Things you can't do anymore

Earlier this week a friend of mine were talking about things we did while kids that aren't allowed anymore. Despite growing up worlds apart (he in England and me in various parts of the USA) lots of things were the same: fishing, rock fights, riding bikes all day and building clubhouses on "common" property. Kids are kids no matter the place.

In doing a bit of research for an upcoming trip I learned with great sadness that is is now forbidden to feed the pigeons in St. Mark's Square in Venice, Italy. When I took my family there on holiday my wife was amazed that this was something that ALL the family wanted to do (and if you travel with family you know what a rarity that is!) and to say we dropped a bit of coin to support the local bird food vending economy would be an understatement.

I know the world is changing and is certainly not the place of my childhood. I certainly can understand the public health implications of the move as well as the effect they have on the historic architecture of St. Mark's (just as I can understand I would not let me children wander as we did when I was young), but it is sad to know sometime in the future I'll be talking with someone and say "Hey, remember when you could feed the pigeon's in St. Mark's? That was cool.".