Funerale di Venezia

I tried to paint from one of the many photos of Venice I have. Most of them portray little canals or alleys of houses with amazing facades, very commonly transformed in hotels. We, tourists of Venice, are about 20 million per year, so no wonder there are that many hotels rising in the city. But there is the other side of the coin. On 14th of November the Venetians performed a mock funeral, the »Funeral of Venice«, with a procession of gondolas along the Grand Canal. With it they wanted to point out the problems of this unique city, with it's population shrinking under 60 thousand which is the minimum for an inhabitat place to be called city. Inhabitants are leaving Venice in search for work and as they can't afford rising housing costs anymore. It was a call to demonstrate that new strategies are needed to keep this city alive.