Back from Italy, thank you for all of your help.
 

We recently returned from our trip to Italy and I wanted to take a few minutes to thank everyone who answered questions and helped to plan the trip. Venice, Florence, Lucca and Parma turned out to be a great trip for us and we had a wonderful time. Thank you for all of your suggestions in the planning phase.
I am interested in knowing if anyone else has noticed the increase in the amount of graffiti in Venice or have I just failed to notice it on previous trips? Also the beggars seem to be getting much more aggresive than they have in the past. Am I just becoming jaded after having been there a few times or has anyone else notice this as well?
Despite the graffiti and the beggars Venice is still my favorite city to visit and the trip was great. I will try to get a trip report out soon. Take Care Jackie

Welcome back...glad your trip was great.

I didn't notice graffiti or beggers last October. Where were the beggers?

Welcome back, Jackie,

I was in Venice in Sept. I didn't notice any beggars, either.

The last two times we were in Venice we didn't have trouble with beggars either. That's why I was so surprised when they were everywhere during this trip. There were several women wandering all over Venice who would come up to us as we were sitting outside at cafes and wine bars asking for money. This happened every day were were there and they made their way into every vicinity. One morning we were having chocolate at Florian and one of these women came up to us and we told her no. She eventually walked to the next table and started begging and grabbed one of the gentlemen by the arm. The entire table stood up, picked up the tip they had left on the table and grabbed their baby and left. It was clear they were quite offended and a bit frightened by this woman. When the waiter saw her and started toward her the beggar, who was using a cane and limping badly, began sprinting away, followed shortly thereafter by the police. I saw this woman later in the day in Cannergio doing the same thing. I know this is new behavior as it has never been a problem before but it occured every day we were there this time. Has anyone else who has been there recently had the same experience?
As for graffiti, this was new too. When we have been to Venice in the past we saw just a bit of graffiti but it was limited to temporary plywood set up for construction. This time we noticed a lot of it actually spray painted on the sides of buildings and thought it was quite a shame for this beautiful city. I noticed a lot of it was anit-american sentiment and was wondering if anyone else had noticed it as well.
I can say that these little distractions did nothing to ruin our trip or lower our affection for Venice. I would still rather spend time in Venice than almost anywhere else and will return many times in the future, if I am lucky. I just brought these items up to see if it was an aberation or if others have had the same experience. Take Care Jackie

I was in Venice a couple of weeks ago and, although the graffiti is nothing new there, I was astounded at the number of beggars there were in just about every corner of the city. And aggressive!

Holly, thanks for the reply. I was beginning to think it was just me being paranoid about the beggars since it seemed nobody else had noticed it. Maybe I just didn't notice the graffiti before and it stood out to me this time.