Venezia: The Romance Capital of the World and its Temporary Split with Humanity

One of the waterways in Venice, 2019.

 Summer, 2019. The cobblestone streets was filled with humans from every corner of the world. Just meters from it , the transparent glass bridge became the gate to the legendary city. Under the bridge, the canals passed through. Littered with gondolas, speedboats, and water buses. What are water buses if you're wondering? Well they're like the TransJakarta, but on water and no motorbike is irresponsibly using their route. Above the opaque navy waters, dozens of seagulls roam freely in the blue sky. Chirping and flapping peacefully in their undisturbed corridor, unlike the busy waterways just below them.

 In every corner of the city, every human from every corner of the world and from every age group, took group photos, selfies, aesthetic shots, and some -while rarely- admired the beauty of the city in quiteness and loneliness. What these people did is no strange behavior. The city is admittingly beautiful in every corner of it. The renaissance aesthetic of the buildings blends perfectly with the blue navy color of the canals. While the dozens of gondolas just add to the beauty. The bustling alleys during the nights adds to the city's liveliness and last but not least, the couples who perfected their love in the gondola rides, the street walks, or a simple cafe date, adds to the romance of "The Romance Capital". This is Venice.

 Or that was what it used to be just short of a year ago. The novel coronavirus had affected the city. Especially the most vital part of it, the humans part.

 As of the 9th of March 2020, all of Italy has been in lockdown. Citizens are prohibited to get out of their homes in fear of increasing the spread of the virus. As a result, the usually crowded alleys of Venice has been deserted by its daily visitors. The streets are silent, the buildings are quiet, and the cafes are serving ghosts. On the waterways , the opaque waters turned clear. The muds that usually fill the currents had subsided to the depths of the canals as no boats roamed its routes. Leaving the surface as clear as daylight.

The clear waterways, 2020. Source: nypost.com

 As for the wildlife returning to the canals, as you might've seen on twitter or any social media platform, well they're not as hopeful as you think they are. The photos of geese floating in canals might look wonderful and rare, but these geese had already often roamed these canals long before the lockdown took place. It's not something that happens once every century, its's actually been happening once every day. The "sensationalization" of the media just made it better than what it actually is. Not unusual, as the media sensationalize news every day. Another example of this is the video of a dolphin in waterways described as a dolphin in Venice. In fact, the video was taken in a port in Sardinia, in the Mediterranean Sea, hundreds of miles away as nationalgeographic.com stated in one of its articles.

 Although these sensationalized news might disappoint us. Venice in its "single" status, left by humanity, is still a thing to admire. The ghostly streets, the clear canals, the louder than usual chirping of the birds, the bustling wind, and the calm waters. Venice needs a break from the humans that roamed its streets, the motorboats that littered its canals, and the markets that crowd its nights. The couples? Well they're still there, just not in the cafes or streets and almost all of them are local. From a different perspective, the solitude and calmness of the city might be an unlikely romantic trait that adds to its romance and keeps the city still alive and unique.

 But still, without humans, Venice is not the same. Like all temporary splits, there will be a time when they settle their differences and continue their relationship. Lets hope this split won't last too long. We all long for the Venice that was.