Kayaking in Venice

Just because a thing can be done doesn't mean it should be done. That's my first reaction to a NYTimes story by David Kocieniewski about kayaking the canals of Venice Italy. The appeal of quietly paddling along streets of water that date back nearly 1000 years is obvious. But the idea of sitting in a kayak on top of an open sewer that serves 1.4 million people while being tossed around by wakes of speeding water taxis makes me want to reach for the nearest bottle of penicillin.  Leaving the issue of water quality behind, is sitting at water level a good way to view a city that's built above the water?  When you're on the water in a city what you see are the walls that contain the waterway much more than the city itself.  What's unique about Venice is that those walls are mostly comprised of sunken first floors of homes that were built around the time of the Crusades.  Ok. That IS cool.  Two bottles of penicillin please... Link to NYT story about kayaking in Venice Set as favorite Bookmark Email This Hits: 223 Trackback(0) TrackBack URI for this entry Comments (0) Subscribe to this comment's feed Write comment Name Email Comment smaller | bigger I have read and agree to the Terms of Usage. Write the displayed characters Add Comment

Last Updated ( Wednesday, 04 June 2008 )

 

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