Arrivaderci Roma - Buon Giorno Venezia!

Trip Start Apr 02, 2010
1
6
12
Trip End Apr 12, 2010


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Flag of Italy  , Veneto,
Tuesday, April 6, 2010

We arrived in Venice around noon today and immediately headed to the Grand Canal. It was sunny but cooler than Rome. I’m glad I brought my spring jacket. I do not believe there is a more beautiful city in the world! Down every narrow street and around every corner the next view was more pleasing than the one you just believed couldn’t be topped. We made it to San Marco’s Square and saw the Basilica. The architecture and artistry are absolutely amazing. And it is so nice to be able to walk without worrying about whether you are going to get run over. We’ll go back tomorrow to do more sightseeing. One particularly nice thing about Venice is the way people bring their dogs every where. They are on the trains and in the parks and on the water taxis. The dogs don’t bark at each other and they have great big smiles on their faces as they walk along with their owners. Dr. Q just got back from Spain a couple of weeks ago and said that all of the women in Europe wear scarves around their necks
Gotta See a Gondola
Gotta See a Gondola
. He was right - at least looking at Rome and Venice. So I bought a scarf too and feel like I fit right in (except that I can’t understand a thing they are saying. And Ellen said I sound like Brad Pitt in Inglorious Basterds when I say "buon giorno", so I’ve stopped trying). 

There are some very talented artists selling their watercolors and photos along the canals.  Ellen and I bought some watercolor scenes of Venice to bring back home with us.  I had a chance to speak with one of the photographer/artists who has lived here in Venice all of his life.  He bemoaned what he described as the turning of this beautiful city into a Disneyland.  He said that the high cost of real estate and taxes are forcing the people and businesses who have been here for years and years to leave and places that will appeal to tourists are moving in.  He said that the several neighborhoods in the city had always had their own unique characteristics and life, but that the spirit is rapidly leaving them.  He fears that all of Venice will one day be nothing more than an amusement park with no substance to it.  He mentioned that there is no longer a hospital in Venice and I asked where they treat their mentally ill.  (I have seen no one during this vacation who appears to have an active mental illness.)  It seems that in years past they used to hospitalize all of the women on one of the islands and all of the men on another island!  But those places have been closed as well now and you have to go to the mainland for any kind of medical care.  It was nice to get a chance to speak with someone who actually lived in Venice who wasn't afraid to share his real thoughts.  He definitely was not a socialist - I think more a neo-capitalist.

Ellen and I also shopped for Venetian masks.  There are dozens of stores that sell them.  The prices range from the reasonable to the fantastic.  But then again, some of the masks are truly works of art.  I'd like to come back some day for Carnival.
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