Thursday, March 18, 2021

3 Views of the Weekend Before Our Latest Lock Down Began

Saturday, 13 March 2021

I'll admit I've no inclination to write about the new lock down that began in Venice (and most of the rest of Italy) this past Monday. I'm sure there are plenty of other people writing about it.

The only thing I'll note here is how odd it was in the weeks prior to the lock down to watch the number of tourists (mostly Italians) climb steadily every weekend after the New Year began--even as there were daily reports in the news of highly contagious new Covid variants spreading in places all over the globe.

By Sunday, 7 March 2021, just 8 days before the latest lock down officially began, we must have seen no fewer then six different tours groups, each numbering around a dozen people, being led around the Cannaregio area as we passed through it, as well as a few large tour boats plying the waters around Burano, their loudspeakers blaring the voices of Italian guides.

I can't imagine these day-tripper tours held any benefits for the vast majority of business owners in Venice, but I guess somebody must have been making money in the short term, for the short time they could, and, well, beyond that, what did it matter to them or the city authorities who permitted them.

And so we return to lock down....

 

Friday, 12 March 2021 (when you find you don't have the wide angle lens with you that need so you try to make do with the panorama mode)
 

Saturday, 13 March 2021 (again, panorama as compensation)


2 comments:

  1. such a very strange time we are living in. It would almost seem "sick" to go to somewhere where the virus was so strongly entrenched. We can only hope that in time all settles to a balance where we can enjoy each other's lands more safely, and appreciate what we have.

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    1. Very strange, indeed, Ella, and yet it seems that Venice will now be reopening generally in a couple of weeks, and even cruise ships will return! A couple of them a week, I think I've heard. But who in their right mind would want to get on a cruise ship at a time when variants of a crippling/deadly virus are popping up? Even before the pandemic, everyone knew cruise ships are like floating petri dishes (not to mention huge polluters).

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