Venice

In our winter trip to Milan with my sons, we went to Venice, or as the Arabs call it, "Albondokia," by train and spent two days there. To be honest, I don't know much about it other than a childhood fantasy in which the city was associated with romance and two lovers riding in a gondola, with the gondolier holding the oar and singing. This is well established in movies and cartoons. As I said, this is "a fantasy that shaped the city in my mind," and I add to that the play of "The Merchant of Venice," this play that is considered one of the masterpieces of the playwright William Shakespeare, and other legends that were associated with that city and were associated in parallel with my mind since childhood. Here I am now visiting that city and seeing it in reality, not in a book or a movie. There is no doubt that its beauty and fragrant history overwhelm it, although it is sometimes plagued by some unpleasant odors as a result of the stagnation of water in some water channels, as well as the significant spread of rats. Of course, the best way to understand any new city you visit is to either seek the help of a tour guide or to walk around with a realtor, who can reveal to you the supply of real estate. Of course, my sons chose to have a tour guide. Among the things that attracted me the most on that trip were not the buildings nor the city’s gondolas, but rather its ancient history, as it is one of the oldest republics in history and it has a democratic system of government of its own with its own definition that is in line with their customs and traditions. It is the city of merchants and the rich. The ruling system in it circulates between them. While visiting the Ducal Palace The tour guide explained that he is the one who represents the ruler in the city. He is elected by the Senate, which represents wealthy senior families. This means that the elected council represents only the rich and merchants, and they are the ones who elect the duke, who must be one of the sons of well-known families. He should have wealth, through which he can afford the expenses of the palace and what he receives from senior and junior employees, as well as lavish money on the public from time to time. in the sense that whoever wants to become a duke must bear the expenses at his own expense and not at the expense of the state. There is also an age condition, so the age of fifty was the minimum for assuming power, and after that it was raised to seventy years, as one of them had Allah extend his life to 85 years, and since the position is for life, the Governing Council decided to raise the age so that the period of rule would not be prolonged and to permit the rotation of power. The strange thing about their system is that the duke has no right to sit with visitors or ambassadors except in the presence of six members of the Governing Council, and he also has no right to leave the palace except with two of them, in order to ensure that he does not act or complicate an agreement with others without the knowledge of the council, as this is strict control on the actions of the duke, lest he be carried away by corruption or treachery to the city. The Republic of Venice lived for eleven centuries, practicing trade, fighting pirates, and guarding sea routes. During the thirteenth century, its fleets joined the Crusades in the hope of controlling the Byzantine ports, so the republic turned into a maritime empire that dominated the eastern Mediterranean for the next three centuries. Venice allied with the Mamluks in Egypt in the face of the Portuguese, then clashed with the Ottoman expansion until they imposed their presence. Venice was one of the first systems to implement the anti-corruption system (NAZAHA), and they did so in their own unique way. It is noted in some city centers that there is a stone carving with three faces, each with a hole in the mouth. This sculpture is intended for reporting any manifestations of corruption or complaint, so the complainant or whoever wants to slander another person, in the mouth of one of the faces, a paper containing information and evidence. Then the paper fell into a box with two keys, and three policemen came, two of whom had a key, and the third watches them to legalize the tampering. Then the papers are sent to the court, where the accused is summoned; if his innocence is proven, the whistleblower is summoned, and the ruling of the reported crime is applied to him. Venice continued to flourish until it fell into the hands of Napoleon, who was keen to waste and dismantle the entity of that principality, especially trade, so it lost its brilliance and began to feed on the crumbs of tourists. Venice is a beautiful city, and it is worth visiting before the sea covers it. The high-water level, its daily flood, and the way the city coexists with it are things worth considering, but I recommend not visiting it in the summer due to the high humidity as well as the unpleasant smells, in contrast to the presence of large numbers of tourists.

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