I Am Yesterday. You Are Present. We Are Tomorrow

The cold breeze floating in from the south.

San Marco square at 7 o’clock is quite a sight. The piazza that once hold ten thousand of tourist around the world is now completely abandoned. A small group of Japanese tourist walking in order across the pavement. In their ears, each of them wearing a small transmittal earphone from the group leader. No more shouting through the large speaker. Gosh, I love the Japanese. The world most sophisticated tourist.

Venice is definitely not a city to be there alone.

You can feel this loneliness cut your heart coldly in the morning light. My eyes run through every pillars that surrounded the piazza as if I was looking for someone behinds it. And it could be just anyone. Anyone that hiding behind one of the pillars to come out and walking to you.

And say she is lonely too.

Yesterday morning, I saw one Asian woman sitting on one of the chair in the plaza. A Japanese, perhaps. She was sitting alone. Her eyes were also on the vast and emptiness of this place in the morning. I was thinking that we may just give ourselves a date. You were lonely and I was also. Let’s do Venice together today. And I would tell her: Because Venice is not a city for you to be alone.  And we could use some fun and it would become the founded memory of our life time.

But I did not do that.

Because I know it is just two nights for me here in Venice. And the schedule seems to be tight. Not only my exhibition but also lot of exhibitions I need to cover in Architecture La Biennale. More than 50 exhibitions I need to finish in two days.

Definitely no time for fun.

This is the first time I visit to La Biennale: the largest exhibition on earth contributed solely for the sake of architecture. Everyone who has their lives related to the profession must be here on its first day. It is the place and time that you can run into the Pritzker prize won architect, stroll along the narrow street in the middle night with her young boy friend, puffing her cigarette. Or you can find the ex-Pritzker’s Prize winners debating on the most classic issue on urbanism, whether a city should be built planned or unplanned. And it is also a place and time you would run into old friends from around the world. Everyone is here in Venice. And it is the only time you may find so many people on the street wearing black t-shirt with kakis slack. Sort of summer professional dress code. And the city is very hot in this time of the year. The only time you can feel the cold breeze is this very early morning. That make you feel better than a hot summer day.

And it cut you deeper when you are lonely.

My trip to Venice was exhausting. A flight was slightly delayed from Bangkok so I have to run 15 minutes across the Frankfurt airport to get a connection to Marco Polo airport in Venice. From gate C to A, that was like a world record in running. And then the client supposed to pick me up at the airport. I’m not surprising I found no one at the airport. Chinese clients. They are just like that.

So I decided to travel in a very lavish lifestyle by a private water taxi to the city. A flamboyant architect on a private speed boat. That could be awesome, I think. My taxi was a glossy brown wood one with a bit of chrome and brass here and there. Very Mediterranean type.

Venice has a very interesting way to organise the traffic on the water surface. Three wooden pillars were put into the water to indicate the threshold of the water ‘express way’ that every boat have to fly within that chamber. So the trip on the grey and vast water surface took me only 15 minutes. And I made my day to San Marco square.

The hotel I stay is a small hotel in one of the canals. So the taxi has to make certain effort in navigating it through. Those canals were not meant to be for such a speed boat for sure.  That is why they have the Gondolas in the first place. Small, elegant and efficient. While we were on the way in, another boat have to run backwards just to give it way out for that very small canals. They even have to use there hand and arms from time to time pushing the boat from crashing into the building wall along the edge of the canals. That might probably be my first excitement arriving into the city.

The second excitement could be the number of people flocking around the city. One of the local told me that he was more afraid of the increasing number of tourist than a fact that this city is sinking. He thought that they will die first because of this overwhelming number of tourist before the city submerge into the ocean. The city is indeed sinking. You can see the regular water mark along the building surrounding San Marco square. And some infrastructure work is being done to improve the situation underneath the plaza itself. For sure that in the next few years, San Marco square will appear a little different from the past history. But, of cause, a changed in urban fabric is better than no fabric left at all.

It was like yesterday when I first came to Venice. Must have been like twenty years ago. I was here with my colleges from the architectural school. I still remembered I was shown a bridge. A story goes like if you were in the Gondolas with you love one and go under the bridge together, you love will be eternity. I was very romantic at that time and keep promising myself that, one day, I will be in the Gondolas with the woman I love most and our love will be forever.

Pathetic indeed.

Six or perhaps seven years later I was in Venice with one of my girlfriend, I think. We never made it to the Gondolas. We have been good company for few years before we broke up. She already passed away last year from some strange sickness.

Love is definitely not for eternity.

Or it is better to be alone than walking together on the different path?

I walked though small streets of Venice with joy. A hot summer days also brought a very clear blue sky and a bright sun light. Ideal for photographing. Some of the street were so narrow that you can fit only one or two people at a time. Walking alone in Venice allow you to weaving through these unique small urban fabric with fluidity. And you would enjoy finding yourself in certain amazing urban space from time to time. I can’t imagine how much that it would be further complicated if I were to travel in two. Negotiating and compromising. I’ve been trough that all before. Romance of the place can cherish you two for a while and after that it will be all the whole negotiations.

The cold breeze still coming from the south.

An hour has past and more people start to travel across San Marco square. Those birds also seem to know when to flock around the square. Only when there are people, there are food.

I found myself walking after her. Her blouse was so thin and appear to be vaporised in the hot summer air. Her hair is long and black that match her clear Asian eyes. She is walking toward to this Caffe Florian. She turn back to me and smile.

It is going to be a great coffee, I think.

Venice is definitely not a city to be alone.