You know about the museums and galleries.  You've been surfing off the lido.  And, the secret gardens of Venice are no longer a secret from you.  But, did you know about the rice paddies of Verona?  That pink flamingos migrate through the northern lagoon?  That living souls were bought and sold in exchange for Murano glass?  

Many people who read this blog are seasoned visitors to Venice.  You know a lot about her history, her treasures and her environment.  And, above all you know that no matter how much we learn there's always more to know.  On this short list, there may be something you did not yet know about Venice...

More than 20,000 birds visit Venice, and the almost 70,000 hectars of nature preserves in the Venetian lagoon, every year. These preserves include the barene – the muds flats within the lagoon – as well as the sand dunes at Alberoni and San Nicolo on the Lido, Ca'Roman on Pellestrina, and a swath of coastline near Chioggia.  

For the past two years, a flock of flamingos – Yes, pink ones! - has migrated through the northern lagoon each spring. There are sandpipers on the barene whose curved beaks are longer than the birds are tall. There are infinite varieties of ducks. On Sant'Erasmo, in addition to the expected farm birds, I have spotted wild ring-necked red pheasants, and colorful wild parakeets, while on the southern end of the Lido lives a flock of gregarious peacocks who don't seam to feel any need to limit themselves to staying on the farm.  

Of course birds such as sea gulls and pigeons can be hard to ignore in the center of Venice, especially when they engage in shenanigans like stealing sandwiches right out of people's hands. But, on the brighter side, it is not at all unusual to catch sight of a yellow-footed egret posing gracefully on the corner of an embarcadero. And, low-flying cormorants make a silly spectacle when they stand around airing their feathers atop the pilings in the lagoon. One day last summer a bird even flew into my living room, had a peck at the potted plants and, gratefully, flitted just as easily back out again.

"Trade beads" are probably the most globally seen Murano glass beads. Yet, very few people realize that they're Venetian. Even fewer truly grasp the historical and cultural significance of these particular beads. These days, they seem to be associated with virtually every culture except European cultures. Nevertheless, they originally came from Murano where, for hundreds of years, they were produced by the ton and shipped off on long voyages throughout the world.

​From the 16th to the 20th centuries Murano glass beads were traded as currency between the merchants of the Venetian republic and, particularly, the people's of West Africa who placed a much higher value on decorative objects than they did on European currency. So highly valued were these beads that they were used to pay for the purchase of human beings, earning them the ominous name "slave beads". 

While there certainly can not be a larger human impact of beads beyond their use as currency in the purchase of slaves, there were other significant impacts of the popularity of Murano glass beads that bear mentioning. For example, when the merchant sailors sailed off to parts unknown with their ships laden down with beads, their hard currency remained in Venice contributing significantly to the wealth of the Republic. Meanwhile, the impiraresse of Venice – the women workers whose job it was to string the billions of tiny seed beads produced on Murano for the luxury market – are known to have formed a labor union and gone on strike for better pay in the late 1800's, long before the labor movement began in Europe.

Rice has been cultivated in the Veneto, Lombardy and Piedmont since the mid-1400's. Today, Italy is the largest rice cultivator in Europe. The vast majority of rice cultivated in the humid valleys of northern Italy is short grain rice – including the famous Arborio and the Vialone Nano IGP rice cultivated near Verona.  

Long considered a precious commodity, dishes made with rice, risottos, have a special place in both Venetian history and the Venetian diet. The beloved risi e bisi, a risotto of rice and peas, was historically served to the Doge in celebration of the feast day of San Marco, the patron saint of Venice. Risotto with eel is a traditional part of a Venetian Christmas Eve dinner. And, risotto di go is a gourmet specialty risotto, local to the Venetian island of Burano, made with “giozzo” - tiny fish caught in the lagoon - and the Veneto's Vialone Nano rice. Naturally, risottos change with the season as local chefs pair the rice with seasonal vegetables and freshly caught fish.  This week, it seems we're all having asparagus risotto!

Well prepared pasta is delicious of course, but you won't have tasted Venice before you've tasted a carefully prepared risotto.

Whenever I see that a door to one of the document archives of Venice has been left open, I can't resist peeking my head in. The Republic of Venice was the home to the first trade union in Europe. It was the birthplace of modern accounting. And, of particular interest to me, and perhaps to all of us who can never seem to find the right charger for our mobile phones, somewhere inside those archives lies the first ever patent statute along with the records of the 2,000 patents that were issued by the Republic of Venice in the first 14 years that the statute went into effect. Those were the years from 1474 until 1488. Could the Venetian Senate have imagined, when they enacted that law hundreds of years ago that it would come to be adopted almost globally - Almost verbatim too! - and impact the daily lives of billions of people?

At it's peak, the Republic of Venice encompassed not only the Veneto coast and a large swath of the mainland, but also nearly the entire eastern Adriatic shore – the Dalmatian coast where one now finds the countries of Croatia, Montenegro & Albania – plus Corfu, Crete and, infamously, Constantinople. During it's peek as a trading empire, many more coastal territories, from Northern Africa to Asia, fell under the effective control of the Republic.   

Though, these days the territory of Venice and the Veneto are more limited to the lagoon and a portion of mainland Italy, there is still plenty of Venetian territory to explore beyond the city center. The lagoon itself covers an area of 550 kilometers, while the Veneto mainland stretches from Cortina to the north, Verona to the west and Chioggia and the Po Delta to the South. As you can imagine, recreational, educational and culinary experience opportunities abound in this territory.

Why, one could even go hiking in the morning, have a risotto for lunch, do a little shopping for Murano glass beads and pop into a document archive in the afternoon before gliding off on a sunset bird-watching cruise of the lagoon. Now that sounds like an amazing day in Venice!

There has long been talk about a real Venice and a fake Venice.  Now there's the added complication of this newish expression, "the other Venice".   But, and may it be small comfort, what I know for certain about all of that is this:  There are a lot more than two or three "Venices" and there is no other Venice.  We only get one!  How we experience it...that's another question.

Sooner or later everyone comes to Venice.  If they're lucky, they discover the Venice that speaks to them be it the Venice of art, the Venice of churches, the Venice of bacari, the Venice of confounding luxury, the Venice of beaches.  Or, yes, even the Venice of tremendously long Vaporetto lines and absurdly expensive bruschetta.  It is all as real  to them as the decidedly surreal world of Venice can be.

Meanwhile, dispersed amid the tiny places to the wide open spaces of Venice, to the sands of Lido and the rolling farms of Sant'Erasmo, in the bus-on-the-boat from Pelestrina and hanging laundry above a tiny campo in Santa Croce there are Venetians.  Far from being all the same, they are also each living in their own Venice.

So let's ignore all of the real, fake and other Venices for the moment.  Let me just ask you:  What's your Venice?

It feels like a dream, but it isn't one.  JoAnn Locktov & Charles Christopher have created a book that captures the siren song of the living Venice - heard in fleeting moments by only a fortunate few - and conveys it beautifully to anyone lucky enough to flip through the pages of Dream of Venice.

For those already in love with Venice, Dream of Venice is a compelling tribute to the city which captures not only it's beauty but also the illusive dream of Venice as a city belonging to itself.  We can step inside of Charles Christopher's gorgeous photographs are relive those precious moments - so often cherished yet so rarely captured - when, walking home on a damp night in Venice, in the most unlikely of places the heartbeat of Venice makes itself heard.  In the prose and commentary selected by JoAnn Locktov we can hear the voices of those whom, like ourselves, recognize the precious inner life of Venice even as they realize that this is Venice' most closely guarded secret.  It will take a lifetime to become truly close to Venice.  

Yes, that is contemporary Venice.  And, Dream of Venice conveys that lovely and fragile reality in a way I have never seen done before.  As a Venice-lover, I admire and am moved by this work so full of views and sentiments that are at once familiar and elusive to me.  Dream of Venice is a book certain to be cherished by Venetians and Venetophiles alike.

Still, perhaps those who have not yet been to Venice are the truly lucky ones...  

To experience the richly textured, watery world of Venice as captured by Charles Christopher and step into the universe of "too much beauty" described by Eleonora Baldwin, before buying your first vaporetto ticket?  To arrive in Venice prepared to meet Alessandro Falassi's "city born from the waters like Aphrodite, constantly on the verge of plunging back into the sea, living in its own precarious balance"?  Yes, send to Dream of Venice to anyone planning a visit to Venice.  You will have opened their eyes to a Venetian dream and enriched their experience of Venice before it even happened.

Yet, notably, one needn't have any relationship with Venice at all to enjoy Dream of Venice.  The book stands sturdily on its own as an engrossing work of art - a stunning collection of photographs and prose - quite capable of transporting even a casual viewer.  Charles Chistopher's photographs depict a multi-dimensional world into which anyone could step and take a breath of moist air, explore narrow streets, chase sunbeams across canals and brush salt crystals from the stone outer walls of Venice.  And who wouldn't want to lose himself in this place where, as described by Frances Mayes, "Nowhere is the moon so powerful, enormous, so…heavenly"?   People are going to dream.  Let them dream of Venice!  

Dream of Venice is also available in these bookstores: