is clear indication that it's possible I don't know what I'm talking about.
Just observations, processed through the filter of my own personal mind. . .
I feel very fortunate to come to Venice in the cold,
but relatively less-peopled winter, and to rent a completely comfortable
apartment 2 walking minutes from the Rialto, yet tucked away
down 3 tiny, tiny calles where, once back inside,
I feel a hundred miles from the Tourist Zone.
I am here however this year just prior to Carnivale,
now just a few days away, and you might think the
town would be roiling in free-spending tourists, but it's not.
I have walked all over the city, covering a lot of ground.
Venice is all the superlatives you can conjure rolled into one,
but, and this is a quite-large but. . .
Venice also seems to be sad and somewhat struggling
with it's near-total reliance on the tourist trade.
There is the past of Venice, which was possibly chauvinistic
and brutal, but was also golden and glorious and confident.
This is evident in the architecture of the city,
the magnificent Piazza San Marco,
the faded glories of the canal-side palazzi, the still extant buzz
of commerce along the Grand Canal.
In its more recent past, the city relied
on a certain brand (if you will) of tourist
who came to Venice in the pre-denim, pre-Internet world,
who still valued and coveted Beautiful Things, and were
searching for ways to obtain them. It was the era
of cocktails in St. Mark's on a summer's eve,
รก la Kathryn Hepburn and Rossano Brazzi,
a Bellini then, at Harry's Bar, to meet and mix
with similarly-minded (and attired) others,
rather as now: Harry's seems more an in and out precious
pit stop, or to affirm you've been there, becoming therefore,
more turismo, and generally done up in togs that could segue seamlessly
to McDonalds, or the local Hard Rock Cafe.
I wandered today amongst the very few remaining LUXE
purveyors left under and near the colonnades of San Marco, and who,
without a sheik or London banker wandering in,
may soon shutter or downsize, as have several of their neighbors.
The new money here is of the 98%, to borrow an Occupy term,
and it is a newly comprised international set,
most visibly Asian, more specifically, Chinese.
Their modes and motivations are different, structurally different.
If they do seek luxury, it will be their own, not that of the Colonial Era,
which is how the gems and jewels and furs and exquisite leathers
seen in the older, polished shop windows seem to my eye.
Perhaps it will be techno items, photo equipment, rare fish to eat.
It is not hard now in Venice to see an abandoned shop,
and even easier to see shop after shop without customers,
full service restaurants likewise.
In all sestieres throughout the city, one sees the same tourist trinkets,
similarly displayed. Much of it is from China, much of it
seems irrelevant, beyond a quick and cheap grab.
Coupled with what is there to be had, is an obvious and blatant
reluctance to buy on the part of today's tourist,
to part with one's cash, even for a good price, which,
here in Venice, is becoming more rare.
Food and wine still seem to be bargains, but (sigh),
one can eat and drink only so much. . .
