Monday, 23 May, Venice

Food of the day: Venetian pastry with chocolate and almond - delicious puff pastry filled with rich chocolate and almond paste. One is not enough.

Word of the day: Vaporetto - the poor man's alternative to gondolas. Crowded but fun, and a great way to see the buildings of Venice.

This was a long day! Eleonora, Anne and I went by train to Venice, leaving at about 7am from Ellie's place, and returning at 11pm.

Venice certainly has its charms but it also feels like a zoo or Disneyland (or how I'd imagine Disneyland to be, not having been there). What I mean by this is that the whole city seems to be given over to show, for the benefit of people, like me, who don't live there and may never return. No doubt there are layers of social interaction that aren't determined by this purpose, but they aren't at all obvious.

So what you do see as you walk or ride around the fading grandeur is the expressive architecture of centuries of building fashion, the decoration of everything, the devotion to to religion (at least, in times gone by), and of course the charm of narrow waterways with arched pedestrian bridges and gondolas. You also see tons of shops selling, it seems, items from one of three categories - Murano glass (beautiful, but having visited Murano, I find it hard to imagine all that glass actually coming from there), theatrical masks and international clothing brands. When I was at college they had the wonderful motto, simul ante retroque prospiciens (Petrarch). Venice seems only to be aware of one half of this idea. I think about the grand visions of Asia, and wonder what would happen to her if tourists stopped coming?