Dave's Gaze
After Dark
The dark of night creates space for color and light to weave creative fantasies, and frees the mind to wander into imaginative places that otherwise remain buried beneath the relentless demands of daylight.
Venice Masqueraders
Masqueraders of the Venice Carnival of 2026.
They typically drift through the narrow Venetian streets in silence, speaking only through graceful gestures to preserve the anonymity and mystery that lie at the heart of this centuries-old tradition.
The Sea Comes to the Piazza
How much longer will we have the beautiful, magical city of Venice?
My son and I were hit with that question at 10:30 p.m. one night when we wandered, unprepared into inches of the Adriatic Sea in San Marco Square — we hadn’t thought to check the high tide schedule.
The sea level relative to Venice ground level has been rising for over a century. Until 50 years ago, the major cause was the sinking city, due to the withdrawal of ground water. Local regulations ended most of that in the 1970s, but the relative sea level continued to rise, and then rise faster, due the growing issue of climate change. The massive, $6 billion “Mose” system of floodgates at the major water inlets helps control the flooding and buy the city time, but it has its limits.
Venice tide forecast & updates
https://www.comune.venezia.it/it/content/il-centro-maree
Mose system of floodgates
https://mosevenezia.eu/
Meta-review research on Venice flooding and sea level
https://nhess.copernicus.org/articles/21/2633/2021
European Commission on fighting climate change dis-information
https://climate.ec.europa.eu/.../climate-disinformation_en
A Smile Needs No Translation
The best travel pulls me beyond the comfortable and familiar, into worlds that look, sound, taste, and feel different. What endures, though, are not the landmarks, but the human moments, spontaneous connections, unencumbered by expectations of language or etiquette, that remind how little distance there really is between us.