As Venetians go to the polls to vote in the mayoral primaries, I will be in the air on my way home to Venice to update OG Venice.  Nothing would make me happier than to land at Marco Polo Airport and find an inbox full of suggestions, comments & questions for OG Venice!

What am I interested in?  Just about everything!  If you're wondering whether there's a place for you in OG Venice, there probably is!  Feel free to explore this website and the blog and read my post Inside of OG Venice Travel Guide.  Or, just write to me.  I am looking forward to hearing from you!

How can you get involved or get you business listed in OG Venice Travel Guide?  There are many ways to work with OG Venice!  Your business could be listed in the guide, your story could be told through this blog, and you can advertise your business, products and services here.  Please read my Work With Us page or contact me directly through the form below to learn more.

In the six months since all of OG Venice Travel Guide has been available online, we've reached nearly 140,000 new viewers, have won first page search engine results for dozens of popular queries about Venice, and have made lots of new friends.  This is quite a change from the App store, and I'm very excited to continue growing OG Venice.

If you have already contacted me about working with and being listed in OG Venice Travel Guide, I am on my way and am looking forward to meeting you!  If you haven't reached out to me yet, please don't be shy!  

Venice is a city in crisis. At the current rate of population decline, it will be completely uninhabited by the year 2030. If Venetians do not regain control of their government the population decline will accelerate and Venice will be destroyed. The population decline will accelerate because quality of life for Venetians is rapidly deteriorating and every small policy change – new limits to rowing in the canals – is another chip off of that block. Larger policy and budget problems, such as the underfunding of primary education and healthcare, already make it an unlikely choice as a place to raise a family. Venice will be destroyed because without Venetians there will be no one with a powerful voice left whose genuine motivation is to preserve all of Venice. There will be no one to drive dinghies into the path of cruise ships and no one to point about that the Museo Correr is supposed to display exhibits of Venetian history. This loss will be suffered by humanity, including cruise ship passengers, because whatever is left to discover will not be Venice. 

That is, of course, a summary of my own opinion about the current condition and possible future of Venice. Believing that, and caring, makes it very difficult to resist the urge to yell into space. What stops me is a combination of my respect for my Venetian friends – they are the people whom this concerns and their strength and intelligence will prevail – and my awareness of myself as an outsider who, like it or not, does not have a vote. But, it does have me thinking: What happens in the outsider's dialogue about Venice and how can outsiders contribute productively to the dialogue about Venice?

Venice and It's Lagoon is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It contains outstanding examples of human artistic and scientific achievement which can only exist within its unique natural environment. I bring this up because it is in many ways the immense value of Venice to human history that moves so many people to both travel too it and comment on it and because it is now rumored that UNESCO will be closing its headquarters in Venice. If this is true, it will be a blow, not just to the protection of Venice – UNESCO overseas the quality of preservation and conservation activities in Venice - but to the intellectual relevance of contemporary Venice. Their Venice office is not strictly dedicated to Venice, it is the headquarters of UNESCO activities in all of South Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean. For that work to be undertaken in Venice is an action without words that shows Venice to be a living vibrant city rather than an obsolete landmark.

But UNESCO is, of course, not in the business of protecting contemporary societies. Like me, they don't exactly get to vote in the upcoming elections. They have and they do use their tremendous influence to protect the World Heritage Site of Venice and It's Lagoon. UNESCO can be thanked for repeatedly and consistently, leading the charge to ban large cruise ships from Venice and it's lagoon. Following the sinking of the Costa Concordia in 2012, UNESCO called on the Italian government to limit cruise ship traffic in the lagoon. In the fall of 2014, UNESCO threatened to place Venice on its World Heritage in Danger List if large cruise ships were not banned from the lagoon or if the Italian Government embarks on large construction – i.e. the dredging of the Canale Contora Sant'Angelo – in order to continue bringing the same number or more of large ships into Venice.

Reporting on this threat from UNESCO, Anna Somers Cocks pointed out, “Unesco also showed that it was well aware that economic interests had allowed the present situation to develop and urged financial institutions and agencies to ensure that heritage and environmental impact assessments be carried out to make sure that there would be no negative impact on Venice and its lagoon before planning investment in large-scale developments within the city and its setting.” There are those economic interests again...

It was in the summer of 2014 when the world's celebrities, rather than its preservationists, called on Italy to limit large cruise ships in the lagoon that a short-lived ban on large ships was actually put into place. The timing was probably a coincidence, but there's no denying that more people read about the open letters that celebrities sign than read press releases and reports from UNESCO. Sadly, the ban was quietly reversed while few famous people were watching. And, if the snippets of news released about it are any guide, the dredging of the canale contorto sant' angelo is far from off-the-table as far as the economic interests which control Venice are concerned.

Sometimes I feel a twinge of sympathy for cruise ship passengers. All of those thousands of eyes looking down on the miracle of Venice where tiny distant faces look back at them with such disdain and despair. But, it is probably safe to say that they don't know much about the dialogue surrounding the impact of cruise ships on Venice. Just as it is probably safe to say that they, individually, are people seeking adventure and meaning no harm. The information they receive about Venice is superficial and, due their short stays, regimented visits and sheer numbers, they have little opportunity to experience it any differently. 

Unfortunately, those visitor's superficial experiences later become reviews on mainstream tourism websites like TripAdvisor.com. Thus, they become Venice gospel for those who come after them no matter how wrong they are. The second highest rated restaurant in Venice on TripAdvisor.com is a place called Dal Moro's - Fresh Pasta To Go. Never mind that very few pasta dishes are part of traditional Venetian cooking, that pasta to-go is unheard of, and that “Alfredo” pasta - famous on their menu - doesn't exist. (Alfredo is a name for a person.) Where are those people with boxes of take-out pasta supposed to sit and eat legally in Venice anyway? It seems so wrong, but...

The reality is that Dal Moro's has more than 3,700 reviews on one of the most popular tourism websites in the world. No matter how culturally inappropriate it may be, and no matter how much their customers are missing out on real Venetian food, tourists will continue going there because it is what they're going to find out about first. People who search online for information about where to eat in Venice learn about take-away pasta. They act on that information and later, in an effort to be “socially responsible”, they relay it to others. It's easy to understand how Venetians, who know how wrong this is, can view tourists as a hopeless faceless hoard of fools. It's almost easy to understand the urge to take advantage of that foolishness by opening a pasta-to-go restaurant. As far as anyone searching for “the best restaurant in Venice” on TripAdvisor is concerned, take-away pasta is tops.

So, here we've come from concern for a World Heritage Site of profound cultural, artistic and natural significance on one extreme, to public fornication on the other, with some movie stars and spaghetti Alfredo to-go in between. I am trying, desperately, to determine how and where outsiders who care can insert themselves into the dialogue about Venice in a way that respects the dignity of Venetians and Venice as a living contemporary city. I don't know the answer to that question. 

There are responsible publications for educated people who already care, like UNESCO reports and The Art Newspaper. I personally love their work. I love the Venetian Tourism Authority Publication, Detourismo, too. But, I suspect they appeal mostly to those who already know a little bit and care to know more. The same goes for specific publications, which I also love, about regional food and artisan shopping in Venice etc...  These are all wonderful things, but they exist on a higher plane than most of a cacophony about Venice while it's from the lower plane of internet search results that the masses get their information.

In between, there are smoke and mirrors that at best add to the confusion and at worst damage the reputation of Venice in the eyes of their readers. Here is where there are accidental theories about overdosing on la dolce vita. There is also deliberate obscuring of issues such as when those who advocate sustainable tourism are demonized as snobs who wish to prevent poor people from visiting Venice. There are lots of articles where semi-savvy business people debate the merits of a diversified Venetian economy without taking Venetians into account. And, lest we forget, here also is where the shortage of Murano glass is misinterpreted as a fall in demand for Venice' most in-demand product.

Yes, I am once again going to conclude that what I already do is the best thing I can do. OG Venice Travel Guide does not exist on the high plane of intellectual debate about Venice. It does not exist in the middle plane of manipulating public opinion about Venice. OG Venice Travel Guide exists in the rough and tumble mud pit of online tourism information about Venice. From there, it reaches out with pearls of wisdom about things like the best places to shop for this or that in Venice. It happens that the best places are also the most authentic.

OG Venice doesn't tell people what to do or what not to do in Venice.  It just pops up to help people do what they already want to do. OG Venice was written with tourists' best interests in mind. It's a great coincidence that what's best for tourists can also good for authentic Venetian businesses. I don't deliberately write an off-beat, socially-responsible, sustainable tourism guide. I just write an honest guide to shopping, eating, going out and generally having a good time in Venice. There's only one Venice to write about. It's the same Venice that tourists are cheated out of their chance to visit and that only Venetians can save for themselves and for humanity.


Of course, I also love many of the blogs about Venice!

On a night train north from Brindisi, I found myself sharing a cabin with a couple of other travelers. They were the kind of couple who argue for fun and, in retrospect, may also have been on drugs because they kept it up all night long. To give you a sense of how bad it was: I couldn't even voice an objection when one of them offered to throw herself out the window. I got off of that train in Santa Lucia Station not because I intended to go to Venice, but because switching cabins just wasn't good enough. I had to leave the whole damned train. That's how it happened. I was annoyed into Venice.

(Please don't think me easily annoyed. I have, after all, never been annoyed back out again.)

I went directly to the hotel booth inside the station and requested three nights in an accommodation that I could walk to. Go ahead...laugh. It wasn't until I had my printed booking at a hotel “very near to Rialto and San Marco” - whatever those places were – that I ever even looked outside at Venice. I'd love to say that bells rang and birds sang and fireworks exploded all that the same time, but in truth I just felt relieved and lucky. I had escaped the worst train ever and discovered the most beautiful place in the world. It was an hour or so later, when I first arrived in Piazza San Marco, where in fact orchestras played and birds sang and bells rang all at the same time, that I burst into tears.

But, lets not pretend that my undying love of Venetian arts and culture began right then and there. That's not what happened at all. I spent my first day in Venice wandering back and forth between Piazza San Marco, Campo San Bortolomeo and Santa Lucia Station, patting myself on the back each time I arrived at my intended destination. I still pat myself on the back when I discover a new route through Venice. There are not many people, especially not writers-about-Venice, who would admit that. I spent my first evening in Venice drinking beers on the steps of the Museo Correr with some bums whom I had met on some other steps earlier in the day. This is a confession. We talked about books and they wouldn't even let me pay for my beer.

The next day, I met some young Venetians. Young women who hang around Piazza San Marco alone get lucky that way. Some not-so-young women do too. Few of them end up at dinner at Mamma's house. But, that's another story. I am a lucky traveler. My new friends showed me around a little and introduced me to the Lido. All those miles of beach! I was hooked. I went from the beach to the front desk, booked three more days, and bought my first map of Venice.  I never opened that map.

I didn't see a single sight during my first six days in Venice. Of course I saw them, they were everywhere, but I had no idea what they were and I didn't try to find out. I was a young backpacker who, having packed more than she could carry, left all of her guide books (and all of her warm clothing) in a monastery in Patras, Greece. I never went back to the Lido during that visit either. I never even crossed the Grand Canal. You mean one of these canals is more grand than the others?!

I walked. A lot. I set out in random directions with absolutely no goals beyond going and finding my way back. I visited L'Isola di San Pietro di Castello and Fondamenta Sensa with no idea where I was, either in Venice or on the earth, before I even heard of the Rialto Market. I didn't care where I went; Everywhere was beautiful and interesting. It was amazing to be so lost and yet feel so content and secure. Going out, finding my way home, and seeing what I see in between, is still my favorite way to spend a day in Venice even though I have to work a lot harder at getting lost now.

I spent my budget for a day on wine and a “toast” at the Grancaffe Quadri. I didn't know a thing about wine, but I knew that I was seated in Piazza San Marco, that there was an orchestra playing and that my waiter was wearing gloves. Nothing was ever more worth it, except maybe, the wonderful dinner that I had at Caffe Quadri a few years later. Still, lucky for me, it eventually rained on me in Venice. Trying to stay dry! That is how I learned about standing in bars.  I learned it in the Gran Caffe Lavena.

I didn't buy anything. I went past, around and into lots of stores. I saw thousands of beautiful objects and I worried a little about breaking them. I didn't know what I was seeing.  My ignorance about Venice could not be overstated. Murano glass? What's a Murano? I wasn't uneducated, but world history classes in the U.S.A. don't teach you much about the city that was not bombed during World War II. Titian's paintings weren't part of the contemporary sculpture curriculum at my liberal arts college. And, before my first visit to Venice, I did all of my studying abroad in France. If I had even seen a picture of Venice, I didn't remember it.

I really did get off of that train just to save my sanity. It was what I found outside that made me lose my mind. Knowing exactly nothing and no one, all I wanted after that was to keep exploring Venice. My second trip to Venice was four days after the first. The train I was supposed to catch in Salzburg pulled in directly across the platform from a train to Venedig. I didn't even think about it. I didn't mess around with any more three-night bookings either. I did do some shopping.

So there you have it. I arrived in Venice as a grubby, Birkenstock-wearing, mostly broke and entirely ignorant American backpacker. I wasn't just a bad tourist. I was the worst. I had no knowledge, little money and no defined cultural goals. All I wanted - still my idea of a perfect vacation - was to spend my mornings wandering around the city looking at things, my afternoons at the beach, my evenings in bars with live music and to ride boats in between. Venice, as a place, suited me perfectly. 

I did have one thing in common with the original Venetians: We all went there to escape the barbarians.

I kept going back. Come hell or acqua alta, feast or financial crisis, I went to Venice. Any or no excuse would do. Some years, and many trips to Venice after my first, Venice appeared in a footnote of one of my a law school text books. The first known intellectual property protection was a patent granted by the Doge in Venice for a fresh water pump. Fascinating! What's a Doge? I should go to Venice... That was a decade ago.

Now I know a little bit about a lot of things to do with Venice. I learned much of it through trial and error. Oh the errors I've made... I took the wrong boats by accident long before I started taking them on purpose and I've been caught without a ticket more than once. I bought bottles of the house wine from restaurants to bring home. I spent long long nights hopelessly lost. I paid four euros for espresso and I ordered cafe “caldo” when I really wanted cold coffee. I spent 2.50 euros on bottled water. I set out for hundreds of places that I never found. I ate from the tourist menu. Venice tricked me, spun me around, knocked me down and took my money more times than I can count. But I never took it personally and it never really wounded my pride. I was an anonymous one of the hundreds of thousands of people swarming the city.  

Life is better with friends. I was always, and remain, more interested in everyday life in Venice than in Venetian history. I adore my Venetian friends. Yes, it enchants me that they live their contemporary lives in such an ancient place. But more than anything I find them smart, fun, funny and caring. Growing up in a labyrinth must make people smarter. They sail and make art, music and strawberry risotto. They know as much philosophy as I do. They're awesome! They have taught me a lot about their town, saved me from making innumerable mistakes, and given me countless hours of great company. I am very upset that what they've always told me is true:  They really are an endangered species. 

I also know lots of Venice experts. I met them all in bars. They teach me things about stones and islands and paintings and churches and tell me stories of historically significant debauchery. They're hilarious. I like them a lot. But, I'm still convinced that learning all of that in the first place is just their excuse to hang around in Venice. Did I say that I met them all in bars? That's not entirely true. I met some of them in beach bars.

My friends divided into two camps when I told them that I planned to write a city guide about Venice. Some told me flat out that I couldn't. An outsider could never write a guide to Venice. (My friend, you know a lot of things.  But, you have no idea what its really like to be a tourist in your town.) The rest weren't worried because they didn't think I'd actually do it. They all gave me spritz and we went to bars and beaches. 

I wrote most of the first draft of OG Venice Travel Guide from a sofa at the Aurora Beach Club. Which, incidentally, was a cultural institution that should never have been allowed to change. There, you learned what fruit your breasts were, where the gondoliers tattoos were and everything you needed to know about contemporary literature. Where else can you sit around mostly naked and mostly drunk and listen to a presentation about the book that exposed Gamorrah? I miss it.

If everyone has a super power, mine is doing things while appearing to do nothing. I wrote OG Venice Travel Guide. I wrote it while spending my mornings looking around Venice, my afternoons at the beach, my evenings in bars with live music and riding boats in between.  I never took a vacation again.  I wrote it as an iphone app, I wrote it as an ebook, and now I write it as a website. There's not a lot of romance or pretense to it.  It really is a guide about finding things you need, discovering shops you'll love and having a good time during your free time in Venice. 

In my mind, tourists aren't good or bad. They're people on vacation! Sooner or later, even in the magic of Venice, they all need or want something normal. That's where Venice gets tricky and that's what OG Venice Travel Guide is for.  The romance comes from trying to do normal in Venice, where “normal is not on the menu”. The miracle is that it's in those places of semi-normalcy that we tourists actually experience what is called “the real Venice”.