Chioggia - and Why I like It · May 4, 11:45 PM by James Martin
I don’t know what’s wrong with me. The problem is that I can’t get with the program by learning to love places everyone agrees are fabulous.
I usually meander through a town while asking myself the question “would I want to live here?” I did that recently on a short trip to Venice. The answer was “not on your life.” It was a holiday weekend, so maybe the crush of tourists was the reason I recoiled from the thought of putting down roots in the sinking city. After all, frustrated residents couldn’t go about their business. Narrow alleyways were clotted with tourists in shorts and tee shirts with obnoxious messages printed on them, all looking for something glistening, something golden…
Yet upon waking up in nearby Chioggia early on a weekday morning, grabbing a coffee and heading off to the vaunted fish market to see the glistening, absolutely-fresh-off-the-boat seafood, I was left muttering to myself like one of those apparently demented people who can’t walk the street without talking to someone on a hidden cell phone, “dang, I really, really want to live here.”
Chioggia is rapidly becoming a tourist town, but there remains a vestige of real life that’s compelling to me. That’s why I’d consider renting an apartment and staying a while on my vacation. I could still take a trip into Venice. It’s obligatory. But then I could imagine also the prospects of a seafood feast that starts with negotiating for the best fish at the best price with an expert fishmonger. Heaven, like red mullets, doesn’t have to be far away as you think.
Need convincing that I’m stark, raving mad? See my Chioggia Fish Market Pictures
Chioggia - and Why I like It originally appeared on WanderingItaly.com May 04, 2008, © James Martin, 
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