Venetian Blinds

This morning I found myself looking at the bedroom window and wondering how venetian blinds got their name.  I think this might be the first in a series of poems about the minor mysteries of language and word origins.

                                                           Venetian Blinds


                                               Slats of shadow, slots of sunlight -
                                               angling between the nearly
                                               invisible and the almost opaque.
                                               What do they have to do
                                               with Venice?
                                               Were they invented there
                                                to cut down on the glare
                                                from the Grand Canal?
                                                Or were they hung in the back
                                                of gondolas so romantic couples
                                                could open them to see the sights
                                                or close them for a moment
                                                of private passion while
                                                the gondolier improvises
                                                an aria to impress
                                                the tourists?

                                                I could probably Google the answer,
                                                but speculation can be so much more
                                                fun than knowledge, like seeing vague
                                                silhouettes behind the blinds
                                                beneath a Venetian moon.