While you are standing in lines to get into churches and restaurants in Venice, you'd be wise to keep your shirt on. Literally.
The city, driven by tourism czar Augusto Salvadori, has begun to rigorously enforce laws that offend the "public decorum", including a ban against torsonudismo, or going topless. Other crimes include eating picnic lunches, wearing short-shorts, and dangling feet in canals. At least a couple dozen people have gotten the bite this week, mostly around Piazza San Marco.
I might be mistaken, but it sounds like this whole "public decorum" issue seems exaggerated to you, doesn't it?
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Sort of yes and no. I think it's a collision of cultures, in part. The Venetians have a properness and sense of decorum which is not shared by all of the masses moving through the city. There is a problem with garbage left in the Piazza by people picnicking on the steps that any culture would agree with.
Me, I lived in Manhattan for more than a decade, where chaos and anarchry work just fine.
N.
Posted by: cindy l. | July 25, 2005 at 06:13 AM
Nice comment at the end Cindy. Venice is a galactic treasure, as far as i know. We have many problems. sewerage disposal, old age pentioners living in conditions not fit for the rats that occasionally swim by(salt water you see?) taunting the "topisti" that are named after them. Customers* swarming through the city that i have already stated qualifies itself for galactic treasure status.Swarming through her (no this is not a typing error on my part) like the proverbial things... how do you say..... gosh i've lived here too long.... i've forgotten the word.... you know... four legs .... goes chrii chriii. grasshoppers. make the grasshoppers wear their shirts. venice is an old lady. have you ever sat down and watched these shirtless tourist wander around on foot? i do on a daily basis. its more then just decorum. its the difference between being worn away,or re shining the "marmi".
Also, in my opinion, the use of that word, begining with SP and ending in a sound similar to the name of the masked mexican bandit, should be a finable offence. For the decorum of the city!
Raise the fines i say.Especially in the name of decent decorum!!
The money could go towards renovating the housing of the older venetians.
Luca De Zorzi.
*not meant in a offensive manner. a new type of tourisim needs to be developed.thats all.
Posted by: LuckyLDZ | July 30, 2005 at 03:26 PM
uber cool blog
Posted by: Voyage italie | August 02, 2005 at 01:19 PM
crimes include eating picnic lunches
What's wrong with picnic lunches?
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The thing is that people have been quite piggish, leaving garbage everywhere. And unlike, say, many places in the US, the idea of plopping down on steps and eating food is kinda unwelcome culturally in Venice. It's about their sense of decorum, which is different than other cultures.
N.
Posted by: Earle Martin | August 26, 2005 at 01:49 PM