Tag: Venice

As a city, Venice has been the center of intrigue since time immemorial, and it’s been just as intriguing during modern times for ex-pats like Peggy Guggenheim.

One of the most poignant stories I read about Peggy Guggenheim in Venice was her attraction to the Beat Poet Gregory Corso. During her early years in Venice, the art heiress described her time as “lonely.” And during her later years, I believe her state of mind was much the same, particularly when she learned that Corso was attracted to her daughter.

Corso noticed the despair I speak of as he left her for the last time, writing in his letters: “I kissed her good-bye and while I watched her walk away I saw that she put her hand to her head as though she were in pain. I suddenly realized the plight of the woman by that gesture. She is a liver of life, and life is fading away. That’s all there is to it.” Relating the lives of literature’s greats to a city in this way adds depth to the urban-scapes I see when I visit them, and I do it often. I hope to go back to Venice someday. I’ve learned a great deal more about Guggenheim since I visited so I believe my time in town would have even more depth.