"What?!?" The first time we were asked this strange, out of place question from the shadows we didn't even know what the voice was selling, much less how much. We soon learned that "You know how much?" is the oft, always incorrectly used catchphrase for Venetian purse dealers. Asked again and again over the duration of our visit we were forced to conclude one of two things:
01. Venetian purse dealers don't know English very well. We ruled this possibility out because they apparently know English well enough to have learned "You know how much?" Reasonably, one could assume that they could also learn an easier, more appropriate phrase, such as "You wanna purse?" (Though technically, they shouldn't use 'wanna' instead of 'want to' in such a phrase - Noam Chomsky's anti-contracting over the trace phenomenon, of course...) or even "[Faux-] Fendi?," "[Faux-] Gucci?"
02. Venetian purse dealers think tourists are psychic. Do we look fucking psychic to you!? No we don't know how much!!! Nor do we care. Americans are pretty great, but not psychic great.
Either way, don't buy a fake purse in Venice or the Bad Bag Campaign police might get you.
