Ah, Venice... [OC]

Distoorted@lemmy.world to pics@lemmy.world – 165 points –
14

As much as Venice is a tourist trap and smells like feet, it is still a beautiful city and one of my absolute favorites.

Venice has as many tourist traps as any other old European city. But you can easily avoid them. It is not a tourist trap per se; there are many residents going about their normal lives.

Not too many residents … under 50k. Many regular folks can’t afford to live there anymore- like many, many places. The old artisans are gone, replaced by generic mass produced nick-nacks. The majority of apartments are tourist rentals, and even the quiet neighborhoods are becoming less quiet.

It may not be a tourist trap, so to say, but it is treated like an amusement park and not respected as ancient city/settlment and community as it should by many of the visitors.

Having said all that, it is also one of my favorite places to be. I’ve been lucky to have family there and be able to visit a fair number of times of the years.

Well, respect from the tourists is one thing we will never get, sadly

Don't go at the height of summer, and it's far less likely to smell. May is usually pretty good.

My take too. I've talked people who wanted to skip it because of the tourism back into it. It's too special to skip if you're in the area.

Sorry Venetians.

Oh absolutely. For all it's modern flaws, it's still worth it. Though as someone else said, avoid it during the height of summer and it isn't too bad. The first time I went with my family was in August and it was, interesting, but the second time I stopped through on my way to Croatia in December and it was pretty rad.

Oh god, the smell. I was there when I was 7, which is 39 years ago, and I still remember the smell.

Oh so it hasn’t completely sunk yet then that’s encouraging

I will now forever think of Venice as the place with less canals than Birmingham.