Gherardo Ortalli, a professor of medieval history, finds his path less poetic. When I go out in the campo with my friends. I have to stop because someone is taking a photograph of us as if we are aboriginals, he says. Perhaps one day we will be. You will go and see a sign on a cage: Feed the Venetians. When I arrived 30 years ago, the population was 120000. Now it is less than 60000.