Venice - Too Many People, Too Much of a Tourist Trap

Our experience of Venice was simply too many people, specifically too many tourists. The whole place was set up for the tourists and from what we were told most of the Venetians have moved, their homes being purchased by foreigners. It didn’t feel like a true Italian city, rather more like a really large Disney ride. The Murano glass factory was cool, but the demonstration was too short as far as I was concerned - I could have watched that glass artist for a lot longer. Then, of course, we had to go through all the display rooms and get some slick pitches from sales people (which were as long as the glass artisan demonstration). The narrow streets were filled with shops, but all selling basically the same things - Murano glass, lace and linen work, souvenirs of Venice, or food for the tourists.

We also had a gondola ride, but far from being romantic we had 4 other people in the gondola with us and what was almost a traffic jam of gondolas moving about the canals. But not all was negative about the gondola ride, once we got into the interior canals of Venice it got much quieter - a nice change from the commotion of the streets. It was also interesting to see how the buildings were deteriorating and sinking in certain parts - hardly surprising when you consider how Venice was created. I didn’t realize that Venice was basically built on an artificial island in the middle of a lagoon. This was done apparently for defensive purposes, as was the intentionally maze-like streets.

For all its supposed splendour and culture we found it basically crowded and kitschy - certainly not the Venice of Verdi anymore. Shortly before we were to leave a storm blew in and it started to rain (good thing it held off until we were finished the gondola ride, otherwise we would have been stranded in the open and gotten really soaked. We boarded our waterbus, glad to get out of the rain, and glad to be heading back to the mainland where our hotel was.

One final note about Venice: on our way back to the part of Venice on the mainland (or Venize Mestre as it is know to the Italians) we went by many huge yachts, which we discovered were there for the opening of a new Modern Art Museum, invited there by the owner of the Gucci company who was a major benefactor for the new museum. Some of those yachts were massive, almost mini-cruise ships (some people have to much money!) Which leads me to my final comment - Venice is home to a large ship-building company (Fincantieri) that makes cruise ships including the Disney Cruise line - somehow appropriate for a place that seemed to me to have a false reality like a Disney ride.