Raising A Glass To The Hidden Side Of Venice

23.02.2024 - 03:54 / forbes.com

Back in the days when I was a student living in Venice, before Google Maps and GPS systems, getting lost was a frequent occurrence. I’d often find myself wandering around the picturesque waterways, stumbling across tiny squares, crumbling bridges and hidden, narrow walkways, in the quest to find somewhere. One minute, I could be a piazza teaming with tourists and, next, it was not uncommon to suddenly find myself in a narrow calle, with no one around, hearing the echoes of my footsteps against the lapping of the green-hued canal water. Coming from London and knowing my way around that vast city, this, at first, felt like a painful start to becoming a resident here. Yet, quickly, this feeling was superseded by a sense of joy, especially when discovering hidden treasures off the beaten track. Going off the tourist paths is the fastest way to discover the real sense of this ancient city.

The city’s haphazard signage often hindered, not helped, me in trying to find a specific address. In Venice, street names can be found in both Venetian dialect and pure Italian (there’s no rhyme or reason); numbers of buildings are not necessarily in methodical order; some streets have no names, while others might be labelled according to what district it is found in (there are six zones or ‘sestieri’ in Venice). In short, you find your way around the calli, campi and fondamenti, by getting lost—it’s all part of the thrill of discovering this extraordinary city, whether you live there or simply are a visitor.

Launching this month, and capturing this notion of the ‘unseen’ side of Venice, is Life View by Aperol, the famous orange spritz drink that has its roots in the city. Powered by Google technology, Life View, hosted on Google Maps Street View, invites viewers to travel on previously uncaptured waterways in just a few clicks. Using brand new 360⁰ footage, it allows viewers to explore Venice for themselves through an interactive map. The aim, says the brand, is to capture and share the real lives of Venetians, inviting the world take a new view of the city’s famous waterways.

To uncover these ‘secrets’ of Venice, Aperol ended up creating a new boat for the project. It is the only boat that, due to its shape and size, can enter and navigate through all the canals of Venice. As a result,over ten canalshave been identifiedthat didn’t previously exist on Google Street View including Rio Brazzo, Rio Lustraferi & more.

“The innovative footage brings a sense of immersion, capturing the spontaneous interactions that occur between the locals who work and live on the canals,” says the brand. Supporting local Venetian organizations, the content sees specialized glass-blowing artists from Wave Murano Glass, the generationally