This is Write Here, a column the place authors and literary luminaries inform us in regards to the travels they took to discover inspiration and create their newest books.
In this installment, the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Andrew Sean Greer describes dwelling in Venice whereas finishing his newest novel Villa Coco. In it, a younger post-graduate solutions a help-wanted advert for somebody to take stock of the contents of a “modest country home.” Turns out it’s an ageing and charismatic Italian villa belonging to an ageing and charismatic Italian Baronessa. Though the guide is essentially set in Tuscany—and based mostly on the writer’s time spent at a Tuscan writers’ retreat hosted by the Santa Maddalena Foundation—Greer accomplished the guide whereas in Venice, having moved there from Milan together with his associate as a result of “it seemed like a good place to write.” Below, he explains how Venice helped him end his novel and the eye-opening expertise of dwelling and writing in a nation not his personal.
“In late 2024 I moved to Venice. It was getting unaffordable dwelling in Milan, and since my associate is Italian and doesn’t but have a inexperienced card for the United States, we had to discover someplace to dwell in Italy, which I suppose is a good drawback to have. I mentioned, ‘I would like a medieval tower above the sea,’ and he rudely mentioned, ‘No.’
Really, I needed someplace quiet with a good restaurant, a lovely sq., and a masterpiece of artwork in a church—one thing to encourage me however not distract me. So we spent about a yr and a half making an attempt totally different places: We visited lakeside cities exterior of Rome. We went to the south of Naples, alongside the coast. And lastly, my associate mentioned, ‘Why don’t we strive Venice?’ He’s from close to there and has mates who dwell within the lagoon. But it simply didn’t happen to me that you might try this. It’s virtually like saying, ‘I want to live in Sleeping Beauty’s citadel at Disney World.’
We arrived in Venice in November, the start of winter. It’s a very quiet season right here, which was excellent as a result of I used to be already deep into Villa Coco and I had to maintain working. Friends informed me how to get a cross to the library on the Fondazione Querini Stampalia, this palazzo within the metropolis’s Castello district. The library has rooms with desks, lamps looking on a backyard, and plenty of different folks additionally working, which is the easiest way to get your self working too.
To get there from our condominium, I might take the good distance round on a vaporetto—this lovely journey alongside the Giudecca Canal that stops on the docks at San Marco–San Zaccaria. Doing that day by day was a magical approach to focus. In Venice, there’s simply one thing attention-grabbing to have a look at on a regular basis, particularly proper now with the Art Biennale happening. Living in a nation not my very own and dealing in a language not my very own makes me alert to my environment. You want that frame of mind so as to have the ability to create. On early morning walks alongside the Zattere, this waterfront promenade within the Dorsoduro district, I discover the crowds of runners and aged girls, the canine walkers and staff getting the trash boats prepared, issues I hadn’t seen earlier than.
Prior to Italy, I lived and wrote in San Francisco for 30 years. Maybe it’s simply what occurs with time, however I wasn’t paying consideration as a lot or I’d block out issues. And Milan was not useful to my writing. It was too comparable to different business-y cities and, I believe, didn’t have sufficient for me to absorb visually after I walked. To be truthful, I used to be there principally throughout the Covid-19 pandemic so I might solely stroll round three blocks. I did not get something out of it—and I do not imply materials. I imply this different factor the place you’re actually in a position to let your ideas wander and picture. In Venice, for instance, I’d see a carved face on the facet of a constructing and consider a metaphor, or make it one thing that a character within the guide notices. Anything I see can grow to be a part of the story I’m writing.