PREJUDICE -- DID I EVER GET A LESSON!

Fr. J. Junio, Lupe and Mirna
Notice the entry to the house
right on the canal

This is a funny story.  It's funny because no one got hurt.
I have to start by asking if you have ever made yourself a promise to stay away from a certain city, even though you had never been there?  Are you sure?
If you have been so strange as to do that, you will be as strange as I am.  You bet.
For some strange reason I had made a decision that Venice, Italy was a place that I wanted to avoid.  I had a reason or two, but mostly I just didn't have the "yen."  I had seen all the pictures of gondolas and water and all the rest of it.  St. Mark's square with all the pigeons and a bunch of people on a pier hanging around with actors in masks.  I had no interest of ever going there.  Also, I have to tell you that I was sure that a place with all those canals just had to smell bad.  Of that, I was sure.  WELL...
A few weeks ago I spent a day in Venice, Italy.  Actually, that's all I spent there.  Before we got there, the announcement was made that there are no autos in Venice.  We were also told that we would have to take a water taxi to get to the center of town.  Well, we did all of that.

That's the Voice from the Kitchen in the center.  The taxi was quite comfortable, if a bit on the rocking boat side, if you get my meaning.  We were approaching the center of town and there was no foul smell yet.  Oh yeah, I was being alert.  As we were approaching the dock the word was passed around that this was a high water time and that getting around would be a little on the difficult side.  We were going to have to walk on narrow platforms that would keep us out of the water.  My mind got to whirling around wondering what that was going to look like.  We were assured that because we got there on a high water day it would be difficult to walk around as a group and tour the place.  First, we were going to St. Mark's, and we would shift around town after that.  But first we had to mount the "dry foot platforms."  Imagine how often they have to do this!  Actually, one of the residents told me that if the water doesn't come up too high they just put their boots on.  I did not snap a photo of it, but I did see black high-water boots in the windows of the clothing shops. 500.00 Euro dresses in the same window with 25.00 Euro black high-water boots!  That in itself made me wonder why I had decided never to come here!
I took a picture of St. Mark's square with water all over, and rising...and a picture of the water coming up through the cracks.

Not a pigeon in sight!  And by the way, the air is far, far from being foul.

See, I wasn't exaggerating.  Those feet that you see are on the high-water platform.





Venice is known for a lot of things, but I was intrigued by the items that don't appear in the travelogues.  The transportation system of small "boat busses" and larger ferries is a wonder to see.  The houses with entries that are right on the canal.  Most of them have another opening on the opposite side that leads to the sidewalk, but it is still strange to see what you can see in the first photo of this piece.  We walked around a lot, and saw some exciting squares where the Venetians can spend time socializing and gossiping on dry land.  I also found out that Venetians are friendly and chatty.  I thought that the Romans had a monopoly on that.  I'm glad that I got a lesson about being nice to tourists from the place that I had mentally disparaged for so long.
I learned a lot about Venice while I was there and I continue to fish around for interesting tidbits about the place.  I did not do any pre-visit research because I was still mired in my prejudice.  Now that I have been there I know that I made a mistake in carrying my attitude around for so long.  Not that I would have reached there any earlier, but I would not have cheated myself out of the mental freedom that I lost because of my narrow-minded, ignorant opinion.  
I am therefore inviting you all to go through life with open minds.  It won't assure you of earlier visits to far away places, but it will keep you at peace with yourself...You'll never have to confess like I just did...

At high tide the bow and stern decorative high necks have about 2 inches of
clearance over the top of the arch of the pedestrian bridge...and the
gondolier must crouch to pass under.  Notice the grilled window in the
building.
When two gondolas meet or have to go around the same corner, people gather by the
guard rails to watch the professional athleticism of the gondoliers as they
navigate around each other.