Music & mercy

explores Venice's Ospedale della Pietà, the girls' orphanage where Vivaldi taught and composed

- Venice Della

I had assumed it would be located in the dank backwaters of Venice. The Ospedale della Pietà – the orphanage where Antonio Vivaldi spent most of his career teaching music – I thought would be hidden away, lurking somewhere to the north of the island, somewhere tourists do not usually venture. I thought Venice would have been ashamed of it, and of the girls who grew up here.

It was a surprise, then, to walk just a few moments from St Mark’s Square and find myself facing an imposing building with green shuttered windows. I had to check Google Maps to make sure I was in the correct location. The Pietà, now the Hotel Metropole, looks proudly over the lagoon, occupying some of the most prestigious land mass in the world.

It was January 2022 when I first visited, in the depths of a winter still shadowed by the pandemic, although travel was finally allowed. Facemasks were to be worn on the streets and in the shops. The city was eerily quiet: my own footsteps followed me, echoing off the walls as I navigated the maze at night in search of a lost but tremendous true story.

The Hotel Metropole was closed when I arrived, as were most other hotels in Venice, but I was desperate to get inside. I called daily but no one answered. I took to walking past every afternoon, peering through the locked gates and seeing if I could spy anyone sweeping the floors, dusting the tables, preparing to open. Finally, after about three weeks, I walked past one afternoon and the doors were flung wide. There was music coming from inside.