Apologies for the lack of update from the Venice’s neighbouring city of Mestre.

There are some days I am inspired by some incident to blog, but the nature of the situation that I want to discuss is quite delicate. Seeing that I am not a citizen of this country, I do not want to risk eviction before our tentative date of departure. Let us not forget that the Italian government is communist.

Then there are days when writer’s block rears itself over me. These days happen more often than before. The reason for them is not alien to me, but I cannot disclose them for personal reasons.

Hopefully inspiration will strike again soon, so that some of the drafts will turn in to actual posts.

For now, I leave you with a picture taken during the Festa del Redontore, which happened this weekend in Venice.

For more pictures, click here – Venice Festa del Redentore 2007.

While running a prostitution business is illegal in Italy, prostitution itself is not. Meaning you can prostitute yourself to earn your own keep, but you cannot make a profit from prostituting others.

Thus it is not uncommon to see prostitutes ply their ‘goods’ on the streets at night. From around 9pm onwards, they can be seen lining streets between cities or leading out of the city.

One stretch that used to be popular with the ladies is the road linking Mestre and Treviso. There are quite a few lining the road leading in and out of Marghera, which is a small city next to Mestre and Venice.

Although there are some Italian prostitutes, most of them are not Italian. There is a mix of blacks (African, Senegalese, Negro etc.) and Eastern Europeans. Some are in the trade of their own free will, others are victims of a sex-trade racket that they have unwittingly entered in to.

I use the word ‘unwitting’ here because no matter whether it was the 1700s or the 21st century, human racketeers use the same ruse that people still fall for all the time. They offer a promise of a decent job – administrative work, cleaner, maid etc. – in another country for a small sum of cash, you just have to leave your passport with them for administration. Then on arrival in the new country, the person’s passport is confiscated and he/she is forced either in to slavery or prostitution.

The police in Italy recently uncovered such a racket forcing Eastern European women in to prostitution. Due to this, the number of ladies on the roads have dropped drastically. According to the S.O., there used to be one lady for every 10 metres on both sides of the road between Mestre and Treviso.

While I was a little disappointed in not seeing that many prostitutes, I am also glad that there are now less on the street, especially if they were forced in to it.