> A couple of days ago as we sailed along the Turkish coast south and west of Istanbul we were quite close to what may be the world's most active war zone - the civil war in Syria. If anybody on board this ship gave it a second (or even first) thought, I am unaware of it. We might as well have been sailing off the coast of Florida.
Things in the Middle East are not far apart. Down this coast the next country IS Syria, followed by Lebanon, followed by Israel, followed by the Gaza Strip, and then Egypt's Sinai region. This whole region is filled with armed camps and ancient bitterness, facts which we ship-borne tourists blithely ignore.
> A further thought about Venice - everything done "on wheels" in a normal city is, in Venice, done by boat. That means scheduled buses, tour buses, taxis, garbage haulers, police vehicles, ambulances, hearses, cement mixers, you name it - all afloat. It appears relatively few residents have a personal boat unless they live on an outlying island like Burano, a sort of watery suburb.
> Correction: Earlier I said our ship was the tallest thing in Venice, even taller than the campaniles. Upon further examination, I believe a few of the tallest campaniles could be a smidgen taller.
> I've been thinking about Italy, beginning with Venice. It is picturesque as anything but unless I had nearly unlimited money I wouldn't want to live here. I believe living here would feel like living in Colonial Williamsburg, a museum with people. Old houses, little old roads, small shops - not my cup of tea.
I feel the same way about U.S. cities, particularly the older, high density ones like San Francisco, New York, etc. I like low density living, not being jammed in with many others. I also like "new and shiny" as opposed to "old, dirty, and tired." It is the legacy of growing up in CA where most things were new and shiny, and clean too.
