Dogs of Venice- Wednesday Blog Post

            In my few days in Venice so far, I’ve noticed that while all of the Venetians seem to enjoy life, none of them enjoy it quite so much as their four-legged companions. With the number of dogs I see out with their owners, I am convinced that owning a dog must be a prerequisite for being a real Venetian. The dogs of Venice are living the good life. In fact, if I were a dog, I don’t think I could imagine a better place to call home.

Venice belongs to the dogs. They can be found just about everywhere: you see them out for walks, in cafés while their owners have an espresso, and even on vaporetti. They enjoy the company of the rest of the many dogs of Venice, occasionally needing an “andiamo” from their owners when they socialize for a bit too long. Although they seemed not to come in a pack of seven, something about the attitudes of these dogs was reminiscent of those in the movie Moonstruck in my opinion, and sometimes, I can’t help but hear that peppy song that always goes with the appearance of the dogs in the movie.

This high density of dogs seems to make for a different culture towards them than anything I’ve experienced before. Before going to Venice, the idea of bringing a dog into a restaurant was not only something I’d never consider doing, but also something I might not have believed to happen anywhere.  I’m not sure that it is explicitly against the rules to bring pets on public transportation, but it’s certainly something I just don’t see done. Really, the only two places it seems completely acceptable to have a dog is in your own house and outside. Anywhere else would seem a little off, if not somewhat illegal. Many pet owners in the United States might say they think of their pets as just strange looking humans, but the Venetians take it a step further. It seems like their society as a whole has accepted this idea. A “No Dogs” sign seems to be something you simply don’t see in Venice.

I’d like to credit this difference to a fundamental difference in what Venetians and Americans as a whole value. Americans follow the rules. They stop at traffic lights even if there isn’t another car within a twenty mile radius, they generally treat “Keep out” signs practically as a tangible boundary they physically cannot cross, and they certainly don’t bring their dogs into Starbucks with them in the morning for a coffee. I don’t think this is really the case with the Italians. It seems to me that rules are accepted only as suggestions in Italian society. Italians seem to more do what makes sense to them. There’s probably health codes that would strongly discourage the presence of dogs in places where people eat, but by Italian logic, an espresso needs to be had before work and the dog needs to be taken out, so why wouldn’t one combine the two? I very much appreciate this attitude.