Edd's Travels: Venice & Padua, Italy

I went to Venice on Hallowe'en, and it was hell. OK that's an exaggeration, but it was at least purgatory. (Il Purgatorio is a theme to which - spoiler alert - I'll return in an upcoming blog). On a Thursday afternoon in October, Venice was a teeming throng of annoying cretins; what it's like on a June weekend, I don't even want to imagine. What can you do? How can you avoid overcrowding in small places that everyone in the whole world wants to visit? They've already imposed a daily 'tourist tax' of €5 during peak periods in summer. If I were in charge, it'd be €100 a head year-round, and €200 for kids.

Obviously I'm not being serious here. I'm complaining about a crowd that I'm part of, and I'm a stinking hypocrite. But it's a shame that there's nowhere you can go to escape from the crowd. Even in modern-day New York, there are places and moments in which you feel like you could be in a movie by Scorsese or Woody Allen; even in modern-day London, there are places and moments where you can let yourself be transported into a Dickens novel, or at least an episode of 'The Crown'. In Venice I could never shake the sensation of being in a theme park, or an airport terminal. I didn't stay too long.

Shakespeare set 'Othello' in Venice, as well as (obviously) 'The Merchant of Venice'. 'The Taming Of The Shrew' was set in nearby Padua, which I found more pleasant and peaceful. I hadn't realised that what we call Padua and Mantua, the Italians themselves call Padova and Mantova. (It would be funny if there was a place called Legova, but there isn't.)

Both Venice and Padua are rather pricey places to stay. Which is why I've parked myself down the road in Vicenza. The trains are nice and easy, and Vicenza itself is perfectly nice. I'm continuing along the path of discovering that Italy is really rather tremendous all round, and I know that most of you are already ahead of me on this topic, which is why I'm refraining from going into too much detail, for now at least.

The Rialto bridge, Venice
"Signor Antonio, many a time and oft
In the Rialto you have rated me
About my money and my usances..."
'The Merchant of Venice', act 1, scene 3