Venice - City of Water
If you are doing a tour of Europe, and want to see the main sights, then the historic city of Venice should be on your itinerary, as this “City of Water” is totally unique and unlike any other city in the world. In north-east Italy, Venice is built on more than 100 small islands of the shallow Venetian Lagoon on the Adriatic Sea, and has some 150 canals, and 400 bridges. Once a republic in its own right, Venice was once a major sea power, a center for the spice trade, and also a major city for Renaissance art.
The popular places to see are St Mark’s Square, the Doge’s Palace, the Basilica of San Marco, St Mark’s clock, the Rialto Bridge, the Bridge of Sighs, (which incidentally inspired the building of the Bridge of Sighs in Cambridge), the Lido, and many more odd corners and places of interest. Go to Venice and there is not a modern building in sight. Even browsing the many small shops is an adventure, (you won’t find any major department stores here): you will see shop windows with masks, jewelry, and gorgeous objets d’art. Last year when I went to Venice myself, I took as many pictures of shop windows as I did of the major sights. In Venice there is a sheer riot of art and architecture. Venice is also famous for its wonderful festivals, the major one being the Venice Art Biennale.
One of the things that differentiates Venice from most other major cities is its total lack of vehicular traffic on the streets - it is Europe’s largest urban area to be totally free of cars. In Venice you either go on foot or on the water. It’s just great to be able to walk along streets without having to think about traffic. Instead the canals are like roads and there are gondolas, motorized water buses known as vaporetti, water taxis and private boats.
A causeway connects Venice to the mainland, so Venice actually has a railway station. The nearest airport to Venice is the Marco Polo International Airport, which connects to the railway station and is also served by water taxis.
If you want to get an idea of what Venice is like before you go, then I strongly recommend that you whet your appetite with Francesco da Mosto’s BBC2 series “Francesco’s Venice”, which provides a fascinating history and tour of the city by one of its very own residents who was born there. See this and you will definitely want to go to Venice.
Filed under: Religious Sights, Historic Sights, Italy
