It would be very easy to get into a castigation of current merchandising and the like in the greater Venice area. So let not do that. Let’s look at some exciting stuff. Let’s talk money, ghettos, banks, Shakespeare and the like.

In the early 1500’s Venice, being a very open minded city allowed the Jews (who were looking for a new home) to live in an area of the city where the foundries were, these areas were known as “geti” now Ghetto. The Jews handled the banking and money trade, which Venetians for religious reasons could or would not. The Jews set up Venetian tables or banco for money exchange now banks. This is the setting for Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice a great comedy about money, love, deceit and betrayal that sees most of the cast including Bassanio, Antonio, Jessica, Portia and Shylock get their just deserts.

The really good news is the worlds oldest bank is in Venice and it’s now a bar.

By the way, if you are not up on banking a Giro is the exchange of money from one account to another so Bancogiro is the exchange of money at a bank from one account holder to another. Sorry Ollie I know you knew that, any teacher worth their salt knows that. That reminds me the word salary comes from salt which was the method of payment in Venice a while back (salt being a valuable commodity). These days it’s Euros … salt bags full of Euros.

A Sotoportego is a passage through a building to the other side. So Sotoportego del banko giro means you can walk through the bank pay money and realising you are now fresh out of ducets, throw yourself in the canal.

Why do modern clocks and watches only have twelve hours on the dial when there’s twenty four hours in a day?

Two times twelve o’clock. This is a proper clock!

Two or three days is about as much as a normal person can comfortably spend in Venice particularly if cruise ship days are included. On these days the number of tourists swells by up to three thousand in one hit. These extras have a few hours to see the city, that is to cram in as many churches, pizza bars, gondola rides, and high end shop visits as possible. On cruise ship days the locals are easy to spot, they are the ones hiding on the top floors and rooftops, or skirting the back streets to avoid the dreaded selfie sticks (we saw a lot of back streets). Those brave locals that do mix with the masses of ship folk can be seen spitting vitriol at the aforementioned and who could blame them after all Venice was founded as a safe haven for the people escaping persecution in mainland Europe.

Will tourist dollars keep Venice afloat? Probably not. The water levels in the canals are rising slightly year by year and the city is actually sinking on it’s foundations. A few years back work started on a flood mitigation plan in the Venice Lagoon, the company doing the installation however went broke so until that is sorted Venice will have to put up with the odd knee high flood, but don’t worry there is now a smart phone app to predict water levels.