Heading into the last of Italy for this trip meant making the 250km trip north from Florence to Venice (I'm now pretty much at the north of Italy); it was about a 2 hour trip on the train, arriving in Venice at 11:30am. From the train station, it was only a 10 minute or so walk to the accommodation - I particularly chose something near the train station to make life easier, even though it does mean trekking into Venice for sight-seeing, but it's all pretty close, so that shouldn't be too much of a problem.
Venice has been known as the "La Dominante", "Serenissima", "Queen of the Adriatic", "City of Water", "City of Masks", "City of Bridges", "The Floating City", and "City of Canals". Luigi Barzini described it in The New York Times as "undoubtedly the most beautiful city built by man". Venice has also been described by the Times Online as being one of Europe's most romantic cities.
The buildings of Venice are constructed on closely spaced wooden piles. Most of these piles are still intact after centuries of submersion (in oxygen-poor conditions, such as being submerged in water, wood does not decay as rapidly as on the surface). The foundations rest on the piles, and buildings of brick or stone sit above these footings. The piles penetrate a softer layer of sand and mud until they reach a much harder layer of compressed clay.
In 2012 it was widely reported that Venice is sinking at a rate five times faster than previously thought (so it's a good thing I'm visiting now, I guess); the city continues to sink an average of one to two millimetres (0.04 to 0.08 inches) a year. While it might be around for a bit longer, the high tides can have a very marked effect on the city, particularly from Autumn to Spring.
To try to put some context around Venice, here is a closer-up map. The train station is at the top left of the map and I am staying in a little home-based B&B in Cannaregio (and Alessandro is really understanding about my dietary requests for breakfast, and is bending over backwards to comply). The Grand Canal snakes pretty much through the centre of Venice, and most people head straight to Piazza San Marco, just to the left of the "Bridge of Sighs", which is one of the most photographed bridges (amongst many). According to the map, we're only about 1.5km from the Piazza San Marco, but that's not taking account of all of the necessary twists and turns (and getting slightly side-tracked / lost) along the way. |
You may think that gondolas are the primary sight in Venice - well, I'm afraid that you'd be wrong. In order (based on my extensive half-day research, of course) the main sights of Venice are:
- Tourists struggling with their bags (often way too large) up and down numerous bridges, making their way to their accommodation at the furthest point from entry possible.
Note - I sensibly chose somewhere very close to the main train station - only 1 bridge to cross! - Tourists buying unnecessary apparel based on Venetian costume parties, in particular silly three-pointed hats, cloaks, and outrageous masks, that they will undoubtedly get home and question the wisdom of purchasing.
- Japanese tourists (particularly women) in most ridiculous shoes for the conditions (but this is a bit of a theme everywhere).
- Tourists gorging themselves on copious quantities of ice-cream as if they had never seen or tasted it before, and they had better make the most of this novel experience while they can (again, a bit of a theme throughout Italy, it would seem).
- Shops selling Venetian glass (from the island of Murano).
- Gondoliers trying to drum up business, standing around in their uniforms stating the bleeding obvious: "Gondola".
- Gondolas - and yes they are everywhere, so coming in at number 7 should give you some idea as to the frequency of each of the above items!
I will try to put some logic of some sort into the photos - but no promises!
First-up, let's look at general canals, buildings, and bridges (note - any gondolas in-shot are purely there by accident, and because they are everywhere):