I have very mixed feelings about Venice. While I met some really cool people at the hostel, I spent most of my time there travelling alone, and perhaps this skewed my perspective a little.
While I think that Venice is a unique place on this planet, and one that must be seen in a person's lifetime, Venice of today only exists for the tourist.
It is the home to some of the great architectural works, some great art works, and of course its unique place as a city of canals, but it is a city that has no real other function than tourism. This bothers me quite a bit. Every other place I've been has been a functioning city, but Venice seems to be a shell of its self. It is a city of great beauty and exploring the alleys and backstreets can be a very enjoyable experience, but when you hit the main tourist areas, it's a fight to keep your lunch down at the sight of the tourist mob and the kitsch vendors trying to capitalize on it. In fact, it's quite stressful navigating the sites, so much so, that I usually needed a break at the Hostel, which was located on the quiet island of Giudecca.
It's not that I don't like Venice. It's quite an amazing city actually. I also enjoy pondering the history of the places I've been. North America is really quite bereft of history in comparison. And to contemplate the history of a city going back to the 6th or 7th century is quite amazing. In fact, one of the activities I did was a tour of the Jewish Ghetto. The enclosure of a small area for the Jews of Venice in 1516 was actually the first use of the term, which means "foundry" in Italian. Jews have been in Italy since the expulsion from Babylon, but the synagogues in the Jewish Ghetto of Venice all date to the 16th century. Most stunning of which was the Levantine Synagogue, still in use today, and built in the late 16th century... of course, photography wasn't allowed, so I have no pictures.
So my verdict on Venice: see it at least once, but preferably not in the summer with all the silliness.
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| Lots of tourists |
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| Campanile at San Marco Square |
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| Interior of the Doge's Palace |
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