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An end to Britain's 'sick society' lies in vibrant local government, as illustrated in Vittore Carpaccio's beguiling vision of Venice
What makes a city live? And what can kill it? These are questions Britons in Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool and London may want to ask after this summer's bleak revelation that urban England is not in the rudest of social health.
But if you are in search of cities that work, you can do a lot worse than focus on Italy. In Vittore Carpaccio's painting The Miracle of the Relic of the True Cross on the Rialto Bridge, a crowded skyline of curiously shaped chimneys decorates the peach and sapphire sky, while crowds of people in fine robes congregate around the wooden Rialto bridge. This was Venice in 1494, when Carpaccio painted a series on the commercial heart of the great maritime republic.
It is a vision of city life that still beguiles today: compact and human-scaled, intimate and livable, the Renaissance Italian city is a dream of urban planning. But, in fact, the cities of Italy – then and now – demonstrate a rich diversity of urban possibilities.
Venice is unique, obviously: it seems to float. But its singularity is just one of the defiant personalities displayed by Italian cities. As is well known, Italy was not unified until 1861. Before that, its history was largely shaped by city states; this autonomy encouraged cities to pursue radically different models of urban life.
Renaissance political theorists were struck by the constrast between stately, tranquil Venice and the equally wealthy – yet violent and unstable – republic of Florence. If Carpaccio's scenes transport us to 15th-century Venice, the definitive image of Florence in the same period is a scene of three men being burned in the city centre. Why did Florence suffer so many tumults when Venice was so calm?
In modern times, as in the Renaissance, Italy's urban experience is diverse. While northern cities such as Ferrara seem little paradises, the great sprawling southern city of Naples is notoriously troubled. The problems of organised crime that bedevil Naples have also scarred Palermo in Sicily: as recently as the 1990s, large areas of Palermo were derelict no-go zones.
Now here's the amazing thing. Contrary to those who think history is irrelevant to understanding the modern world, the pattern of urban glory and mayhem in modern Italy exactly conforms to historical patterns. Naples was as raw in the days of Caravaggio as it is today. The southern cities did not govern themselves like the northern republics, and the difference showed in mass poverty and desperate rebellions.
Is there a moral for modern-day Britain here? The best cities govern themselves, Italy suggests, and nurture civic pride. It does not seem to matter if a city state is a republic or a monarchy – it is always more vibrant than a city ruled from far away. Obviously British cities are not going to become autonomous states, but the Italian evidence is that strong, exuberant local government is a good thing. So is respect for your city's history and cultural heritage, and so is a dynamic relationship with the surrounding countryside. We can't all live in Venice. But we don't have to live in the City of Dis.
