Grand Guignol On The Grand Canal

Grand Guignol on the Grand CanalIn front of the almond-paste architecture of the Excelsior Palace hotel on the Lido in Venice, the orchestra plays on the terrace above the beach. Two young couples dance, the kind of dancing that looks like arguments between peddlers on a busy street corner. The terrace is almost empty. In other years at this hour, six in the evening, no chair was vacant. The Adriatic murmurs at the rows of cabanas--tents that look as though they have been arranged for a medieval...