Venice

The first time I visited Venice I was about twelve years old.  One of my favorite memories of that trip was a Vaporetto ride with my family on our way to Burano. Back then you could visit Venice in the summer and still find a seat on a Vaporetto.  

Due to our boredom, my sister and I decided to yank on both sides of my father’s scraggly beard.  As he tried to fight both myself and my sister off of him, a Venetian woman sitting next to us laughed, pointed to my sister and I, and called us “Calamari!”

Venice is the woman too beautiful for her own good.  For years she has attracted tourists of all stripes and in the age of cheap flights and mass tourism she is being pushed to her limits.

These days, many locals themselves are displeased by the strained infrastructure and many now doubt the purported economic value of this volume of tourism on such a small city.  But if you pay attention you can still find locals like the woman on the Vaporetto.  The locals who still find some pleasure and amusement in the silly tourists.  It seems that if you just act polite and respectful, you won't have a problem.  On our recent visit, I was also impressed by the fact that most Venetians spoke perfect English and if not English, their Spanish was excellent as well.

And still the city’s magnificence shines through.  The best way to see the city is early morning, before the throngs have settled in for the kill. Take a stroll, even around Piazza San Marco in July, at 6 am and you can still have her almost all to yourself.