You occasionally hear people saying that walking around Venice is like being in a film. It’s usually meant as high praise for the unreal beauty of the city. But all too often it is the literal truth. Venice doesn’t only host an annual international film festival; it is frequently – constantly, even – an international film-set. Sometimes these are discreet affairs, with a small film-crew taking over a minor campo in the early hours of the morning. But all too often the city provides the setting for mammoth-scale blockbuster movies, with major stars and huge casts, and even larger crews, all the way down to key-grip and best-boy (whatever they may be). These affairs take over the most picturesque (and film-esque) locations, starting, of course, with St Mark’s Square. There have been three James Bond movies with thrilling and apparently destructive scenes filmed in the city, not to mention Indiana Jones, The Italian Job, The Tourist (for which the airport had apparently been relocated to the Giudecca)…

This morning it was the turn of Spiderman (4, 5? I’ve lost count). I have no idea what the plot is, but it clearly involves a good deal of merry mayhem, judging from the state of Campo Santa Maria Formosa, one of the largest open spaces in the city, transformed for the occasion into an “aftermath”.

On the whole Venetians seem resigned to such things. It may mean finding an alternative route to work or waiting for a few minutes among the extras and film-crew, perhaps hoping to catch a glimpse of Tom Holland (not the historian) or Zendaya. I heard one school-child ask if Zendaya would write a note he could hand in at school to excuse his late arrival.

It’s the price you pay for living amid such desirable (and commercially exploitable) beauty. And I presume (and hope) the film-companies pay the city-council handsomely too.