What's maybe more astonishing is how the town is still around to this day, even as overtourism and climate change threatens parts of it. There are still no cars, aside from a stubby road leading onto the edge of the town centre. There are 126 islands, 472 bridges, and somehow no one thinks this is unusual. Say hello to the Queen of the Adriatic, Venice.
St Mark's Square
Probably the best place to start with Venice is the historic town square. St Mark is the patron saint of Venice, and you'll find most of his remains in St Mark's Basilica, a beautiful cathedral that stands proudly at the centre of the square.
The basilica's worth visiting if you have the money for it. It was completed in 836, though was completely rebuilt and enlarged in 1063 to demonstrate Venice's wealth and influence. Since then, there's been the odd refurbishment, but it's otherwise the same, and that probably makes it even more stunning. I mean, the basilica is so finely decorated and embellished with mosaics and carvings, you could spend hours staring at the walls and taking in all the finer details. The walls are even decorated with actual gold, for crying out loud.
If you're bored by all the art, you can head over to the museum inside the basilica. I'll be honest, this wasn't for me, but if you're into more intricate mosaics, as well as some medieval tapestries and books hidden behind glass, then you'll love it. After all this, there's even a lovely balcony overlooking the square, and you can look at people milling about and living their lives. Odds are, most of them are tourists - around 50,000 people do actually live in the Rialto, the historic centre of Venice, but Venice sees six million tourists annually.
From the balcony, you can spot the Doge's Palace, directly ahead. The doge was the leader of Venice until 1797, when Napoleon took over the area. At its peak, Venice was a pretty powerful nation, at one point holding a large empire after defeating the Byzantine Empire in war. That also meant it was very wealthy, which you can see in the sheer scale of the palace, which is today a museum.
There's also the Marciana Library, which opened in 1468 and has been a library ever since. It looks somewhat similar to the Doge's Palace, with its white walls and colonnades, in fact it's easy to assume they make up a set. Both are next to St Mark's Campanile, the city's bell tower, but not the original - that collapsed in 1902, having stood for nearly a thousand years.
Those are the major structures you'll find on the square. Walking slightly further out, you'll reach the Grand Canal, which is like Venice's motorway. From a distance, you'll find some other pretty churches, like the San Giorgio Maggiore Church and the Santa Maria della Salute. The latter especially is stunning when you're close up - I went on a walk with my family afterwards, and its dome, standing imposing in the sunlight, was a sight.
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| San Giorgio Maggiore |
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| Santa Maria della Salute |
The funny thing about all this, though, is St Mark wasn't originally buried in Venice, but rather in Alexandria. Some guys just decided to steal his body (not his head) in the 9th century, and moved it to the basilica. Hell, St Mark never even visited Venice, because Venice didn't even exist at the time.
Bridges and canals
One thing you'll quickly realise about Venice is just how many canals there are, with bridges crossing them. There are over 150 waterways in Venice, but officially, there are only three canals. I already mentioned the Grand Canal, which twists and turns through Rialto before flowing into the lagoon. The other two, the Giudecca and Cannaregio, are far smaller and further from the town centre. The rest of the waterways are rii; walk around Venice for a few minutes and you've probably seen ten rii already.
You can get a gondola to see loads of these rii up close, even get a bit of a tour out of it. We got a gondola tour when we visited, spending forty minutes sailing along various rii, going underneath several bridges, and even getting onto the Grand Canal at some point. I'm not sure if it was worth the €120, especially since towards the end, we were just seeing loads of dull side-streets along fairly narrow canals.
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| Rialto bridge from a gondola |
Along the Grand Canal itself, you won't find many bridges - there are only four spanning the canal. However, you will see the most famous bridge of all, the Rialto. A bridge has stood here in various forms since 1173, with the current structure standing since 1591. It's terrific, especially at night, when it's lit up and illuminates the canal. If you're wondering how you'd travel along the canal, if there are hardly any bridges, then it's all by boat. Obviously. These are vaporetti, which run around the town centre and through the canal.
There is one other bridge I'd like to mention quickly. It's the Bridge of Sighs, and it's just off the Doge's Palace. It's called so because it led to a prison. This would be the final place the prisoners would see the outside world before being locked up, so the name refers to their sighs.
Night-time
If you're ever going to go to Venice, check the city out at night. It's absolutely stunning in the dark, when everything's lit up and all the restaurants are open. It feels very intimate and romantic in a way, more than most cities I've ever been to. What makes the city feel confusing in the day - all those alleyways and rii that wind their way throughout - make it almost comforting at night.
Epilogue
Venice is an extremely quirky city, and I'm really surprised I've never realised it before. With zero cars, let alone roads, and with every single corner of the town looking exceptionally pretty, it feels like the kind of place they'd write about in a fantasy novel. Hell, you even need to pay a fee to enter Venice on some days, that's something I'd expect out of Tolkein.
There are probably no cities like Venice in this world, at least not as influential as Venice. I'm not sure if a single day out was enough, I could have probably done a week and not been bored.
Excellent! Amazing city!
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