Italian Variations

A couple of quickies for this post:

First off, it looks like virtual Venice has opened officially in SL. When I snapped the following pictures I noticed a large crowd of people, some tables bedecked with virtual victuals and lots of formal seating. Being in no way fluent in Italian I thought it best to remain aloof from proceedings. The sim I found slightly disappointing, perhaps because it is so ambitious. The builders have used photo textures to replicate many of the city's famous buildings - and I'm not sure they work terribly well. One or two would be fine, but there are just too many in my view. Also - and this would be difficult - one doesn't get the feeling of the city from the sim. I say "difficult" because I find Venice very intimate and close, bordering on the claustrophobic - but this sense seems to be missing in the wide, sunny paths and piazzas of this sim.


Next door is the sim for the Veneto region, in which Venice is situated. This is still under development, but it appears to be aimed at promoting key aspects of the region, inclduing tourism and agriculture. It also provides a handy teleport into virtual St Mark's Square.

The last Italian site I wanted to mention is IW Bank, an online bank that targets cool, trendy tech-savvy Italian 20-somethings (apparently). Their sim is not open to the public yet - but when I saw the Satellite Map, I was amused by its use of branding in the construction: