Stuck in Mud, Electrifying Guidebooks, and Paul Newman

We’ve been filming for a week now in Venice. (It takes 12 days to produce two episodes.) My local guide is a bit disappointed that we gave Rome three episodes, but Venice only two. The city certainly packs two episodes, and we’ll be unable to fit in all the beautiful bits we’ve shot. My big frustration is living with our 3,200-word-per-episode limit (on average, that’s how many words I say, both on camera and off, in a 30-minute show).

While you’re waiting for the shows, here a few still images to whet your appetite.

I was so excited to be with my friend Piero in his fast boat on the lagoon. While only getting stuck in the mud once (as there are no rocks on the bottom to damage the motor, this is a routine occurrence that boaters here seem to shrug off), we jockeyed ourselves to a perfect spot to visualize the Venice those first farmers — fleeing the barbarian chaos on the mainland that followed the fall of Rome — found when they settled in the lagoon about 1,500 years ago. I got to stand with hip boots in the muck and do my “Venice was born in mud like this” on-camera.

While filming in my favorite Venetian church, the Basilica dei Frari, it seemed that half the Americans I saw either had my book or were using my audio tour. I’ve also seen lots of people enjoying our new Mediterranean Cruise Ports guidebook. And with the release of the newly updated Rick Steves Audio Europe™ app, more people than ever are taking advantage of our free audio tours. When this man saw me, he whipped out his entire library of Rick Steves guidebooks — all on a virtual bookshelf on his tablet computer. I’m glad my staff and publisher are determined to keep us up to speed with the technology of publishing as it evolves so quickly.

The imposing Stairway of Giants in the Doge’s Palace — which leads to what was, for several centuries, the most powerful building in Europe — is capped by statues of Mars and Neptune, symbolizing Venetian control of the land and the sea. For decades, every time I pass this statue, I think, “That’s not Mars — that’s Paul Newman.” I don’t know about you, but as I travel, it seems I see a lot of famous contemporaries in the paintings and statues of past ages. It would be fun to collect all these look-alikes into a guessing game.