Marco Pological Tourism

 Venice is an ever changing place.  Constructed as a web of labyrinthine streets, it would appear as if this city can never be experienced in the same way twice.  It is this idea of constant renewal, through new experiences and layers of historical memory, that drives Invisible Cities and Marco Polo's conversation with Kublai Kahn.  Each city described by Polo holds some new excitement, although they might be more similar than they seem.  Clues in this book have lined up with descriptions of Venice from another book, Venetian Legends and Ghost Stories, including that of a bridge destroyed both during a nuptial parade for the Marquis of Ferrara and during an uprising led by Bajamonte Tiepolo that has since been built a third time.  On this, Marco Polo says, "The city does not consist of this [the architecture], but of relationships between the measurements of its space and the events of its past:...the line strung from the lamppost to the railing opposite the festoons that decorate the course of the queen's nuptial procession;...the story of the gunboat of the usurper..." P. 10.  Such alignments and descriptions hold places where the layers of time may be seen.  Between the two books, the commentary from Marco Polo (1271) and the Venetian Legends (2004), I'm interested in exploring the possibility of finding clues within the new to create my own image and memory of Venice, one like those in the collection of Marco Polo, by wandering through the streets and parts of town he may have been perpetually describing.

Taken from Venetian Legends and Ghost Stories, this map works to layout a certain pathway one might take to view of string of story settings in the Marco Polo area.  It's within this map that I would like to begin, focusing specifically on the Malibran Theater (3), where the Polo family used to live, and, as a landmark on the path, the Rialto Bridge.   

This map has a kind of fantastical aspect to it.  It depicts some sort of sea monster and makes the Venetian fleet huge.  It is some creator's view of Venice, his story, not unlike Marco Polo's.

This map also depicts Venice in a particular way.  It works to, again, show the strength of the Venetian ships and ports.  It is another story.

This map illustrates the labyrinthine nature of Venice.