Lord Byron
“I loved her from my boyhood,— she to me.
Was as a fairy city of the heart”
George Gordon Byron, better known as Lord Byron (1788-1824) was a quintessentially Romantic poet – a literary superstar of his age. Tales of his lifestyle, scandals and eccentric acts were discussed in drawing rooms all over Europe.
Arriving in 1816 amid another scandal in England, Byron settled in Venice for three years (1816–1819), reveling in its libertine spirit: affairs with aristocratic lovers, midnight revels, and legendary swims through the lagoon. He declared himself “the poet who swam more than all others put together.” Legend says he swam alongside a gondola from the Lido’s sandy shores across the brackish waters to where he stayed at the Palazzo Mocenigo (near San Stae on the Grand Canal). From there, he dashed to favorite haunts like the Armenian Monastery on San Lazzaro (translating hymns and enjoying his favorite rose petal jam), as well as to cafes, like the famous Florian, for coffee and gossip.
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