Blood from a stone

On a cold Venetian night shortly before Christmas, a man is killed in a scuffle in Campo San Stefano.

The closest witnesses to the event are the tourists who had been browsing the man's wares before his death - fake handbags of every designer label.

Officially termed a venditore ambulante or extracomunitario, the dead man was working as a vu cumpra, one of the many Black Africans purveying goods.