Venice

VENICE IS SINKING

Venice didn’t start off well. Refuelling the Panda at the auto petrol station meant we had to return there during normal hours to get our change (~ $80). It was early evening, and whilst waiting for the water bus into Venice Island, a plague of mosquitos attacked. Water taxis are beautiful wooden speed boats with a low luxurious rear cabin. The driver stands at the bow, steering with one hand and talking on a mobile phone in the other. They fly along (too fast for the mosquitos) but cost 4 times as much as the water bus - $140! Venice looked very pretty at night, with the lights of Piazzo San Marco reflecting in the lagoon.

Next morning was a very different story. Tourists, tourists and nothing but tourists, and the things they like to buy. Souvenirs, jewellery, hats and t-shirts and Murano glass.

Venice is sinking. In St Mark’s Square people had to walk on temporary platforms to avoid the rising water. Police stood in the water at the junction of these platforms, directing pedestrians. The stinking water from the lagoon was bubbling up through the drains and flooding the square. The only dry pavement was a 10 metre wide strip down the middle. Water was lapping at shop doorways. Waiters, wearing gum boots, were moving chairs and tables out of the water. A pianist played on a grand piano accompanied by a violinist, on a raised platform, as the water rose. Was it “Nero fiddled while Rome….. “ or a scene from “Titanic“? It was surreal and pathetically comical.

When we returned in the afternoon the square was dry again. The tables were back, the musicians were still playing and the waiters had taken off their gum boots. We visited St Mark’s Cathedral and the beautiful gold mosaics. Free to visit except paid E2 to see the gold and jewel encrusted altar piece behind the altar. Down every alley were magnificent marble buildings and picture postcard views of canals. Quite a few Venice Biennale exhibitions/installations dotted around the city. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to visit very many. Some quite wacky. Like layers of steel cages in a church (not sure what it all meant).

Venice is a theme park. Tourists dominate. They’re everywhere, in their thousands, getting in my way, me getting in their photographs. Almost no one lives on Venice Island anymore. It’s too expensive, so the workers now live on Lido (a nearby island) or the mainland. The beautiful old buildings of Venice are either tourist accommodation or just empty. By walking down some small, off the tourist route alleyways, we saw a few locals doing local things. One man was lifting his boat out of the canal by crane and swinging it into his ground floor garage (I think he might have been able to float it in).

Nothing is free in Italy, especially Venice. There are no public toilets anywhere, so you have to buy a coffee to have a pee. Locals are sick of tourists, and so are not very friendly. Maps in English had always just run out. Directions to use public transport were harder to find than in Tokyo. Now that we have left, let Venice sink, and take the mosquitos with it.