In one video, how can one woman singlehandedly portrays a tourist revenue dependent city as so universally unappealing?
She highlights the graffiti which literally covers the city. I am shocked. Not creative graffiti. Gratuitous. This speaks volumes about the general discontent of the locals. Bags of litter and filth and streets and alleyways littered with dog sh’t. She even highlights how much
is everywhere.
The city she has showcased appears rundown, dank, grey, unloved and unkempt, swarming with tourists dragging their suitcases, devoid of smiles or any joy from locals or visitors alike.
Not a single person on the writing retreat is in sight or joined the walk. Oddly, they choose to visit a lunatic asylum during their stay in Venice, a city unique for its canals, not its asylums. This choice seems peculiar, They can find lunatic asylums to visit elsewhere in the UK or the world yet opt to focus an entire day on this and then lie in bed, showing no interest in joining Liz on her edgy exploration of Venice's dark, dingy alleyways and tacky stalls.
They aren’t staying in her flat. She did a quick estate agents viewing before she left on her verbally rambling walk around the back streets. They’ve either seen as much of the rundown city as they can bear or have booked into the asylum for some sanctuary away from Liz’s insanity.
In her profanity laced dialogue she claims she has no anger or hate in her. What an odd thing to proclaim?
Don’t we assume people aren’t hate filled or we already know that they are? We know she is. She is a living case study of vitriolic hate in action!
Meanwhile, Liz claims her writing retreaters are so laid-back that her punctuality or attendance hardly matters to them.
“Just two nights ago”—remarkably only a day BEFORE their arrival—they delved into discussions about the flaws in the publishing world. They did or she did… to herself?
My some stroke of luck, ALL of them are published authors participating in the retreat to focus on historical novels. How is Liz going to help them? She’s not published fiction? During her walk, she demonstrates her limited vocabulary is reducing, the more and more she becomes isolated from people.
To top it all, she trying to hard sell flat rentals but showing the area as the most depressing and dilapidated district in any European city I've visited.
After watching this video, I find it hard to compare Venice favourably with Cambridge, Oxford, London, Bath, York, Manchester, Edinburgh…..
And just in case you think for a moment she might be slightly sane, she speaks French and with an American accent throughout the “walk” / calorie burn.
The tiny bit of empathy I can muster for her sees a desperately lonely, desperately troubled woman. She’s hoodwinked people into spending time with her (if any one is on the retreat, but then can’t cope with being with people because it’s just so alien to her.
A few pics to add joy to your lives… Absolute Grottsville.
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utterly mad