A Little Venice Rant

  Well, we didn't make it to the Venice Biennale this year. Sigh. Heard it was a good one, too. We will shoot for 2013, fingers crossed. In previous posts, I've mentioned my love of contemporary art and the Venice Biennale in particular. But when I sit here at the gallery, fantasizing about Venice, it's the overwhelming beauty of the place that I am picturing in my mind. I won't even try to wax poetic about Venice. It's been done and done and done by the best. For me today, I just want to revisit some moments and dream about being back, creating more. 

  We are in the throes of planning our next trip to Panicale, and I'm going nuts looking at pictures from the last trip. It's such a tease. So going to Venice today is kind of a distraction, I guess. It is like going, too. I have an uncanny ability to conjure up in my mind the sight, sound, smell, and even the emotion of being someplace. While sitting here at my desk, on this cold December day, I will feel the warmth on my skin as I sit sipping my Aperol Spritz in Campo Santa Margherita, listening to the bells go off and the kids kicking around a soccer ball.

  What gets me, is how many people I've talked to that dislike Venice... "the crowds", "the smell", "the cost of a cup of coffee". Give me a break. For sure, you can expect to see masses of people in Piazza San Marco, or pay through the nose to sit in said piazza drinking a cappuccino. As for smell, well, we have never experienced this particular complaint. Live a little, and get the hell away from the hoards of people, lose yourself in the back streets and find the glory that is Venice. Stand at the bar in the neighborhood cafe and toss back an espresso like the locals. It will cost you less than a euro. 

  Try to discover the small squares where the few "true" locals hang around in the evenings. Grandmas gossiping on benches, moms with strollers watching the kids run around, dads catching up on the latest sport news. It does exist. I hear Venice is a slowly dying community, turning into a Disneyland for grown-ups. This is probably too true, like in so many Italian hilltowns that have been bought up by foreigners and turned into high priced short term rentals. This chases out the locals, who can't possibly pay the price to live in their own home towns. I have mixed feelings, of course. I am one of those who pays to "live" short term in a rented apartment where ever we go in Italy. But I also try to embrace the local culture, make friends and participate at what ever level I can. 

  I don't know the answer. I don't even know the question. What I feel I do know, is this - There are a couple of very different ways to experience travel:

  This way:

Sheesh.

Yikes.

  Or this way:

Just a couple of pigeons. 

  

  Yes, this is Venice.... graffiti and all...

  By strolling just a few minutes away from Piazza San Marco, you will find yourself walking down uncrowded calles (streets, in Venice), enjoying impossibly beautiful scenes of canals, or lovely small campos, and even public gardens and laundry drying in the breeze.

Pretty as a picture. Oh, wait....

Yep. The public park of Venice. It's huge, too. This is a main area for the Biennale. 

Normal folk,  just taking the kid to school... I love the "street signs" in this shot.

More empty, lovely calles to explore.

This is actually Burano, one of the outer islands near Venice. So pretty. Also, totally uncrowded when
you get away from the touristy main area.

  Now the money shots, because that's what we love to see, eh?

All together...."Oooo, Ahhhh..."
Oh, and I'll take that awesome water taxi on the left, please...

Cruising down the Grand Canal during the "Golden Hour".

Gondolas doing their gondola thing...

  So now you have no excuse, or at least not that lame "it's too crowded" one.... Venice is like a world wonder. Really. You should try to see it once in your lifetime. Just spend at least several days, stay off the main drag, get lost, and stop into the neighborhood osteria to enjoy some cicchetti with a glass of the house red. You will never regret it.