Hiding your own identity

Most locals do not actually live in Venice, they commute from the suburbs to the island by train. By day they are warm-hearted vendors or owners of family shops. But by night, they may sit in front of
the fireplace of their cozy mansion surrounded by a beautiful vineyard and garden.
  
In fact, identity is very difficult to distinguish in Venice. Because this city is a place where one can easily lose oneself. Whoever comes to Venice will immediately mix with normal travelers. If you are careful enough, you may find a famous face passing by on the street or a gondola escorting your dream star just out of eyesight.
  
In Venice, there are a lot of dynamic events the whole winter, the most famous being the Venice Carnival. It is also a perfect time to hide your identity in this melancholy city. Some travel companies have sprung up in recent years offering high-priced tailor-made Venetian expeditions complete with historical costumes, masks and entry to the grand balls. These range from a US $50 hot chocolate at the deluxe Caffé Laverna, where Wagner often visited, to a more romantic evening at the Hotel Danieli (US$ 500) arranged by the scores of production companies.
  
The emblem of the Carnevale di Venezia is the mask, the object of which is to test the depth of your ability to identify individuals behind a disguise. The most notorious of mask types has been thought to be the black mask, which traditionally symbolized the decision to violate sexual relationship taboos. Most French tourists would pay between 150 euros to 350 euros a day to hire a black mask and the matching black costume. For them, sexual orientation might not be important, but hiding identity is the main priority, because it is fun and can release the stress of practical society.
  
Unsinkable city?

While wandering around Venice, you may find that water cannot be separated from Venetians' lives. During the rainy midwinter season of, acqua alta, or high water, is quite annoying. Sometimes, even tourists must make their way through an overflowing Piazza San Marco. From the mid-1900s, the high tide floods have grown steadily more frequent and severe, especially in winter. High water has already become a staple of Venetian life, like an espresso at a stand-up coffee bar. After Hurricane Katrina destroyed New Orleans this summer, a question has begun to loom among Venetians…what if?
  
For 1,500 years, Venice, the city of floods, has survived them all. It also has survived wars, fires, plagues and far more calamities than any American city has ever undergone, yet there it is, still beautiful and indomitable. But this city is sinking. Over the centuries, the natural settling of lagoon sediments and the over pumping of freshwater beneath the city have exaggerated the situation. Furthermore, the rise in sea level driven by global warming has resulted in higher and more frequent acqua alta in Venice.
  
Four years ago, the Italian government announced plans to build a series of hollow gates to line the bottom of the lagoon's three entrances in order to hold back the sea. This huge construction project will cost about 2 to 3 billion US dollars. Just like New Orleans, Venice can no longer afford its own renewal. So the city plans to auction a dozen of its most historic Renaissance buildings and palaces in the near future to raise cash for operating expenses.
   
As Venetians ponder the future, a question has still haunted them. For whom will Venice be saved—for the millions of tourists who visit every year or for the 60,000 residents who call it home? As we now know, living here is already becoming extremely difficult due to high tides and high costs. The population of the city is shrinking. One hundred years later, who will live in Venice, tourists or Venetians? This is the question to which nobody knows the answer.