| Just
as any country with the words "People's" or "Democratic" in their
title are unlikely to be either, so the inclusion of the words "La
Serenissima" in the "Most Serene Republic of Venice" as it once was,
brings an entirely new meaning to the concept of serenity.
Even when coined, the appellation was a lie of Orwellian
magnificence for a nation whose wealth was built as much on knocking
the crap out of its neighbours as its fabled mercantile prowess.
Today the lie continues as over 50,000 assorted tourists flood into
the city every single day, most of them at the Santa Lucia railway
station at exactly twelve o'clock, just seconds before I do,
instantly creating a forty minute queue to buy a ticket for the
vaporetto. Having said that, Venice
is no Marmite city; it is quite possible to simultaneously love and
hate it in equal measure. The best bit is that you can wander
around quite free of charge, admiring the quite astonishing array of
world class architecture. On the downside is the likelihood
that several thousand pushy Americans have exactly the same idea.
You will pay extortionate amounts for accommodation, food, drink and
tourist tat, although you can always circumvent the utterly stupid
prices in the designer shops by "buying direct" from the Senegalese
street vendors who conveniently locate themselves literally on the
doorsteps of Gucci, LV and their ilk.
Not surprisingly a number of cities across
the world have "twinned" with Venice, appropriately St Petersburg
and Suzhou as cultural jewels set amidst historic canals.
Quite how on earth Wolverhampton made it I have no idea. |
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