Birds terrify me. An unfortunate, surprise, physical attack on me by a guinea hen at my grandfather's farm when I was barely three produced this fear, which continues to this day. Ask my family and my close friends. Birds terrify me.
Keeping this in mind, you might ask why I blithely travel to Europe at the drop of a hat, when pigeons seem to live absolutely everywhere. The pigeon problem does give me pause. When one or more of my immediate family accompanies me, they surround me like bodyguards (which actually they are) and prevent any member of the avian kingdom from approaching me. My children have especially keen eyes and are my faithful protectors. Generally, my strategy when alone is simply to ignore any birds on the ground and walk blithely through streets and passages as if I were traversing Disneyland.
I wasn't looking forward to my first visit to Venice, however. If you've either been there or seen photos of the city, you know that Piazza San Marco (the very large square in front of Saint Mark's cathedral in the heart of the city) is notorious for its superabundance of pigeons. The entire square always seems covered by those nasty birds. People even stop and feed the vermin!! I was daunted by the prospect of making my way through this terrifying barrier. One can walk under sheltering colonnades for part of the perimeter of the square, but eventually the protection ends and one must dash for the entrance of the cathedral. Even though my husband would be with me, I quailed (sorry!) at the prospect of navigating the square.
We were staying in a convitto bed and breakfast fronting on the Giudecca canal in late December 1999. This was our first visit and we were reconnoitering for our planned trip in the spring with my husband's students. December weather near the Adriatic can be stormy. During our first night, a major storm swept across western Europe and brought lots of wind and rain. (Some of you may recall the damage done to Versailles during this storm--massive trees uprooted and quite a bit of damage spread out over the extensive gardens.) After we ate our breakfasts, we left the convitto and began our exploration of the city. Our first surprise was the elevated wooden boardwalk path that began at the foot of the entrance steps. We saw that this intersected with another boardwalk that ran parallel to the canal. The storm had brought aqua alta, the high water driven through the lagoon by the storm which now flooded the streets. When this happens, out come the boardwalks, placed by the citizens who know just how to deal with all this flooding. We realized that we could go everywhere we had planned. Not many other folks out that day, either.
As we approached San Marco, my anxiety began to rise. Thousands of pigeons awaited me. I clutched my husband's arm and braced myself. We emerged from the colonnade into a water-covered piazza. We saw about 10 pigeons. The aqua alta prevented those thundering thousands of pigeons from landing and strutting on the piazza.
No pigeons could attack me!
I'd like to say that I walked right to the center of the piazza and twirled around like Mary Tyler Moore did on her TV show, but of course the boardwalks only went along the edges of the piazza and then in and out of the cathedral. I did have rather an excited celebration under the colonnades, however.
The stormy weather continued for most of our stay. Needless to say, I didn't miss sunshine and dry conditions. We had quite pleasant Italian winter weather for the rest of our trip. The pigeon populations of Florence and Rome were negligible threats. I certainly dodged my greatest fear during those days.
I've returned to Venice since this visit, and the weather was lovely and the pigeons possessed the piazza. My two sons accompanied me and I survived. Nothing, however, will ever replace my sighs of relief on that first visit, when aqua alta banished those birds and let me appreciate Venice fearlessly.
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