fascinating new book.

• The enviably well-traveled Alexei Ratmansky, a legend in the ballet world, looks back on the journeys and locales that inspired him most.

• Finally, just in time for winter, we round up the world’s best oyster bars with our ostreophile pal Julie Qiu. Me, I’ll be shucking Dodge Coves from Damariscotta this holiday season, dreaming of islands yet unseen. See you out there, my friends.

Yours,
Peter

Peter Jon Lindberg
Editor-in-Chief
December 13, 2024