Venice is a natural fit for Crossed Lines. It combines a wealth of Renaissance and Baroque Italian artists for Neal plus a rich history with the supernatural for Dean and Sam. I've been including references to Venice since The Mirror when I introduced Raquel Laroque to the Caffrey Conversation AU. I mentioned Raquel's jewelry boutique was in Venice because I knew someday I wanted to write a story about Venice. I didn't originally plan to make it a supernatural-oriented story, but the characters had other ideas.
In Witches' Sabbath, Neal mentioned that Curtis Hagen had forged a painting by the Venetian artist Titian. The painting depicts Salome with the head of John the Baptist on a platter. At the time, Neal made a joke to Sam about John the Baptist being treated like a vampire. Later in the story, the witch Alcy Lancaster is revealed to also have a connection to Venice.
I've written for the blog about Venice's connection to vampires but not to witches and other supernatural creatures. As is common with historic cities everywhere, many of the palazzi in Venice are reputed to be haunted. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, hundreds of people were accused of witchcraft, although none were convicted.
Many others have been inspired by Venice's supernatural aura. One of my favorite Doctor Who episodes is "Vampires of Venice." Venice also appears in canon references in my other series. In Deborah Harkness's All Souls Trilogy, Venice is the location of the Congregation, the institution dedicated to preserving and protecting vampires, witches, and daemons from the human population. Genevieve Cogman set her second Invisible Library novel in Venice. Like those authors, I was drawn to the magical appeal of Venice. And when I found out about the Epiphany gondola races featuring witches, how could I resist including them?
Related post: Titian and Vampires
A Witch in Venice on Archive of Our Own
A Witch in Venice on Fanfiction
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