The Moving Pictures view of Venice can be found here Venezia.wmv (7.2MByte)



Well the reputation of Venice as the most romantic city in the world is not in question, the real question is who is the city for. It cant be for the residents, with all these bloody tourists making a hash of their language, wanting everything cheaper, and house prices that are unmanageable.

So you must think this city is for the tourists, the biggest names in the retail industry, packed into the biggest and most complex pedestrian strip mall ever created, lots of things to see and do, and many ways to spend lots of dollars.
But what about the other population here, that is really well looked after, doesn't have to pay a thing, and whose existence seems to be secure, except for a few really clever cats...why the pigeons of course.

Its lunch time in St Marco Square, arguably one of the most well known areas in the world, and its full of pigeons.
Not only do the tourists feed them, the locals sell them the food to do it....any other place and the authorities would be trying to find a solution to this feathered problem, instead Venice has this embraced the pigeons as one of there own.

As for the city itself, its full of couples here, most of them gazing into each other eyes or strolling along the water front holding hands. There are the odd few who take things a little further, providing further smiles, winks, and suggestive looks from all the other couples who were thinking the same thing but just couldn't go through with it. The lonely planet advises trying not to look at the map, and just to walk around and discover by accident. This is by far the best thing to do, as the maps are way to hard to read, and as soon as you try to find a specific place, shop, or bar that you are not right beside, you will get horribly lost. However you will soon come across a place as suitable, if not better, by not even trying.

The same with trying to head in a specific direction, not only will the lane twist and turn like a 60's dance maniac, it will either come to a insurmountable body of water, or morph into another street name and direction without you realizing. However it is really hard to get lost for long, as sooner or later you will end up in san Marcos square. Its not so much that all paths lead to San Marco, its more like gravity has been realigned in Venice, and San Marco being the center of the universe here drags you in. I have on several occasions been quite convinced that I was heading away from the square, only to find it around the next corner.

The grand canal is a throng of ferries, barges, and gondolas, all competing for the same patch of water. It seems ferries get most of it, probably due to the fact they know only two speeds, full forward or full reverse, and the taxis are next on the list, due to there exsessive numbers and "this is my road" style of manners they share with there terra firma colleagues, the elegant gondola's generally stick to the smaller channels where motors cant use.. On one occasion I did see two ferries in a game of chicken, luckily there seemed to be some kind of code, and they successfully avoided any damaged egos.

Venice lies in a lagoon which is separated from the Adriatic sea by the long outlying islands, of which lido is the closest to Venice and is almost considered a suburb of the city. It doesn't really seem like Venice on these islands, there are cars for one thing, and you can actually live in a house with a yard, although I am sure it would still cost you an average fortune. Apparently the beach's on these outer islands are packed in the summer , and evidence of this is the thousands of private beach shacks, row upon row, for the privileged to hang out in for the day in the sand and sun and gaze at the blue horizon.

Night time in Venice is a special time, the glow of the lights off the water and the soft ripple of the wakes lapping against the stone walls. the stone alleyways are filled with outdoor restaurants and people, for at least a while, There is a huge absence of the a single night life, and pretty shortly after dinner is over, and everyone has finished their moonlight walk, the streets get deserted pretty fast, even the pigeons go to sleep somewhere, and you have the city to yourself for a few hours...

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