People are always asking me if Venice is horribly crowded during the Venice Film Festival and I’m not sure how to answer. Horribly crowded compared to what? I’ve seen less crowded (sometimes I come in January), but I’ve seen more. Way more. In the middle of the summer it can get so bad you just want to shoot yourself and once in June I swore I’d never come back.
During the festivals, the vaporetti can get crowded but you can always get on them. We’ve had no trouble at all making restaurant reservations. And except in the main tourist areas like around San Marco it’s been easy to walk around the streets. Last night we got horribly lost looking for a restaurant and went for long periods of time without seeing anyone to ask for directions.
If you come to Venice for the festival you can see some movies, or not. The festival takes over Lido but not the rest of Venice. And you might run into movie stars. As you can see from the picture above, my husband was able to take leisurely breaks to manage his fantasy football team on a terrace overlooking a canal.
We saw the Korean entry for the Golden Lion, Pieta‘ last night, and we’ll see Bella Addormenta tonight. Check back for my review of Bellocchio’s Bella Addormentata tomorrow, and of Pieta’ shortly after.
I Love Italian Everything 