VENICE is one of the most interesting and lovely places in the world?

[bale002]

Venice is a unique city with a thousand year history as an independent eastern Mediterranean sea-faring commercial and naval empire, history forgotten by the rest of the world and aggressively suppressed by the modern Italian state.

I am surprised by some of you who should know better - not so much by others who don't - mentioning it in the same breath as Disneyland (which I visit too, by the way, on its own merits), let alone comparing it, or even to something as trite as 19th-century romance when Venice was already dead, clearly a reflection of yourselves and not of the Venice which you obviously cannot see in its proper perspective.

Yes, I know it's easier to read and sell through brochures than a serious history book, which should start around the year 400 and work its way through from beginning to end around 1800 in chronological order.

Sorry if I come across as personally offensive, but I felt compelled to defend Venice from such treatment, if only in words. Please forgive me.

Now back to our regularly scheduled sitcom.

[Snort]

I lived there and love it. Just don't go in summer when the place is overrun by tourists. There's no place on Earth like Venice.