Venice

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What some people will do in the name of tourism! San Marco piazza is without question the best thing to see in Venice. The laid back feel of the city combined with the amazing wealth and history make it a great place to see. Expensive to visit though! I walked around pretty much the whole time I was here. There were so many shops everywhere. The shop windows were amazing. Owners must know they've got competition out there so they decorate their store windows in bright colors with lavish display. Glass is the big art here. One of the smaller islands off of Venice called Murano has a glass factory on it. I read that the venicians moved it there because they were afraid of burning down their city. So they let Murano take out fire insurance intead. I never went to the island but thats where the glass comes from. All the shops have sticks of the Murano glass and smaller blow torches to make the beads, figurines, jewely and whatever they will sell in their shop. Many of them were run by families. I went into one shop late in the afternoon and an old man who didn't speak much English took me around the entire shop showing me with pride all the things his daughter had made. He even showed me pictures. "I show you my daughter!" He said, "Its ok, you no buy- but I show you what my daughter make!" She was about 35 and it was her shop, "he just watch it for her" he said. He was so proud of his daughter, it was very sweet. After a good thirty minute tour (she was very talented) I said goodbye. I was so impressed by how close the families are here. I suppose in a city with outragious real estate, families tend to stay together and share the homes they#ve had for many generations.
But back to the crazy tourists: in San Marco's square I was appalled to find that there are more pigeons than people here in Venice. There are stands that sell corn seeds for 1 euro and the people will hold their hands out with the seeds while these fat, disease carrying birds lunge at the people and land all over them. They then take a picture of this unsanitary act! Well, I refused to be a bird perch but I took pictures of the nuts who were actually doing it. I figure if you're crazy enough to do this, you deserve to be in a travel blog. San Marco's is also a great place to people watch. Restaurants have set up tables along the edges of the square and high penguin suit musicions to play in the middle. I wonder how much bird poop they receive on their coats in a day, I can say for certain that I have never seen fatter birds.

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