Venice

Ever since the bagel shop closed many years ago, this tiny boutique of a space just south of Rittenhouse Square has struggled to find an enduring tenant. How about the small-plate appeal of Venetian cichetti and a wine bar? Former gondolier Andrea Luca Rossi, also a veteran of Girasole and numerous Boston restaurants, is giving the concept from his native town a try - and I like the early vibe. Out with the fussy white leather couches and marble of the old Italian wine bar. In with more rustic woods and casual buzz of the small-plate cantina.

The Merchant of Venice that Barry Edelstein has set on the stage of the Joseph Papp Public Theatre is one despairing view of human relations. The quarrels of the Montagues and Capulets are childish tantrums when set against the mutual hatred of Jews and Christians in this production, which betrays scarcely a hint of human feeling. You will search in vain here for more than a shred of decency in Ron Leibman's Shylock, Laila Robins' Portia, or any of the smarmy Christian men- about-the-canals who despise the Jewish moneylender and are despised by him in turn.

In Luchino Visconti's Death in Venice (1971), a famous composer, Gustav von Aschenbach (based on Gustav Mahler, said to have inspired the Thomas Mann novella on which the movie is based), goes to Venice late in the season. An amethyst cloud of fog shrouds the city of canals, yet the grieving musician (who recently has buried his wife and children) sees a vision of ideal beauty. A young Polish lad named Tadzio haunts the composer, movingly played by Dirk Bogarde, who is aroused aesthetically and sexually out of his grief.

In their 60 pictures on view at Haverford College, Venetian photographers Carlo Jacobi and Orestre Bertani use working methods that make other photographers look superficial by comparison. Their pictures rely on the witnesslike ability of the camera. They contain exquisitely rendered documentary detail. Jacobi and Bertani give constant attention to information and the use of straightforward, familiar forms and conventions as well as to composition that includes human figures going about their daily rounds.

When it comes to poetic brilliance, psychological depth, internal consistency and other such niceties, The Merchant of Venice may never crash the front rank of the Shakespearean canon. When it comes to telling a ripping good story, however, this early play about justice, mercy, privilege and prejudice can stand with the best of them - and Russell Treyz isn't about to let us forget it. Treyz has directed the Merchant that runs through July 30 at the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival here at Allentown College, and a first-rate Merchant it is. Deftly shuttling back and forth among the narrative's several intercut strains, Treyz achieves both a bracing pace and a gathering tension - a tension all the more effective for seldom raising its voice.

If you're feeling fancy free Come wander through the world with me And any place we chance to be . . . - "Two for the Road" We had sat down at the Gran Caffe Chioggia, in the Piazzetta San Marco, with little more in mind than an after-dinner cup of coffee. But when we learned that the trio solicited requests, I asked if they could play "Two for the Road," an all-but-forgotten Henry Mancini song with those sweet, unpretentious lyrics by Leslie Bricusse. In moments the piano player was gently fingering the melody, and the bassist began to back him, tentatively.

The sky was a drizzle-threatening gray as my train crossed the long causeway that connects the Italian mainland to Venice. It's an ingress that often has been compared to the back-door entrance of a palace, but that morning it struck me as being more like a three-mile intravenous tube that the modern world was using to pump its rich diet of tourism into the fossilized body of the city. The weather wasn't a very cheery omen, particularly for someone as groggy and full of expectations as I. Venice can be resplendent in the sunshine, heart-breakingly melancholy in the fog, wild and romantic in a thunderstorm; but under a leaden sky of late fall, she takes on an expression that is at once pinched and sullen.

With an illustrious history that extends more than 1,200 years, Venice certainly lacks the ersatz quality of DisneyWorld, and with the stench of decay that pervades the canals, it is hardly a sparkling paragon. But before the opening of Euro Disney in France this month, Venice was the closest thing Europe had to America's giant amusement park - an unreal city-museum kept alive almost exclusively by tourism. THE BASICS. Once Europe's most powerful city-state, because of its north Adriatic location and mercantile expertise, Venice consists of about 120 little islands, surrounded by more than 175 canals and connected by 400 bridges, some of them architectural masterpieces.

No longtime Venetian can forget the events of Nov. 4, 1966, when wind and water from the Adriatic Sea came crashing into this most improbable of cities and created the worst flood in living memory. The water on the ground floor of Gianni Zanon's house came up to the top of his legs. He had no electricity; power lines were too wet to carry electricity. Merchandise in the shops was soaked. The canals were so swollen that it was impossible to get to work - besides, his office was flooded.

"Is there anyone but must repress a secret thrill, on arriving in Venice for the first time . . . and stepping into a Venetian gondola? That singular conveyance, come down unchanged from ballad times, black as nothing else on earth except a coffin - what pictures it calls up of lawless, silent adventures . . . what visions of death itself, the bier and solemn rites and last soundless voyage. " - Thomas Mann, "Death in Venice" In a scruffy shed where two tiny canals intersect, master craftsman Romeo Crivellaro carefully chiseled a winged lion on the prow of a wooden boat with sinuous, asymmetrical curves - unmistakably, a gondola.

LOS ANGELES - The crew of NCIS: Los Angeles was in the middle of filming a scene on the Venice boardwalk when a man wearing only his underwear and a cape rode by on his bicycle shouting obscenities. On another occasion, a stranger wielding a plastic light saber showed up on the set and challenged one of the actors to a duel, temporarily halting production. "Those kind of things continually go on in Venice, but we love going down there because it's so colorful and captures the essence of what people think Southern California is - the beaches, the sunshine, the palms and the craziness," said Tony Salome, location manager for the crime drama starring Chris O'Donnell and LL Cool J. Venice Beach, a storied cinematic backdrop since the silent film era, continues to play a starring role in Hollywood.

The excellent, fast-moving rendition of The Merchant of Venice by Quintessence Theatre Group at the Sedgwick in Mount Airy is all the more interesting for its choices. Quintessence artistic director Alexander Burns lets William Shakespeare's tale flow like the river of nastiness it is - a comedy because it follows the Elizabethan rule that it end with marriages, but a revenge play that many see nowadays as a repellent portrait of Jews and Christians alike. Burns paints that clearly, and the adept cast wastes little time in displaying a spitfire hatred of whomever their characters despise.

VENICE, Italy - Russian director Aleksander Sokurov's Faust , a new take on the German legend about the quest for knowledge at all cost, won the Golden Lion prize Saturday at the Venice Film Festival. Dense and difficult to watch, Faust was nevertheless one of the critics' top choices among the 23 in-competition films at Venice this year. It snapped up the top prize by the jury headed by Darren Aronofsky, whose Black Swan opened at the Lido last year. Faust tells the tale of a professor, played by Johannes Zeiler, who craves knowledge and sells his soul for the love of Margarete, played by Isolda Dychauk.

Your editorial "Man the lifeboats" (Oct. 6) sure did miss the boat. The Venice project was completed in 2007 and this was the first flood we encountered. The minimal damage was promptly fixed in 48 hours. Our city (police, fire, streets) and our management staff did a fantastic job. Only one resident was taken out on a raft because he would not leave when advised by Philadelphia police and Dranoff management. All of our residents, except for the seven townhouse residents who were put up in luxury accommodations for the evening, were back in their homes the night they were evacuated.

Flood waters poured into the Venice Lofts apartments in Manayunk today, forcing a mass evacuation and leading two people to be rescued by raft. Some residents at the complex, which sits on 300-acre Venice Island between the Manayunk Canal and the Schuylkill River, awoke to sudden danger. "When I looked out the window, it looked like Katrina," said Christopher Smalls, 28. "Cars were floating. " Smalls, who has lived two years in one of the townhomes, was rescued by Fire Department workers who reached him on a raft, then floated him to safety.

Deadly protests grow in Kashmir SRINAGAR, India - Tens of thousands of Kashmiris staged angry street demonstrations Friday after government forces killed four people and injured 31 during the latest unrest against Indian rule in the Himalayan region. Two months of violent clashes with security forces have left at least 55 people dead in Indian-controlled Kashmir, mostly protesters who have been shot. The unrest shows no signs of easing despite the deployment of more troops and calls from the Indian prime minister for calm.

She inspired William Shakespeare, Henry James, and Thomas Mann. She gave us Casanova and Marco Polo; Shylock, Pinocchio, and Vivaldi; Carnivale and La Biennale. And even today, as she sinks ever so slowly beneath the weight of her own water, Venice mesmerizes. Some 25 years ago, an English teacher and opera expert originally from Montclair, N.J., felt the lure of the lagoons and adopted Venice as her home. Now Donna Leon, 67, is the celebrated author of 19 international best sellers (more than two million sold)

Ever since the bagel shop closed many years ago, this tiny boutique of a space just south of Rittenhouse Square has struggled to find an enduring tenant. How about the small-plate appeal of Venetian cichetti and a wine bar? Former gondolier Andrea Luca Rossi, also a veteran of Girasole and numerous Boston restaurants, is giving the concept from his native town a try - and I like the early vibe. Out with the fussy white leather couches and marble of the old Italian wine bar. In with more rustic woods and casual buzz of the small-plate cantina.

Effective next week, the short-lived Di Vino Wine Bar just off Rittenhouse Square gives way to Cichetteria 19 (267 S. 19th St., 215-545-0441), a Venetian-inspired small-plater. New partner/executive chef Andrea Luca Rossi, a onetime gondolier in Venice and previously manager at the nearby Girasole, has retained sous chef Shiah Blau. The cozy atmosphere is aimed at the neighborhood, and the plan is to obtain local and organic ingredients. Most dishes, intended to be paired with 2.5-ounce wine samplings or cocktails, are $8 or $9, while pizzas are in the mid-teens; see menu at http://go.

The countdown has begun at La Bonne Auberge , the classic French restaurant in a 250-year-old farmhouse off the main drag in New Hope. Rozanne and Gerard Caronello say Dec. 19 will be their last night after 38 years. La Bonne Auberge is one of the few remaining dress-up spots in the region. "It's my husband's knees," Rozanne Caronello said. "When I see him limping after work, I know we're doing the right thing. " During a long, relaxing trip recently to mark their 40th anniversary, they noticed a difference.