My Travels - Italia Part 3 of 4 (Venezia, 2006)

Venice has long welcomed refugees of Europe, slavers of the Barbary Coast, pirates of the Med, princes of Arabia, traders of Hindoostan, Viziers of Istanbul, merchant marines of Southeast Asia, a wandering pillager like me.

She is no colony for plunder. She is haven to be called home. She is a realm to be guarded. With her charms ignited, I became her defender.

Now, she is sinking and ravaged by outsiders: I proposed to avert disaster:

Block the Causeway to the mainland! But they all come hard and fast. Trains, buses, cars, yachts, ferries, dinghys, speeders, tugs, outriggers, tankers, vaporetti, traghetti, line cruisers, gondolas!

On my arrival, it was even by foot, during the Venice Marathon.

Perhaps the gondola rides will terrify them like they did me of EU$120 for a half-hour jaunt, while bargaining was totally acceptable. Perhaps a segment of the world's population might be put off by anti-war sentiments embodied in this Pieta, front-center at the Ferrovia (train station): I went further devising my own schemes: The mainstays of Piazza San Marco may become a pigeon air force. You see, birdfeed's been injected with birth control to obviously control their masses. Add a hardening catalyst and you get painful projectiles raining down from a bomber squadron!But I fear such inorganized ensigns are too fragile for combat.

I sought vampires of old Venice but like the living, they've fled the floods of the sinking city, reducing residents down to about 60,000, settling in cities like New Orleans (I sympathize with citizens of that beautiful city, but I can't say the same for the bloodsuckers, thinking they've escaped drowning under Venetian floods while sleeping away the fatal sun, only to seal their fate in Katrina's fury).

Still in the midst of my scheming---reflecting on a night's discovery that women are supposed to get blank dinner menus (read: no price), while men get the full brunt---then came the clatter of disciplined steps up the wooden approach to my upper room. One set of feet, just another guest. Four sets, it is time to leave!

Pursuing an Empire long gone, my takeover plans apparently laid bare, the reigning authority has come for me. Perhaps just enough time for one final bid---to the commercial and financial center - Milan!