Maggie in Venice

ABOVE: The bell tower in Venice's Campo San Simeon Grande, as viewed from the Hotel Ai Due Fanali's rooftop terrace.

by Durant Imboden

About a week ago, I wrote a review of the Hotel Ai Due Fanali in the Campo San Simeon Grande, a quiet little square that opens directly onto the Grand Canal.

To give our Venice for Visitors readers a better sense of the campo's atmosphere, I dug through our image archives for a video clip that Cheryl had shot in 2010 as part of a "noontime church bells in Venice" series with Maggie as her sidekick.

As with most of Cheryl's noontime videos, two of the three Campo San Simeon Grande clips had a canine accompaniment. I was able to find one usable clip for the review, which Cheryl had recorded as the sound of the bells was waning. The short clip below is an outtake that's tolerable only if you're fond of dogs.

(Linguistic wordplay observation of the day: Maybe it's no coincidence that the German word for "bark" is "bellen.")

Maggie is in the United States at the moment, so--until she returns to Venice--we'll update this blog with occasional photos of dogs (many of whom are not Maggie) in Italy's most dog-friendly city. 

We're especially fond of the picture above, which shows what appears to be a Volpino Italiano ("little Italian fox") sharing a public bench with its master near the Palazzo Malipiero.

According to a Wikipedia article, the breed has a long history but is comparatively rare these days, with only about 2,000 Volpini Italiani worldwide. Here's another photo: