Venice in Peril

See these people? The ones in the yellow hats?

They were part of a larger contingent of yellow-hatted people from some unidentifiable Eastern European country who descended on the Piazza San Marco a few moments after I got there, last Thursday.  I was leaning against that lion, waiting for N to meet me there, when a yellow-hat came in front of me and flapped her hands and opened and closed her mouth like a fish.  I assumed she had some kind of disorder and ignored her.  She flapped her hands again.  I then realized she was telling me to get the hell out of her way so she could take a picture of her pimply teenaged kid perched on the lion above my head.  With some reluctance, I did so, muttering.  When  she had finished I moved back into my position.  Until another yellow-hat came along, this one a male, and with raised eyebrows and an emphatic nodding of his head encouraged me to move for him as well.  Thankfully N appeared soon after, or those yellow hats might have seen some bloodshed.

I was just emailing Nardac this morning about my trip, and as I was writing to her I had a thought.  Venice in Peril ought to dedicate some of their efforts not only to restoring the buildings but to instituting some kind of tourist diversionary barrier-- siphon off some of the flow and redirect them somewhere else, and tell them they'll like it just as much as Venice-- and they will.  Because they don't actually care about Venice or anything it contains. They've just heard they should go there, so they go.

So ok, how do you decide who gets to go and who doesn't? N suggested a steep tax, but that's not fair because not everyone can pay it, and I don't think Venice ought to become some kind of exclusive resort for rich people.  So I thought of something much more egalitarian: there should a pop quiz to get into Venice. If you don't get at least 60% of the answers right, you have to get back on the boat and go visit Padua instead.

Here is my suggestion for the Venice in Peril Pop Quiz.

1. Venice was once ruled by the Doge.  A doge is a______
a. car
b. duke in a funny hat
c. group of men in funny hats

2. Bellini, Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, Canaletto.  These names refer to:
a. cocktails
b. cities in Italy
c. artists

3. The Accademia is:
a. a school
b. a museum
c. a sports stadium

4. True or false: a canal is an acceptable substitute for a garbage can.

5. Do you and/or your family own and wear fanny packs? (Y/N)

6. Do you think it is acceptable to eat potato chips whilst riding in a gondola? (Y/N)

7. Do you believe that if you don't videorecord every moment of said gondola ride it's like it didn't happen? (Y/N)

8. Are you likely to buy a sparkly mask to take home to your family? How many?

9. Please define the following terms in your own words and to the best of your ability: mosaic, vaulted ceiling, gothic arch, Byzantine.

10.  If told you that you were to be staying in a hotel in Venice that was built in 1890, which of the following most closely would match your response?
a. 1890? wow, so it's a new building.
b. 1890? Holy shit, that's like a hundred years ago! Dude, this place is old!
c. Whatever, as long as it's clean.

Comments

[Lola is Beauty]

you nearly had me banished on bellini x

[lottie]

Might your quiz be adaptable for London?

[nardac]

No. 7 is applicable in SOOOO many cases. I would say it's a general rule to life in general, and one that can also be related to photography. Susan Sontag's On Photography should be mandatory reading for everyone who has a digital camera. I mean, it's great to take a photograph, but not at the expense of real experience. Life is too wonderful to miss behind a digital screen.

[julie]

I just feel so much more confortable with my cultural elitism when I'm around you...

[maitresse]

cultural elitism? bah... ok maybe a little. but those questions were pretty easy! :)

maybe I need to feel more comfortable with my own culturalelitism!

Lottie: for sure! go ahead!

Sam: exactly, On Photography, and Regarding the Pain of Others touches on this too-- the soldiers in Iraq filming their experiences, and the torture photographs

[Philippa]

Yea! I got 100%. Of course, this is from someone who sometimes wishes she had been born in Europe, somewhere between 1450 and 1750...

[Mazarine]

Is it really necessary to convince yourself you are superior to those around you to enjoy travelling? Anyone making an effort to move out of their day to day life and see something of the world is taking a journey. I really enjoy your blog, but with comments like this one you say more about yourself and your shortcomings than you do about the people you criticise.

And well done to the woman photographing her "pimply teenage kid" - I hope your sneers didn't spoil her day.

[maitresse]

"with comments like this one you say more about yourself and your shortcomings than you do about the people you criticise."

no doubt! but I am criticizing the adaptation of Venice into a playground for the crass and ignorant, as well as the inappropriate and rude behavior I witnessed when I ventured into the domain of the Tourist.

[Lizzie]

Tourists everywhere will be rude and pushy, whether in Venice, Sydney etc. And cities around the world, newly discovered or old favourites, would be hard-pressed not to try and adapt themselves to the tourist-market and capitalise on the money it brings them (as crass as that sounds and as annoying as it may be!).
At the end of the day, if yellow-hats and snap-happy families prove too offensive for one's own enjoyment in that city, perhaps it is up to the individual to seek alternative paths for cultural adventures? I don't mean this as a direct criticism on your own comments, but am interested in alternative views to the issues you have raised: what do you learn in a city where you already know the answers?

[maitresse]

Hi Lizzie, thank you (and everyone else who has ) for your comments. It is a tricky subject, isn't it? Because while I do willingly admit that I find elitism occasionally appropriate, not as a value in itself, but in the serve of some cultural value, I wouldn't want these people to stay at home and never travel anywhere.

My problem is with the shallow use that is made of the destination-- as if Venice is there for the purpose of their photograph. The lion in that photograph wasn't looted from Constantinople so some kid could sit on it and have his picture taken on it in July 2007. In this case, his use value (or his mother's) of Venice was as playground jungle-gym whereas my use was "I'm leaning against this statue while I wait for my boyfriend to meet me." Neither use is intrinsically more valid, but in this case, I was there first, and the yellow-hatted woman behaved as if her claim on the city was greater than mine.

I don't think it is up to the individual to seek elsewhere: I think it is up to the masses to have a little respect.

As for your final comment-- isn't that a little limited? It's not as if knowing who Tintoretto is means I don't need to go to see his paintings. Answers are always preliminaries to other questions. The quiz is not (only) designed to keep out people ho don't know the answers, but to make a point about the limited way tourists see the destination they've come so far and paid so dearly to visit.

[nardac]

The offense is more how things are done. For example, I would say that there is something good about using the city as a jungle gym, actively engaging in the objects without prior knowledge, rather than just leaning on it as a space to wait. The offense was in how the woman addressed you, with little grace nor class.

Tourists, it seems to me, are offensive to the native population because they are so very awkward and visible as outsiders. What irks me more than anything else is the inability to really open themselves up to new experiences, and to do so loudly or obnoxiously. A tourist that walks around with eyes wide open, not necessarily a map, and no camera, might see and remember more than the tourist that does otherwise. If we go elsewhere to visit, surely it's to see difference and not familiarity? If you come to an understanding and love of the city based on this premise, shouldn't it be more enriching than merely ticking off items in a day planner?

But you, I feel, are far beyond that stage. You have researched that city, you know it in a far different way than someone just going there for the first time.

[Nancy]

I really enjoy reading your blog but I must admit that I am a little taken a back by your comments: " instituting some kind of tourist diversionary barrier-- siphon off some of the flow and redirect them somewhere else, and tell them they'll like it just as much as Venice-- and they will. Because they don't actually care about Venice or anything it contains. They've just heard they should go there, so they do". Really? Why are you more deserving to travel to Venice than others on this planet? And how do you know if these tourists care about Venice or not? Who are you to decide where people can go? Live and let live.

[delphine]

You should read "The Art of Travel" by Alain de Botton. I think you might enjoy it.

http://www.amazon.com/Art-Travel-Alain-Botton/dp/0375725342/ref=pd_sim_b_1/104-9455745-5515112?ie=UTF8&qid=1183996039&sr=8-1

delphine

[Lizzie]

Maitresse: My final comment was certainly limited. The point being, your comments seek to exclude people from a space on the basis that "they've just heard they should go there, so they go". By saying this, you imply that these particular tourists lack any knowledge of the city which might inform/enrich their visit and thus give them a "reason" for being there. However, by excluding people on the basis of a lack of knowledge (or, a knowledge which is different from your own) you reveal the limits of your own commentary. So why not look at it from the opposite point of view: if you know nothing about a city, all the more reason to jump in a discover its charm (with respect, of course - which is perhaps what you perceive as lacking in tourists and why you wrote this post in the first place?).
At the end of the day though, who is anyone to judge who can and cannot have access to a cultural 'space' (keeping in mind that there are hundreds of reasons why people travel)? And how can knowledge be gained if people are refused entry on the basis of a (narrow) questionnaire?

The masses will only change if individuals start taking the first steps to initiate change. Perhaps the questions we should be asking then are not how can we get rid of 'the tourist' but rather, how can 'the tourist' be better informed, what steps can 'I' take to improve intercultural exchanges? You clearly have a love for and knowledge of Venice, so why not pass that knowledge on if the opportunity arises? See a lost/ confused tourist - tell them about somewhere in Venice which might get them away from the 'well-trodden city tracks'. We all have our cultural shortcomings, and when you describe this group as coming "from some unidentifiable Eastern European country" your own are also revealed.

[maitresse]

Hi Nancy, I think maybe you're taking the quiz (which it should be very evident was written tongue firmly in cheek) a little too seriously... as for the tourists in Venice, have you been there recently? they've gotten worse over the years-- that is, more plentiful and less respectful of the physical landscape-- and it's turned very unpleasant. The tourists far outnumber the natives, and in my opinion, that is a form of colonialism. Venice is aware of it and is taking measures to address the situation, ranging from a tourist tax added to hotel taxes to messages printed on posters and garbage cans encouraging them not to throw their refuse in the canal.

Lizzie: the (tongue-in-cheek) quiz is designed to test not only knowledge but cultural curiosity-- so anyone with that in mind would certainly pass. Exactly, it is the lack of respect and the proprietary attitude of the woman that provoked me to write this post-- but I think I am hardly alone in lamenting this kind of tourists in Venice or anywhere else-- just the latest in a long succession of voices going back to the mid-19th century, if not earlier.

As for the "some unidentifiable Eastern European country"-- so I can't tell a Ukranian from a Russian. Are you going to tell me the woman in the yellow hat could tell a Canadian from an American? I'd hardly describe this as a cultural shortcoming. Though perhaps a Canadian would.

Delphine- I have read it, but that was awhile ago... I'll have to take another look at it. Thanks!

[Paris L'esprit de l'escalier]

DAY-TRIPPERS,
DAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY-TRIPPERS!
"At the end of the day though," the yellow-hatted whatevers will be back on the trains and buses from whence they eminated.
Then the sane people can come out again.
The same with sneaking out early in the morning, before THEY arrive.
Or if you must venture out in daylight, take the tiny back streets where THEY get lost. THEY stick to the Yellow Brick Road (headed to and from the train station,) put there especially for yellow-hat wearers.
And Madame Maitresse, no native in their right minds would dane to walk down 34th street, a mistake I made just the other day.
Fortunately I survived :)

[nancy]

From Wikipedia:

Modern Venice
After 1070 years, the Republic lost its independence when Napoleon Bonaparte on May 12, 1797, conquered Venice during the First Coalition. The French conqueror brought to an end the most fascinating century of its history: It was during the Settecento (1700s) that Venice became perhaps the most elegant and refined city in Europe, greatly influencing art, architecture, and literature. Napoleon was seen as something of a liberator by the city's Jewish population, although it can be argued they had lived with fewer restrictions in Venice. He removed the gates of the Ghetto and ended the restrictions on when and where Jews could live and travel in the city.

[maitresse]

Nancy, if you're interested in the history of the Jews in Venice, you'll love my novel... that is, if you can put up with my cultural elitism :)

[Gillian]

Ah maitresse, I always enjoy your wit and bold humor. I may have failed that quiz, but I promise that if I ever visit Venice I will definitely make a point of searching out the best food, enjoying it, and taking some beautiful photographs (beyond the tourist genre). And I won't wear a yellow hat. And I may have a love affair with an Italian.

[conrad47]

Lauren,

I enjoy your blog, which I first discovered while looking for things to read about Paris but which I like for your essays about literature as well.

The tourists-resenting-other-tourists phenomenon is nothing new and I’m sure existed even back when only the moneyed class could afford to travel overseas. Elitism can play into it, of course, but I agree with you that elitism for the right reasons can be appropriate and even moral. I also regret, as you do, the “shallow use” that some use of a destination (to check a city off one’s “to do” list, to experience inebriation in as many exotic locales as possible, etc.). Part of that phenomenon though is simply that we feel proprietary about a place that is really special to us, a place we believe we understand and appreciate in a way that eludes others. But the older we get, the more we become aware I think that our special gifts of perception are not so unique as we once thought. Others may eye us as being as undeserving as we believe them to be. Egocentricity is, after all, a universal quality.

Also, I wouldn’t take umbrage at the unoriginality of a tourist wanting her photo taken in front of a famous artifact or landmark. That doesn't make them philistines. Souvenir snapshots are as old as the hills (some, with the patina of age, are even considered art). Personally, I find charming the idea that cluttering drawers the world over are snapshots of Jane and Joe Tourist smiling in front of the Eiffel Tower. In fact, I’d probably want to check the pulse of anyone who doesn’t have at least a few such corny mementoes tucked away somewhere.

All this is not to disagree with your point that there are some inexcusably obnoxious tourists out there.

On another note, a propos of your commodification of books lament in an earlier post, you might be interested in today's Washington Post article "Harry Potter and the Death of Reading" (Ron Charles).

Au revoir, and keep up the good blog.

[liv]

Wow. There's a lot going on underground here in the comments. And all I wanted to say was, "super post! I got all the questions right!" Although I suspect that on the subject of the canals as trash bins, there's a split decision.

[milan]

Can you change your banner, I find it too common (everyone knows that painting and painter). It just isn't a banner that sings of "cultural elitism". And while we are at it, have you noticed the more controversial your posts become, the more hits you get? Oh you are a clever one.
Wink

[maitresse]

Hi Conrad, I fully agree with you... thank you for the link as well. I didn't at all intend to be understood at taking umbrage at her unoriginality-- go look in my flickr pix, there's a bunch of shots I took of N in St Mark's Square! I don't feel at all exempt from the ritual of taking pictures in front of important landmarks, however "unoriginal" an act it might be!

Liv, thanks for coming by, and congratulations on getting all the answers right! You win.... a trip to Venice!

Sigh. just kidding. I would buy you a trip to Venice if I could afford it. So I hope you'll accept, instead, my esteem and my readership.

Milan, you sly dog. According to your reasoning, then, I must not in fact be a cultural elitist if I would so brazenly plaster Toulouse-Lautrec on the top of my blog!

Don't you think it's interesting that a post like this in the blogosphere provokes a controversy over cultural values whereas the same post, were it to appear in the Guardian, would perhaps receive a letter or two to the editor and then fade away?

Wink back atcha!

[Alice]

Yes, you seem to have shaken things up abit around here, Lauren! I know how passionate you are about Venice and its history, and I understand where you're coming from with this post. Interestingly enough, over on a blog by another expat in Paris, C'est la me, Amy talks about her own recent run-ins with American tourists in Paris since she moved here.

Now, I am not one to try to single myself out by claiming that I would be any different as a tourist in a foreign country where I don't speak the language, but I honestly don't think I have ever literally insulted the country in question by pointing out what they have or have not done throughout history (as so many Americans tend to do when visiting Paris or other parts of France) -- what's the point in visiting said beautiful country if in fact one holds it in contempt? I just don't get it... And I agree with you about the utter disregard for the value of certain elements of a country's landscape, and that is in fact what disgusts me the most about how some people approach traveling.

Again, I'm far from perfect, but when people are loud and rude in their contempt of the country they are visiting, I can't help but feel disgusted. Sure, sometimes we can be disappointed by certain elements of the country we're visiting, but is it necessary to voice it in such an ignorant way?

In any case, I found your reflections in this post and in your comments very stimulating, as always! And controversy does have a way of pulling out some quiet voices that in other cases may have remained silent, n'est-ce pas ?

Delphine, I have The Art of Travel at home, still in my unending pile of books-to-be-read... Now you've got me even more intrigued and I'm going to try to get to it sooner rather than later! I have often enjoyed Alain de Botton's books in the past.

[milan]

Oh Mlle M. you had me at "you sly dog";)
I was really hoping that you would tell me that you were being ironic with your Toulouse-Lautrec banner, seeing that you live in Paris now. (Sad to say, it just reminds me of some college dorm with a poster of Dali's "Persistance de la mémoire" tacked on the wall above their single bed). But now is not the time to be indelicate, since you are a doctoral candidate majoring in English (correct me if I am wrong) and not an Art Historian, I shall let it slide.
And yes, à propos provoking a controversy over cultural values in blogosphere, (although the Guardian is a tricky one, maybe another example would have been better?) BUT as a Chevalier d'Industrie I applaud you for that. And coyly mentioning to Mlle Nancy that you have a novel coming out.
But step lightly Mlle M. you don't always have to be ruled by your heart, reason before passion has it +'s as well.
A+