Pigeons in Piazza San Marco, Venice

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Feed the pigeons!

I love animals, maybe that's why, and like I said I've been to Venice 100 times, but feed the pigeons still amuses me! And now I have my daughter doing it with me, even more fun :-)

You can buy corn for a few Euros from stands in the middle of Piazza San Marco, (at least they still did last time I went).

Watch out, the are not scared, they will just land all over your body, it's a little bit the sensation the movie "the birds" from Alfred Hitchcock gives you...lol

Feed the pigeons!

I love animals, maybe that's why, and like I said I've been to Venice 100 times, but feed the pigeons still amuses me! And now I have my daughter doing it with me, even more fun :-)

You can buy corn for a few Euros from stands in the middle of Piazza San Marco, (at least they still did last time I went).

Watch out, the are not scared, thewill just land all over your body, it's a little bit the sensation the movie "the birds" from Alfred Hitchcock gives you...lol

i don't see the draw of getting your photo taken with pigeons that are pooping on your clothes. no thanks. i will appreciate the church and it's detailed bas reliefs and paintings instead. breathtaking...unlike the stench of fatty bird poop.

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Venetian pigeons are CRAZY!!!!

Well first of all they do not bother you, unless you purchase a little bag of corn nut for 1 euro. As soon as the birds see you walking up to the guy who sells them they will be ALL over you. Once the bag is empty they will leave you alone.

Oh watch out for Japanese tourist, they are scared to feed the birds (running the risk to get pooped on probably) but they will aggressively take picture of you being in the middle of it.

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I fed the birds. It was a cheap wonderful thrill. A bag of pigeon food, which is a mix of dried corn and bird seed, was 1 euro a bag. It is the same price at all the pigeon food stands. I was happy to spend 2 euro on bird food and spend far more time and enjoying the experince more then i had thought possible. I was equally thankful for hand sanatizer! Reapply liberally afterwards. I never thought of pigeons as being heavy, but they are. I was thankfully lucky to not get bombed by the pigeons. But if that happens, I am told it is best to let it dry, and then it will just flake off. If you try and clean it wet it will only smear. If it happens remember what goes in must come out, and though i was lucky to not get pigeon poop on me, i am sure feeding the pigeons sometimes makes them poop on you. Still it is way worth the risk!

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St. Mark's Square - dubbed by our kids as "Pigeon World"

If you have kids and are on a budget a few pots of pigeon food and voila!

I'm a big animal lover but some of these pigeons really were filthy, dirty, deformed mutant pigeons... and that amount of pigeons... it only follows that you stand a better than most chance of being pooed upon! (and even if you aren't interested in feeding them there is no escaping them).

We whiled away a fair amount of time in the square feeding them and having them land all over us.... and the kids LOVED it and couldn't get enough and we had to drag them away (onto a gondola where they begged to go back to the pigeons!!!).

A great setting for practising one's hawking skills!

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I know most people hate pigeons and think they are gross, but you better get used to them if you travel to Italy! They are everywhere! You might as well get to know them...so why not feed them right in the middle of St. Mark's Square! Come on, it's really not that bad and highly amusing watching a friend getting attacked by the pigeons!

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Try to feed the pigeons at San Marco Square. But be carefull that if you feed tham on the morning when they are hungry, they are all attacking to you. Maybe its better to leave this experience to the afternoon hours as some of the pigeons did not care at all what you doing :)

You can't visit the piazza without feeding the pigeons. It is really quite humorous to watch how timid people are at first and within 30 minutes are covered with pigeons, in addition to some other stuff. Our kids are entertained for hours feeding the pigeons. Bird seed is sold for 1 euro throughout the piazza and is the best money I've spent. The birds are much less timid later in the year. My daughters were very disappointed in April, when the pigeons did not cover them looking for food.

Make sure to bring some small vial of hand cleaner or sanitizer, as after all, birds are not the cleanest of animals

When you get to St. Mark’s Square, you cannot miss the lovely little birdies flitting around. Rather, you can’t miss the tons of large, overfed pigeons covering the ground. For 1 euro you can purchase dried corn and feed the birds. While I’m sure this is a great time for kids, I passed on the opportunity and my girlfriends and I just tried to avoid being covered in bird doo.