Venice tourists swim nude in canals and vandalize church

CNN ^ | 27th May 2022 | Julia Buckley

[Georgia Girl 2]

Too much vino.

[oldasrocks]

Tie them under a boat in the canal.

[sphinx]

I will take your word for it and add Padova to my bucket list, which now stands at 7,463 places I'd live to see, and that's just in Europe. I need to live a lot longer than I probably will.

I've only been in Venice once, when we took our daughters to Europe for the first time and did the tourist 101 thing: London (three days); Paris (three days); Venice (a day and a half); Rome (a week). Venice was actually an afterthought that I shoehorned in on the way to Rome. I felt like we put a bit of a dent in Rome, though there are still many places I'd like to see. We hardly scratched the surface in the other cities.

This is an unavoidable problem in much of Europe.

In Venice, we did see St. Marks and the Doge's Palace, which are must see's. We were traveling by train and stayed within easy distance of the train station, so we were close enough to the Rialto Bridge to get that out of our system. And we did a boat excursion that stopped at Murano (the glass factory), Burano (charming and quiet) and Torcello (the old church with remains dating to the late Roman period; the oldest church in Venice). We managed to get around on the canals but needed another day to get fluent on the system, and we did a lot of walking, which in Venice involves surprises down every alleyway. That's a lot for a day and a half, and when we left, I was kicking myself for not having done at least one more day, as we had passed by no end of places that called out for exploration. If I ever go back, I'd think seriously about staying on one of the outer islands and commuting in by boat.

I'm sure Padova is great too. Italy is full of sights from one end to the other, and I want to get to Malta someday as well. We shall see. But one does need to see the Doge's Palace, if only to understand that Louis XIV was just a nouveau riche status seeker when he built Versailles.

[Chuckster]

“two American tourists “

[markomalley]

Understand. I was stationed in Italy for 3 years and lived about 50 miles away (Aviano).

Yes, Venice is a lovely city but the thing I didn’t like is that the Venetians were all totally stuck on themselves and (other than some snobby restaurants in Rome), I found that to be unique in the entire country. We had some friends in the local area whose family owned one of the homes directly on a canal and so, when we visited, we stayed in that home and didn’t have to bother with a hotel or anything. But, again, I just found the attitude of the Venetian people appalling. After the first year, we just stopped going because of that (even though we could’ve gotten preferred status at Carnival or the Film Festival or any of the other big events).

Always found that the attitude of people in places like Padova, Verona, or Bologna, although still pretty touristy, were so much better we just gravitated there.

Anyway, if you’re ever able to tick Padova off your list, I recommend the Basilica of Sant’Antonio. They have a collection of St. Anthony’s relics there that will blow your mind LOL. And if you haven’t already ticked Rome off your list, I recommend renting a flat over renting a hotel. Far better experience IMHO.