威尼斯之死 Vanishing Venice

Vanishing Venice
消失的威尼斯

托马斯曼称这座城市为“一半是童話一半是陷阱”
The world tugs at the lovely hem of the city Thomas Mann called “half fairy tale and half tourist trap.”

大风车带你看精彩的世界




沉沦的水都-威尼斯 Vanishing Venice

威尼斯之死
在意大利，连灾难都以洛可可式呈现、夹杂着惊叹号，但却没有一个危机比威尼斯来得更美丽。这座城市既不是陆也不是水，而是闪烁于水陆之间，如海市蜃楼般地浮在亚得里亚海北端的一片舄湖上。好几个世纪以来，它都面临着消失在大潮（涨潮加上地基下陷所引发的无情定期泛滥）浪花下的危险，但那还只是小问题而已。
问问市长马西莫‧卡奇亚利就知道了。他是个深思而精明的哲学教授，精通德文、拉丁文、古希腊文；他翻译了索福克里斯的剧作《安蒂冈妮》；是个政治智慧高得直逼平流层的男子。问他关于大潮与威尼斯下沉的事，他会回答：「那就去买雨鞋啊。」就让他们穿雨鞋吧。
雨鞋挡得了水，却无法应付那种比任何舄湖满溢都更令人担忧的泛滥：观光泛滥。威尼斯2007年的居民有6万人，而同年的观光客人数则是2100万。
以2008年5月为例，一个假日周末就有8万名游客涌入这个城市，就像埃及田野上的飞蝗一样。梅斯特雷（威尼斯位于本土的一区；一般人都把车停在那里，再搭乘巴士或火车进入富有历史意义的市中心）的公共停车场都爆满关闭；成功进入威尼斯的人像成群的扁参般扫过街道，争抢披萨和义式手工冰淇淋，遗留下包装纸和塑料瓶。
威尼斯号称「宁静之最」，却一点也不宁静。来自世界各地的观光客踏入这座精雕细琢、如同教堂洗礼盆的城市；手拿着旅游书，梦想和牙刷及耐穿的鞋子一起装在行李中。哗啦！威尼斯人则溅了出去。观光并非威尼斯人加速出走的唯一原因，但有个问题始终如迷雾般挥之不去：谁会是那个留到最后的威尼斯人？
「威尼斯真是座美丽的城市，」某个文化基金会的会长这么说。你可以从他的窗户眺望圣马可湾──上面不断往来着成列的快艇、平底轻舟和水上巴士──以及更远处的圣马可广场，那儿就是威尼斯观光的中心。「真的，这里是座大剧院。有钱的话，你可以在一栋17世纪的大宅邸中租一间有佣人的公寓，假装自己是贵族。」
请大家入座。在这出戏里，威尼斯分饰二角；分别是市民居住的威尼斯，以及观光客造访的威尼斯。灯光、背景、以及服装都美丽得令人心痛，但剧情却充满困惑，结局更是暧昧含糊。有一件事情倒是肯定的：每个人都疯狂地爱着主角。


英文原文:
Nowhere in Italy, where calamity comes embellished with rococo gestures and embroidered in exclamation points, is there a crisis more beautifully framed than Venice. Neither land nor water, but shimmering somewhere in between, the city lifts like a mirage from a lagoon at the head of the Adriatic. For centuries it has threatened to vanish beneath the waves of the acqua alta, relentlessly regular flooding caused by the complicity of rising tides and sinking foundations, but that is the least of its problems.

Just ask Mayor Massimo Cacciari, broody, mercurial professor of philosophy, fluent in German, Latin, Ancient Greek; translator of Sophocles' Antigone; a man who raises the level of political intellect to just short of the stratosphere. Ask about the acqua alta and Venice sinking, and he says, "So go get boots." Let them wear boots.

Boots are fine for water, but useless against the flood that causes more hand-wringing than any lagoon spillover: the flood of tourism. Number of Venetian residents in 2007: 60,000. Number of visitors in 2007: 21 million.

In May 2008, for example, on a holiday week­end, 80,000 tourists descended on the city like locusts on the fields of Egypt. Public lots in Mestre, a mainland part of the municipality where people park and take the bus or train to the historic center, filled and were closed. Those who managed to get to Venice surged through the streets like schools of bluefish, snapping up pizza and gelato, leaving paper and plastic bottles in their wake.

La Serenissima ("the most serene one"), as Venice is known, is anything but. The world steps into the exquisitely carved font of the city, guidebook in hand, fantasies packed along with toothbrush and sturdy shoes. Splash! Out spill the Venetians. Tourism isn't the only reason for the accelerating exodus, but one question hovers like a haze: Who will be the last Venetian left?

"Venice is such a lovely city," said the director of a cultural foundation. From his window you could look across the San Marco Basin—with its unending flotilla of speedboats, gondolas, and water-buses called vaporetti—and beyond to the Piazza San Marco, epicenter of Venetian tourism. "Really, it is a huge theater. If you have the money, you can rent an apartment in a 17th-century palazzo with servants and pretend you are an aristocrat."

Please take your seats. In this play, Venice assumes a dual role. There is Venice the city where people live and Venice the city tourists visit. Lighting, sets, and costumes are so beautiful the heart aches, but the plot is full of confusion, the ending uncertain. One thing is certain: Everyone is madly in love with the title character.








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