Politics of Washing: Real Life in Venice by Polly Coles

Author: Polly Coles 

Title: Politics of Washing: Real Life in Venice

Publisher: Robert Hale ltd

Published: 2013

Pages: 208

Genre: Memoir / Travel 

     This is the story of ordinary life in an extraordinary place. The beautiful city of Venice has been a fantasy land for people from around the globe for centuries, but what is it like to live there? To move house by boat, to get a child with a broken leg to hospital, or set off for school one morning only to find that the streets have become rivers and the playground is a lake full of sewage? When Polly Coles and her family left England for Venice, they discovered a city caught between modern and ancient life - where the locals still go on an annual pilgrimage to give thanks for the end of the Black Death; where schools are housed in Renaissance palaces and your new washing machine can only be delivered on foot. This is a city perilously under siege from tourism, but its people refuse to give it up - indeed, they love it with a passion. The Politics of Washing is a fascinating window into the world of ordinary Venetians and the strange and unique place they call home.

      I have been fortunate enough to do a fair bit of travel in my time here. And there are definitely places that feel like no other and stick with you for the rest of your life. I have on the other hand never stayed in one of these places for more than a few weeks. I am still after all a tourist in these foreign lands. Never have I been fortunate enough to stick around and fully immerse myself into another culture. So for the time being the best I can do Is pick up books like this and hope that it will give me a little understanding of what it is like to be a foreigner in a stage land. 

     Venice is somewhere that had been on my list of places to visit for a very long time. It is one of those places that seems to hold this magical place in our imaginations.  At the tale end of last year, I managed to make this become a reality. Getting to spend a week in this curious city was an eye-opening experience just as much as it was an adventure into the unknown. And whilst it most definitely lived up to what I had hoped it would be there is still an unspoken edge to this city. A place that most definitely has an uneasy relationship with the thousands of tourists who walk its streets every day. And this is I suppose how  I came to be in possession of Politics Of Washing. I wanted to better understand what it is like to call this place home and not just a place where you figure tips just get to skim the surface. 

     Coles and her partner came to the conclusion that they wanted their children to experience his culture before they become too old. A better understanding as to half of what made them into who they were becoming. It is in theory a beautiful idea. Children after all act like little sponges absorbing all around them at lightning speed. Venice however is a place that has a tricky relationship with outsiders. It is easy to understand when you take into account the alarming rate at which locals are being driven out by the spread of short-term holiday rentals and the reality that most visitors in the modern age will only visit the same few locations and unfortunately give little regard from those that call it home. But for the author, this was far from the idea they had. It was after all a  place they too hoped to call home and a land and people they truly hoped to become one with. 

     Cole takes us into her first year of living in this foreign land. In doing so a few things start to come to the source quite quickly. I believe that it doesn't really matter the location, there will always be friction between the way you are brought up and that of your adopted land. It is probably only when we find ourselves in such a situation do we then do we realize how much of our own country we truly are. For me, it was definitely interesting to see not only the differences between English sensibility and that of the Italians. But also going beyond that for in Venice they are Venetian first and Italian second.  A fact that is easier to understand when you realize just how young a unified Italy actually is. She does an amazing job of showing us this in light of what it is like in a day-to-day sense. For some, this may be an uneasy thing to come to terms with. What you are getting is not a chuckle-a-minute memoir of a fish out of water. For it became obvious quite quickly that for some Venice is under siege from tourists and foreigners and they would be quite happy if they would all leave and not come back. 

     There are times when she paints a very bleak picture of this city. We are left feeling just as unwelcome as the author and her family do. I suppose it does go for anywhere in the world that people turn up expecting something not all that short of a theme park forgetting it is a living breathing place. We also get to see just how hard Coles works to try and become excepted by those in her immediate community. It is very obvious from her writing that Coles has a deep love for this city and its people. It shines out in her writing even in the more tricky times. And I think it helps to readjust the way in which we look at Venice. Maybe it teaches the reader to give it far more compassion than they otherwise would consider giving it. That if you were to visit maybe learn a little of the language and make sure that the money you intended to spend goes in the favor of the locally owned shops and restaurants. And to be conscious that some people here are simply trying to go about their day-to-day not just passing through. 

     It is definitely hard to categorize this as a travel book and if you look at it such you will be greatly disappointed. Coles shows us what it is like to dive in at the deep end and try and learn to swim with the Venetian. It is a book that I'm glad I took the time to read and I know that it has given me a better understanding of what it is like to live there. Even if this is merely just dipping your toe into such a subject.