0:00:13 > 0:00:17Venice. The most beautiful city in the world
0:00:17 > 0:00:23had grown from bleak marshland to become a great trading power...
0:00:23 > 0:00:29with an empire that stretched across half the known world.
0:00:29 > 0:00:34It had created some of the most beautiful art ever seen.
0:00:34 > 0:00:41It had become a place of adventure, sex and pleasure unlike any other city.
0:00:41 > 0:00:46But one man had brought the party to an end.
0:00:46 > 0:00:50His name was Napoleon Bonaparte...
0:00:50 > 0:00:56and his armies had left Venice a looted, crumbling, forgotten backwater.
0:00:58 > 0:01:02The great city had fallen into poverty and decay,
0:01:02 > 0:01:06and it seemed there was no way back.
0:01:43 > 0:01:46This is the point where many stories of Venice end.
0:01:47 > 0:01:50The great empire was dead,
0:01:50 > 0:01:52and Venice was rotting away.
0:01:52 > 0:01:57But I'm going to tell you a story about what happened next,
0:01:57 > 0:02:02about how the great artists of the 19th century
0:02:02 > 0:02:05created the romantic image of Venice
0:02:05 > 0:02:09that is recognised and reproduced all over the world.
0:02:15 > 0:02:19The world now comes to Venice and Venice comes to the world.
0:02:32 > 0:02:34This is Venice in Las Vegas.
0:02:34 > 0:02:37It's a hotel and casino -
0:02:37 > 0:02:42an architecturally faithful version of Venice in the middle of America.
0:02:51 > 0:02:54Cars drive under the Rialto Bridge.
0:02:56 > 0:03:00Moving walkways take people over it.
0:03:09 > 0:03:11But it's too clean
0:03:11 > 0:03:13and it's much too antiseptic.
0:03:16 > 0:03:19It's...surreal.
0:03:21 > 0:03:23These people are visiting Las Vegas,
0:03:23 > 0:03:28but they have come because they love the idea of Venice.
0:03:32 > 0:03:37Venice has become more than just a creation of bricks and mortar.
0:03:37 > 0:03:42It has become a city that lives in everyone's imagination.
0:03:48 > 0:03:52Yet the real Venice is still a place where people live,
0:03:52 > 0:03:55a city caught between its past and its future -
0:03:55 > 0:04:00between the people who live here and the tourists who visit.
0:04:11 > 0:04:15This is the age that has defined my life -
0:04:15 > 0:04:20an old city caught up in modern times.
0:04:29 > 0:04:32And it all started with you British,
0:04:32 > 0:04:36and your romantic sensibilities. In the 19th century,
0:04:36 > 0:04:40your poets, your painters and your writers would come here
0:04:40 > 0:04:44to forgotten, poverty-stricken Venice,
0:04:44 > 0:04:47and be intoxicated by the atmosphere.
0:04:47 > 0:04:53Venice attracted the romantics because they were in love with decay -
0:04:53 > 0:04:59something of ancient beauty forged through time and left to wither.
0:04:59 > 0:05:04They believed Venice would be at its most beautiful
0:05:04 > 0:05:07the moment it was about to die.
0:05:10 > 0:05:14The marriage of Venetian architecture and nature
0:05:14 > 0:05:18had always been a fragile one.
0:05:18 > 0:05:23So for centuries, we had repaired and strengthened our great buildings.
0:05:27 > 0:05:32Now poverty meant building work was left undone.
0:05:43 > 0:05:46The city was poised...
0:05:46 > 0:05:48between beauty and decay,
0:05:48 > 0:05:51between power and fall.
0:05:53 > 0:05:57One British poet was to discover Venice
0:05:57 > 0:06:00as a haven from change...
0:06:00 > 0:06:04a refuge in the romance of history.
0:06:10 > 0:06:13The poet was Lord Byron...
0:06:19 > 0:06:23..and he would immerse himself in the city.
0:06:24 > 0:06:30"My beautiful, my own, my only Venice -
0:06:30 > 0:06:36"thy breeze, thy Adrian sea breeze, how it fans my face.
0:06:36 > 0:06:40"The very winds feel native to my veins!"
0:06:44 > 0:06:49Venice, for Byron, was everything he needed.
0:06:49 > 0:06:52It was inspiration and romance.
0:06:52 > 0:06:57He fell in love with its crumbling ancient palaces,
0:06:57 > 0:07:01with their resonance of the past.
0:07:06 > 0:07:09This is Palazzo Mocenigo...
0:07:11 > 0:07:13Byron's home on the Grand Canal.
0:07:15 > 0:07:19Here he would revive the glory days of Casanova
0:07:19 > 0:07:21and indulge his love of Venice.
0:07:21 > 0:07:24But there was a difference.
0:07:24 > 0:07:26For Casanova, it had been a party.
0:07:26 > 0:07:31For Byron, Venice was a state of mind.
0:07:31 > 0:07:35He called it "the island of my imagination".
0:07:39 > 0:07:42"In Venice,
0:07:42 > 0:07:45"silent rows the songless gondolier
0:07:45 > 0:07:49"Her palaces are crumbling to the shore
0:07:51 > 0:07:53"But beauty is still here
0:07:53 > 0:07:57"States fall, arts fade
0:07:58 > 0:08:00"But nature doth not die.
0:08:00 > 0:08:05"She to me was as a fairy city of the heart
0:08:05 > 0:08:08"Even dearer in her day of woe
0:08:08 > 0:08:12"Than when she was a boast, a marvel...
0:08:13 > 0:08:16"..and a show."
0:08:17 > 0:08:20Byron's libido and his affairs
0:08:20 > 0:08:24became notorious throughout Venice and Europe.
0:08:24 > 0:08:28They became the hot gossip in English society.
0:08:28 > 0:08:32He had women, literally all over Venice.
0:08:32 > 0:08:36He had a fling with Marianna, his landlord's wife.
0:08:36 > 0:08:42Then there was a fiery affair with Margerita, the wife of his baker.
0:08:42 > 0:08:43Giulietta...
0:08:43 > 0:08:46Miss Tarruscelli...
0:08:46 > 0:08:49Miss Spinola... Miss Aloisi...
0:08:49 > 0:08:52Miss Glettenheim and her sister.
0:08:57 > 0:08:59Byron only caught a disease once.
0:08:59 > 0:09:02And that, I am ashamed to say,
0:09:03 > 0:09:06..was from one of MY ancestors...
0:09:06 > 0:09:09Elena Da Mosto.
0:09:09 > 0:09:10Buon giorno.
0:09:15 > 0:09:19Almost nothing is known about Elena da Mosto.
0:09:19 > 0:09:23All we know is from Byron himself in a letter.
0:09:23 > 0:09:28He says he didn't pay her, so she wasn't a prostitute...
0:09:28 > 0:09:32but "era di modi facili", as we say in Italian.
0:09:33 > 0:09:37"My whore hold has been much extended
0:09:37 > 0:09:42"since the masquerading began and closed. But I was taken aback
0:09:42 > 0:09:44"by a gonorrhoea gratis.
0:09:44 > 0:09:50"A girl - a gentle donna named Elena da Mosto - was clapt,
0:09:51 > 0:09:54"..and she has clapt me."
0:10:02 > 0:10:05Byron's epic poem Childe Harold
0:10:05 > 0:10:09was a bestseller all over Europe.
0:10:09 > 0:10:14But his success and swagger around the city made him enemies.
0:10:19 > 0:10:22A local roused him to a challenge.
0:10:25 > 0:10:28Luckily for Byron, it wasn't a duel.
0:10:29 > 0:10:34The race would be from here on the Lido all the way to Venice.
0:10:34 > 0:10:37But not just to St Mark's Square over there.
0:10:37 > 0:10:41They would swim to the other end of the Grand Canal.
0:10:41 > 0:10:44That's four-and-a-half miles.
0:10:47 > 0:10:49BANG!
0:10:49 > 0:10:53"I won by a good three quarters of a mile,
0:10:53 > 0:10:56"knocking the Italian all to bubbles!"
0:10:57 > 0:11:04It was as if the Englishman and the Venetian were competing for the soul of Venice.
0:11:04 > 0:11:06And we had lost!
0:11:06 > 0:11:10Byron was just the first.
0:11:10 > 0:11:16So many of your 19th-century writers and painters would come here.
0:11:17 > 0:11:21For the British, Venice was a city of fantasy,
0:11:21 > 0:11:24a city of the mind.
0:11:24 > 0:11:27This place inspired painters
0:11:27 > 0:11:32to paint what they felt as much as what they saw.
0:11:34 > 0:11:40St Paul's Cathedral on the Grand Canal. Very strange! What is it about you British?!
0:11:43 > 0:11:46It was as if painter William Marlow saw Venice
0:11:46 > 0:11:51as just another outpost of your growing empire.
0:11:51 > 0:11:54Did we see it as a compliment?
0:11:54 > 0:11:57I'm not so sure!
0:11:57 > 0:12:03More and more British artists would shape the identity of my city.
0:12:03 > 0:12:06And you were about to give us
0:12:06 > 0:12:10the most spectacular images of Venice we had ever seen.
0:12:25 > 0:12:30Joseph Mallord William Turner was the greatest British painter,
0:12:30 > 0:12:34and in Venice, he had found his greatest subject.
0:12:34 > 0:12:39No-one ever saw Venice in quite the same way after Turner.
0:12:49 > 0:12:54Turner would push the Venetian marriage of architecture and nature
0:12:54 > 0:12:57further than anyone,
0:12:57 > 0:13:03into a mystical fusion of light and weather with bricks and mortar.
0:13:03 > 0:13:06It was as if nature was engulfing the city.
0:13:10 > 0:13:13He visited three times, late on in his career.
0:13:13 > 0:13:19These trips resulted in hundreds of images of Venice -
0:13:19 > 0:13:24visions of the city unlike anything that had been painted before,
0:13:24 > 0:13:27as blurred and imprecise
0:13:27 > 0:13:30as Canaletto had been meticulous.
0:13:34 > 0:13:39Turner would give us the truest picture of the city -
0:13:39 > 0:13:42of the feel of the city - of any artist.
0:13:42 > 0:13:46Yet he would also dramatically change Venice
0:13:46 > 0:13:49to suit his own ends.
0:13:51 > 0:13:55And there has always been something of a mystery
0:13:55 > 0:13:58about his vantage point.
0:13:59 > 0:14:02This was once the Hotel Europa.
0:14:06 > 0:14:10Turner stayed here during his trips to Venice.
0:14:10 > 0:14:13Now the building is offices,
0:14:13 > 0:14:16most traces of its past ripped out.
0:14:16 > 0:14:20But we do know he stayed on the top floor.
0:14:33 > 0:14:35In this painting of his room,
0:14:35 > 0:14:39the only surviving clue is the view from the window.
0:14:43 > 0:14:46And this is the closest match I can find.
0:14:53 > 0:14:55Who would have thought...
0:14:55 > 0:15:00one of the most important places in the history of art
0:15:00 > 0:15:03would end up a bagno?!
0:15:06 > 0:15:09And searching for Turner's vantage point
0:15:09 > 0:15:14turns out to be something of a problem over and over again.
0:15:17 > 0:15:20We need to see the door of the church.
0:15:23 > 0:15:26Just a little further round and...
0:15:26 > 0:15:29and maybe we have...
0:15:29 > 0:15:32the right perspective.
0:15:32 > 0:15:35Seeing that we are in the right position...
0:15:35 > 0:15:39here we have the door of the church of the Salute,
0:15:39 > 0:15:41here, the campanile of St Mark.
0:15:44 > 0:15:47The campanile is much taller than in reality.
0:15:47 > 0:15:50Here there is a building that doesn't exist.
0:16:00 > 0:16:02Strange. OK, we'll have a look.
0:16:09 > 0:16:14I think here we are in the right place for the Dogana.
0:16:14 > 0:16:16Here is the Dogana, the buildings.
0:16:16 > 0:16:19But the rest...
0:16:19 > 0:16:25the ducal palace, St Mark's Square - that doesn't exist in the reality.
0:16:25 > 0:16:27In the painting, yes.
0:16:30 > 0:16:32Nothing seems to fit.
0:16:32 > 0:16:37Turner has moved the great monuments of Venice around
0:16:37 > 0:16:40to suit himself.
0:16:40 > 0:16:45Now we are in the island of the church of St Giorgio.
0:16:45 > 0:16:50Here we have the first point of view from the Dogana
0:16:50 > 0:16:53where we were, there.
0:16:53 > 0:16:57Now we are in front of St Marco. We can see the Doges' Palace,
0:16:57 > 0:17:01the Campanile of St Marco, and the palace of Zecca.
0:17:01 > 0:17:05Two points of view for one painting.
0:17:06 > 0:17:10Turner was not painting the Venice I know.
0:17:11 > 0:17:16His paintings were idealised, romanticised versions of the city.
0:17:28 > 0:17:33British artists had brought Venice back to the attention of the world,
0:17:33 > 0:17:38yet every image of Venice was romanticised, unreal.
0:17:41 > 0:17:46The true poverty and suffering of the people who lived here
0:17:46 > 0:17:49was never part of the picture.
0:18:01 > 0:18:04And your greatest writer was no better.
0:18:06 > 0:18:09Surely his love of the city
0:18:09 > 0:18:14should have revealed the real misfortune of the Venetians?
0:18:16 > 0:18:19His name was Charles Dickens.
0:18:22 > 0:18:27Dickens was far from being a Byron or a Turner.
0:18:29 > 0:18:35His novels were gritty chronicles of downtrodden Industrial Britain.
0:18:35 > 0:18:43But Venice turned this tough chronicler of social reality into something else.
0:18:43 > 0:18:47It turned Dickens into a romantic.
0:18:47 > 0:18:50It was as if Venice was a drug.
0:18:51 > 0:18:54He wrote about the city
0:18:54 > 0:18:59as if he were experiencing a strange, hallucinogenic dream.
0:19:05 > 0:19:11"I could not think but how strange it was to be floating by a dreamy kind of track
0:19:11 > 0:19:14"marked out upon the sea by posts and piles.
0:19:14 > 0:19:17"I came upon a great piazza,
0:19:17 > 0:19:21"anchored, like all the rest, in the deep ocean.
0:19:21 > 0:19:23"On its broad bosom was a palace.
0:19:23 > 0:19:28"Cloisters and galleries, so light they might have been the work of fairy hands,
0:19:28 > 0:19:31"so strong that centuries had battered them in vain.
0:19:31 > 0:19:38"Sometimes, alighting at the doors of churches and vast palaces, I wandered on from room to room.
0:19:38 > 0:19:42"The old days of the city lived again, about me.
0:19:42 > 0:19:48"But welling up into the secret places of the town crept the water always:
0:19:48 > 0:19:54"coiled round and round it, in its many folds, like an old serpent:
0:19:54 > 0:19:59"waiting for the time, I thought, when people should look down into its depths
0:19:59 > 0:20:04"for any stone of the old city that claimed to be its mistress."
0:20:23 > 0:20:28British artists had created a Venice in the popular imagination
0:20:28 > 0:20:32that was a place of infinite wonder.
0:20:32 > 0:20:36More than that - a place that would change your soul
0:20:36 > 0:20:39if only you could get there.
0:20:40 > 0:20:47Not surprisingly, the number of travellers to Venice began to rise dramatically.
0:20:47 > 0:20:51Dickens had made the trip from Italy by gondola.
0:20:51 > 0:20:58But, with more and more people seized by the Romantic dream of Venice...
0:21:00 > 0:21:04..things were about to change forever.
0:21:14 > 0:21:18The rail link between Italy and Venice was completed in 1846.
0:21:18 > 0:21:23More than three-and-a-half kilometres long,
0:21:23 > 0:21:25supported by 222 arches.
0:21:35 > 0:21:38Now Venice was easy to get to,
0:21:38 > 0:21:40physically connected to Italy.
0:21:43 > 0:21:46This was the greatest disaster.
0:21:46 > 0:21:53Although Venice had ceased to be an independent state half a century earlier,
0:21:53 > 0:21:56it was this bridge
0:21:56 > 0:22:01that truly put an end to Venice's independence.
0:22:01 > 0:22:05Come un pesce preso all'amo.
0:22:06 > 0:22:11This is the greatest symbol of Venice's lost supremacies.
0:22:17 > 0:22:23Now the city was nothing more than an extension of the mainland -
0:22:23 > 0:22:26a fact many Venetians could not accept.
0:22:26 > 0:22:32We even insisted the bridge include its own means of destruction
0:22:32 > 0:22:36in case it was used by an invading force.
0:22:41 > 0:22:46Inside the bridge, there are 48 spaces
0:22:46 > 0:22:48especially built to house dynamite.
0:22:48 > 0:22:54If the bridge ever needed to be destroyed, it could be,
0:22:54 > 0:22:58and Venice once more would retain her independence.
0:23:01 > 0:23:04But there WAS an invasion.
0:23:05 > 0:23:10An ever-increasing army of tourists streamed across the new bridge.
0:23:10 > 0:23:14And they brought with them a new attitude.
0:23:14 > 0:23:18They were in love with the romance of the city,
0:23:18 > 0:23:22like the artists who had come to Venice before them.
0:23:22 > 0:23:26But they did not want the city to die -
0:23:26 > 0:23:30they wanted to keep Venice standing.
0:23:31 > 0:23:34So change was inevitable.
0:23:34 > 0:23:40The big question now was, what sort of change would it be?
0:23:40 > 0:23:44Renovate or modernise? Repair or demolish?
0:23:46 > 0:23:50Once again, you British would define the argument.
0:23:50 > 0:23:56John Ruskin had visited Venice as a young man,
0:23:56 > 0:23:58and when he returned in 1849,
0:23:58 > 0:24:03he was horrified to see the deterioration of the city.
0:24:03 > 0:24:09Ruskin believed Venice was the greatest architectural creation on Earth,
0:24:09 > 0:24:13and yet, he said, the city was disappearing
0:24:13 > 0:24:17"as fast as a lump of sugar in hot tea".
0:24:18 > 0:24:22In his great work, The Stones Of Venice,
0:24:22 > 0:24:27he would attack the Romantics' vision of the city,
0:24:27 > 0:24:29and their love of decay.
0:24:29 > 0:24:34Instead he argued that Venice was in peril and must be saved.
0:24:36 > 0:24:39But like many conservationists,
0:24:39 > 0:24:41he didn't know when to stop.
0:24:41 > 0:24:45Ruskin got so worked up about Venice,
0:24:45 > 0:24:49it was as though he wanted to preserve us in aspic.
0:24:49 > 0:24:53He even objected to street lighting in Venice.
0:24:53 > 0:24:56He said cast-iron gas lamps
0:24:56 > 0:24:58reminded him
0:24:58 > 0:25:01of Birmingham!
0:25:03 > 0:25:06But it was in cast iron
0:25:06 > 0:25:09that Ruskin's view of the city would be challenged
0:25:09 > 0:25:12by another of you British.
0:25:12 > 0:25:15Bridge-builder Alfred Neville was a moderniser,
0:25:15 > 0:25:20and he would fill Venice with modern bridges -
0:25:20 > 0:25:22replacing bridges built of stone.
0:25:23 > 0:25:26Today they look charming
0:25:26 > 0:25:31but to the 19th-century eye they were shocking signs of change.
0:25:31 > 0:25:37Neville would go on to confront the very heart of antique Venice
0:25:37 > 0:25:43with the most uncompromising structure the city had ever seen.
0:25:44 > 0:25:48The Accademia Bridge was built in 1854.
0:25:48 > 0:25:53It was only the second bridge to be built across the Grand Canal
0:25:53 > 0:25:56in Venice's long history.
0:25:56 > 0:26:01Its straight girders spanned the 48 metres of water
0:26:01 > 0:26:04in one great heroic length.
0:26:05 > 0:26:10But, ultimately, the forces of conservation would triumph
0:26:10 > 0:26:16and Neville's modern Accademia Bridge was taken apart
0:26:16 > 0:26:19and carted off for scrap.
0:26:19 > 0:26:24It would be replaced by a temporary wooden structure.
0:26:25 > 0:26:30And the temporary bridge has stood there ever since.
0:26:30 > 0:26:34We Venetians just cannot face the challenge
0:26:34 > 0:26:38of choosing between an old or a modern design.
0:26:39 > 0:26:43This would be the first of many such battles
0:26:43 > 0:26:46between the old and the new.
0:26:46 > 0:26:49Ruskin and Neville
0:26:49 > 0:26:52were on opposite sides of the argument.
0:26:52 > 0:26:58They had fired the first shots in the battle for the soul of my city,
0:26:58 > 0:27:04a city which was inescapably connected to the modern world...
0:27:06 > 0:27:09..but which could never belong to it.
0:27:10 > 0:27:13Now a terrible event
0:27:13 > 0:27:17would spark off the most ferocious argument
0:27:17 > 0:27:21between the conservationists and the modernisers
0:27:21 > 0:27:24that Venice had ever seen.
0:27:27 > 0:27:29At eight minutes to ten
0:27:29 > 0:27:33on the morning of the 14th July 1902,
0:27:33 > 0:27:38our crumbling city really started to fall down.
0:27:41 > 0:27:44Venice's great Campanile collapsed.
0:27:47 > 0:27:53Visitors were still climbing the tower just days before,
0:27:53 > 0:27:56even as the cracks were appearing.
0:27:56 > 0:28:01Luckily, the only casualty was the caretaker's cat.
0:28:04 > 0:28:08Venice had lost its most important symbol of the city
0:28:08 > 0:28:11seen from the lagoon.
0:28:11 > 0:28:14It was said a Venetian captain sailing home
0:28:14 > 0:28:20went mad when he failed to find the campanile on the horizon.
0:28:21 > 0:28:26So what would fill the gaping hole in the Venetian skyline?
0:28:28 > 0:28:31Many architects were keen to see
0:28:31 > 0:28:36a new and modern structure rise in place of the old Campanile.
0:28:36 > 0:28:41It would be a great symbol of Venice embracing the new century.
0:28:47 > 0:28:53But these designs met strong opposition from those who wanted to preserve Venice as it was.
0:28:53 > 0:28:58The slogan they developed in the face of the Modernists
0:28:58 > 0:29:02was "Dov'era, com'era."
0:29:04 > 0:29:09Waving the flag for the modernisers was this man - Otto Wagner.
0:29:09 > 0:29:11He was an architect from Vienna,
0:29:11 > 0:29:15where his work had won him fame and fortune.
0:29:19 > 0:29:23He claimed it would be a falsification of history
0:29:23 > 0:29:26to rebuild the Campanile in the old style.
0:29:26 > 0:29:32The mixture of building styles in this square from many different ages
0:29:32 > 0:29:35gave the place its charm.
0:29:35 > 0:29:39And a new building could only add to that charm.
0:29:39 > 0:29:42"Yes," said the authorities,
0:29:42 > 0:29:45"but 'Dov'era, com'era'."
0:29:51 > 0:29:55The Campanile was rebuilt almost exactly as it was before.
0:29:55 > 0:30:01But just as the city's conservatism was growing stronger and stronger,
0:30:01 > 0:30:07alternative voices for change were getting louder too.
0:30:07 > 0:30:10The argument was going to get nasty.
0:30:15 > 0:30:21The Industrial Revolution had changed the face of Europe.
0:30:22 > 0:30:25But we had been immune -
0:30:25 > 0:30:29the city's narrow canals and tightly-packed buildings
0:30:29 > 0:30:33left no space for modern factories.
0:30:33 > 0:30:38It seemed as if we had no place in the great plan for the future.
0:30:38 > 0:30:41And on the whole, we were pleased.
0:30:41 > 0:30:43But something was happening in art -
0:30:43 > 0:30:48and we Venetians could never ignore art!
0:30:48 > 0:30:52In Italy, a new movement was growing,
0:30:52 > 0:30:57and its followers were staging a revolt against the past.
0:30:58 > 0:31:04The Futurists believed that Italian art had become stagnant,
0:31:04 > 0:31:09and called for a new art glorifying modern technology and energy.
0:31:10 > 0:31:13On the 27th April 1910,
0:31:13 > 0:31:17a man ran across St Mark's Square.
0:31:18 > 0:31:21In his hands, he had a pile of pamphlets.
0:31:21 > 0:31:23It looked an innocent scene
0:31:23 > 0:31:27as he climbed to a high balcony overlooking the square.
0:31:27 > 0:31:30But the pamphlets he carried
0:31:30 > 0:31:35were entitled "The Manifesto Against Reactionary Venice".
0:31:35 > 0:31:39The man's name was Filippo Tommaso Marinetti.
0:31:39 > 0:31:42He was a poet, leader of the Futurists,
0:31:42 > 0:31:48and he was about to perform the most outrageous attack on Venice
0:31:48 > 0:31:50in the 20th century.
0:31:50 > 0:31:55To these art revolutionaries, Venice was an insult -
0:31:55 > 0:31:57everything they stood against.
0:31:57 > 0:32:02We feared they might even smash the city to pieces!
0:32:07 > 0:32:09IN ITALIAN
0:33:02 > 0:33:06Italy was about to be thrown into a futurist nightmare.
0:33:06 > 0:33:10Benito Mussolini had plans to make Italy
0:33:10 > 0:33:16into a futuristic fighting machine, and Venice was a part of them.
0:33:16 > 0:33:18Here he is with Adolf Hitler
0:33:18 > 0:33:21in St Mark's Square.
0:33:26 > 0:33:30Mussolini built a big new bridge from Italy to Venice
0:33:30 > 0:33:33alongside the train bridge.
0:33:33 > 0:33:36The new bridge was for motor cars.
0:33:36 > 0:33:40But where on earth are all these cars going?
0:33:40 > 0:33:43Ever since the late 19th century,
0:33:43 > 0:33:46there had been people
0:33:46 > 0:33:52who wanted to fill in Venice's canals and make them into roads.
0:33:52 > 0:33:55Occasionally, it even happened.
0:33:56 > 0:34:00This canal was paved over. Look!
0:34:00 > 0:34:06This stone was the original border between the canal and the pavement.
0:34:07 > 0:34:10Throughout the 20th century,
0:34:10 > 0:34:17modernisers dreamt of the motor car penetrating to the very heart of Venice.
0:34:17 > 0:34:21Imagine what might have been.
0:34:36 > 0:34:39Luckily, the cars never made it further
0:34:39 > 0:34:43than one square at the back of Venice.
0:34:44 > 0:34:49But Venice couldn't keep ALL motorised transport out of the city.
0:34:49 > 0:34:56The last century saw the city's canals fill up with heavy-goods vehicles -
0:34:56 > 0:34:59ambulances and fire engines...
0:35:01 > 0:35:05..buses and taxis all travel by water.
0:35:05 > 0:35:09But the city pays a high price.
0:35:10 > 0:35:13SIREN WAILS
0:35:16 > 0:35:21In the 1930s, strict speed limits were introduced.
0:36:22 > 0:36:25If we want to use motor boats,
0:36:25 > 0:36:29then no-one, except the emergency services,
0:36:29 > 0:36:33can travel more than about twice the speed of a gondola.
0:36:35 > 0:36:38It's a simple but incontrovertible fact
0:36:38 > 0:36:43that now the fabric of Venice can't stand the pace of modern life.
0:36:43 > 0:36:46The wake created by motor boats
0:36:46 > 0:36:50destroys the delicate structure of the canals
0:36:50 > 0:36:53and the buildings that line them.
0:36:57 > 0:37:00But one day, more than any other,
0:37:00 > 0:37:06made us Venetians realise just how perilous everything had become.
0:37:06 > 0:37:11A catastrophe was to change everything.
0:37:11 > 0:37:16It was the moment the debate stopped being about a crumbling city
0:37:16 > 0:37:24and became instead the nightmare of our home disappearing beneath the waves.
0:37:30 > 0:37:33Throughout 1,600 years of existence,
0:37:33 > 0:37:36Venice had conquered cities,
0:37:36 > 0:37:39it had defended invasions,
0:37:39 > 0:37:43it had defied great tyrants and empires.
0:37:43 > 0:37:45Throughout the 20th century,
0:37:45 > 0:37:49it held back the tide of the modern world.
0:37:49 > 0:37:56But nothing was to prepare Venice for what happened on the 4th of November 1966...
0:38:06 > 0:38:12Torrential rain and a sirocco wind blowing at 100 kilometres an hour
0:38:12 > 0:38:16stopped the morning tide leaving Venice's lagoon.
0:38:16 > 0:38:20Then the afternoon tide rushed in,
0:38:20 > 0:38:22flooding the city
0:38:22 > 0:38:24to a depth of two metres,
0:38:24 > 0:38:28the most terrible floods in the city's history.
0:38:30 > 0:38:33In St Mark's Square, the water got up to here.
0:38:45 > 0:38:50The ground floor of every building in Venice was full of water.
0:38:50 > 0:38:54Here in my house, the water came quite high.
0:38:56 > 0:39:01I think it was something to the fourth or the fifth step.
0:39:02 > 0:39:05And it's quite incredible.
0:39:07 > 0:39:09I was young - I was five years old -
0:39:09 > 0:39:13and I think my mother took me here with a pyjama
0:39:13 > 0:39:16and looking from here all flooded.
0:39:17 > 0:39:20Could be a place for a boat,
0:39:20 > 0:39:23not a room to live. Strange!
0:39:23 > 0:39:27When all this happened, I was five years old -
0:39:27 > 0:39:33small enough to be engulfed by the waves and carried out to sea.
0:39:33 > 0:39:37My memories of the event are a bit hazy,
0:39:37 > 0:39:44but my father remembers our experience of the day like it was yesterday.
0:39:44 > 0:39:46HE SPEAKS IN ITALIAN
0:40:10 > 0:40:15Of course, Venice has always flooded a LITTLE with the tides.
0:40:15 > 0:40:20It's something all my ancestors were used to, and WE are used to.
0:40:22 > 0:40:25But in 1966, it was different -
0:40:25 > 0:40:29a tragedy, a catastrophe, il disastro,
0:40:29 > 0:40:31more than the city could cope with.
0:40:32 > 0:40:35The electricity failed,
0:40:35 > 0:40:40and the floodwater burst the underground oil tanks,
0:40:40 > 0:40:45carrying a thick black sludge through the city.
0:41:54 > 0:41:56The flood had devastated Venice.
0:41:56 > 0:42:00People thought there was even a real possibility
0:42:00 > 0:42:05that some of our great buildings would collapse.
0:42:05 > 0:42:09It seemed the sea had turned against the city
0:42:09 > 0:42:12with a fury nobody had foreseen.
0:42:16 > 0:42:18Worse than that,
0:42:18 > 0:42:22it looked as if the balance of architecture and nature
0:42:22 > 0:42:26on which Venice had thrived for more than 1,000 years
0:42:26 > 0:42:28had collapsed.
0:42:30 > 0:42:36Over the centuries, buildings had shifted in the marshy ground.
0:42:38 > 0:42:43It was the sort of thing the early builders expected.
0:42:43 > 0:42:48Now the flood of 1966 had tipped the balance
0:42:48 > 0:42:50in favour of volatile nature.
0:42:50 > 0:42:54But it wasn't true. It was not nature's fault.
0:42:54 > 0:42:57It was man's fault.
0:42:57 > 0:43:00So...what exactly was going on?
0:43:02 > 0:43:10Decades before, industry had begun to overwhelm the Italian coast of the Venetian lagoon...
0:43:12 > 0:43:18..a vast industrial complex around the town of Marghera.
0:43:18 > 0:43:21Pollution was poisoning the fish in the lagoon,
0:43:21 > 0:43:25upsetting the delicate ecological balance.
0:43:33 > 0:43:36The dredging of deep channels for oil tankers
0:43:36 > 0:43:39brought stronger currents.
0:43:41 > 0:43:46These currents accelerated the Adriatic's high tides
0:43:46 > 0:43:49towards Venice,
0:43:49 > 0:43:54worsening floods and eroding the lagoon's salt marshes.
0:43:54 > 0:43:59The creation of artificial islands and huge fish farms
0:43:59 > 0:44:04made the lagoon system ever more vulnerable.
0:44:04 > 0:44:10So Venice was certainly sinking, seriously sinking.
0:44:12 > 0:44:16At the same time, the sea was rising,
0:44:16 > 0:44:18the effects of global warming
0:44:18 > 0:44:22making a bad situation worse.
0:44:24 > 0:44:30The Adriatic has risen ten centimetres in the last century.
0:44:30 > 0:44:35But worst of all, the lagoon BED was sinking -
0:44:35 > 0:44:40not just the city, but the entire Venetian lagoon bed.
0:44:40 > 0:44:45In just 50 years, it had dropped by 12 centimetres.
0:44:46 > 0:44:50And the culprit was Italian industry -
0:44:50 > 0:44:56the factories of Marghera pumping fresh water out from under the lagoon bed.
0:45:03 > 0:45:08Have a look now there to have an idea what is happening.
0:45:14 > 0:45:17Look at these bricks.
0:45:17 > 0:45:19At the water rose up,
0:45:19 > 0:45:24the water went over the level of the stone
0:45:24 > 0:45:26and, touching the bricks,
0:45:26 > 0:45:32the salt of the water got into the bricks and caused them to explode.
0:45:33 > 0:45:35Something had to be done.
0:45:38 > 0:45:43As the gravity of the situation was realised,
0:45:43 > 0:45:47the freshwater drainage by industry was stopped.
0:45:47 > 0:45:49And since the 1970s,
0:45:49 > 0:45:53money has poured in from all around the world.
0:45:53 > 0:45:56The spirit of Ruskin
0:45:56 > 0:45:59is abroad again.
0:45:59 > 0:46:04The world must save Venice from environmental catastrophe.
0:46:04 > 0:46:09But there is still controversy about how to do it.
0:46:09 > 0:46:15A set of enormous flood barriers at the entrances to the lagoon is planned -
0:46:15 > 0:46:22and the barriers look likely to put an end to serious flooding of the city.
0:46:22 > 0:46:29But no-one can be sure if this will help or worsen the unbalanced state of the lagoon eco-system.
0:46:29 > 0:46:32And many argue
0:46:32 > 0:46:39that the closing down of the heavy industry in Marghera is much more important.
0:46:39 > 0:46:42The eyes of the world are on Venice now.
0:46:42 > 0:46:50And it stands as an extraordinary scientific, engineering and ecological challenge to all of us.
0:46:52 > 0:46:57With money and the new technology, the problem will be stabilised.
0:46:57 > 0:47:03But the truth is that sinking is no longer the biggest threat to Venice.
0:47:06 > 0:47:10Now the biggest threat is tourism.
0:47:10 > 0:47:13Visitors are over-running the city.
0:47:14 > 0:47:20The pilgrimage to Venice that began as a trickle of British artists
0:47:20 > 0:47:22at the start of the 19th century
0:47:22 > 0:47:28is now a tidal wave of tourists from all over the world.
0:47:28 > 0:47:30Life goes on
0:47:30 > 0:47:36but for us Venetians, it is increasingly difficult to live here.
0:47:36 > 0:47:39But it's all I have ever known.
0:47:42 > 0:47:47As a child growing up, I enjoyed the mood of pleasure-seeking -
0:47:47 > 0:47:52I felt almost part of it - the endless stream of visitors.
0:47:52 > 0:47:56In the '60s and the '70s, Venice was groovy.
0:47:57 > 0:48:00As soon as I walked out of my door,
0:48:00 > 0:48:04I could meet people from all over the world.
0:48:04 > 0:48:10Then, suddenly, it all seemed just a bit fake...
0:48:10 > 0:48:14and I realised all my friends were leaving.
0:48:15 > 0:48:1890% of the people are not Venetians!
0:48:23 > 0:48:26Gondolas... Tourist town...
0:48:26 > 0:48:28Glass!
0:48:32 > 0:48:35This one, I hate them... I hate.
0:48:35 > 0:48:38They are all going around with those things.
0:48:38 > 0:48:42Hats...hats...glass.
0:48:42 > 0:48:47Our ancient traditions have become tourist pageants.
0:48:47 > 0:48:53This is the historical regatta - a celebration of our great history.
0:48:53 > 0:48:58It looks more like a pantomime on water.
0:48:58 > 0:49:01They are selling Venice everywhere.
0:49:01 > 0:49:04Gondola...and masks...
0:49:08 > 0:49:11The plastic gondola on top of your television!
0:49:11 > 0:49:14At Squero Tramontin,
0:49:14 > 0:49:18the same family has made gondolas for centuries.
0:49:18 > 0:49:21Tourism keeps the business going,
0:49:21 > 0:49:28but the exodus of Venetians means it won't be long before there's no-one to make them.
0:50:12 > 0:50:16This is Venice now - a tourist destination.
0:50:16 > 0:50:20A place recognised all over the world.
0:50:21 > 0:50:24An important survivor from another age.
0:50:24 > 0:50:26But also my home,
0:50:26 > 0:50:31still home to lots of Venetians... angry Venetians!
0:50:34 > 0:50:39We wonder if what you British started will kill our city.
0:50:39 > 0:50:45In my local barber's - one of the few places not selling souvenirs! -
0:50:45 > 0:50:51me and my friend Franco often grumble about what Venice has become.
0:52:00 > 0:52:05Since 1945, Venice has lost more than half of its population.
0:52:05 > 0:52:12And now we have the highest average age of any city in Europe.
0:52:21 > 0:52:25Many say that Venice is closer to death
0:52:25 > 0:52:28than it has ever been.
0:52:33 > 0:52:38We are heading for San Michele - Venice's cemetery island.
0:52:41 > 0:52:45It is the last journey we Venetians take.
0:52:45 > 0:52:48Here lie our dead.
0:52:48 > 0:52:53But the connection of every family to the city is becoming weaker.
0:52:55 > 0:52:59And Venice is slowly losing touch with its past.
0:53:02 > 0:53:05This is my family tomb -
0:53:05 > 0:53:08here lie many of my ancestors.
0:53:14 > 0:53:16Andrea da Mosto, 1879...
0:53:18 > 0:53:21Antonio da Mosto...
0:53:21 > 0:53:24Carlotta Bartakowicz...
0:53:26 > 0:53:32Andrea da Mosto, 1960 - he was my grandfather. I never met him.
0:53:32 > 0:53:35Eugenia de Vito Piscicelli.
0:53:35 > 0:53:38She was my grandmother.
0:53:38 > 0:53:43And my uncle, Antonio da Mosto, in 1998.
0:53:43 > 0:53:45And it's difficult to imagine
0:53:45 > 0:53:50what will become of Venice when I'm lying here.
0:53:56 > 0:54:00But the city's future doesn't lie in MY hands!
0:54:28 > 0:54:30All my life,
0:54:30 > 0:54:35the fight has been to stop Venice from sinking,
0:54:35 > 0:54:38to save this unique slice of history.
0:54:38 > 0:54:42But what about the people who live here? What about me...
0:54:42 > 0:54:45my family...?
0:54:46 > 0:54:50Venetians and their trades are dying out.
0:54:50 > 0:54:54The fabric of the city is intact,
0:54:54 > 0:54:56but its soul
0:54:56 > 0:54:58is slowly dying.
0:54:58 > 0:55:02My children go to school in Venice,
0:55:02 > 0:55:08but many fear they may be part of the very last generation of Venetians.
0:55:48 > 0:55:50Throughout its long history,
0:55:50 > 0:55:55Venice has time after time emerged triumphant
0:55:55 > 0:55:58from misfortune and adversity.
0:56:08 > 0:56:14In the children, I see hope that this unique city can be saved.
0:56:30 > 0:56:36Maybe they will even live in a Venice that is independent again -
0:56:36 > 0:56:40free of the confusion of modern Italy -
0:56:40 > 0:56:43so we can settle our own future!
0:56:53 > 0:56:55Most important of all,
0:56:55 > 0:57:00for the city to survive, I hope they make it their home.
0:57:00 > 0:57:03I pray they will!
0:57:53 > 0:57:57Subtitles by Judith Simpson BBC Broadcast 2004
0:57:57 > 0:58:00E-mail us at subtitling@bbc.co.uk