Information about Venice Italy, one of the few places in the planet, where every time you go there, even after several years, it seems to be suspended in time between reality and imagination, where reality always exceeds the imagination.
Venice is a true wonder of islands in the middle of a lagoon, where even a short, weekend break there can really feel like a piece of eternity.
The city is truly picturesque in all of its aspects: whether it’s one of the popular tourist attractions, a small church, a bridge, a gift shop or a narrow side alleyway.
PHOTO: Information about Venice Italy: boat traffic on the Grand Canal.
Venice is a work of art in itself, a large open-air museum as many put it, the whole city being enrolled into the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1987.
The city hosts artistic and architectural elements that unique in the entire world, build over many centuries and in such a splendor that the place attracts increasing number of visitors each year, counting in the millions.
Many cities in the world are often compared to the original Italian Venice, and known as the “Venice of the North” or “Venice of the South” for the simple fact of having channels, or having been built on a set of islands.
Some of these comparative cities are very beautiful, such as Amsterdam, Bruges, or Stockholm, but in reality, none of them is truly comparable, not even remotely to the original.
Tourists come to Venice every day, in their thousands, from every corner of the globe, not only to see the most popular attractions, but also known to attend the famous Venetian events, including the Venice Carnival, Biennale Film Festival, and many others.
Venice is a city of endless charm and elegance, one of the few places that most plan to visit at least once in their lifetime, charmed by what Lord Byron famously described as a place of immortal beauty.
According to historians, Venice was founded around the 5th century, built on wetlands and surrounded by the sea, characterized by a series of complex channels, which later became popular for their colorful Venetian gondolas.
Today, the “City of Bridges”, as Venice is often called, extends along the mouths of the rivers Po and Piave, and has a history as one of the most powerful cities in the Mediterranean, for centuries, and during its heyday it was known as the Republic of Venice, as “Serenissima”.
About 60,000 people live in the Venice historic center (known as the city of Venice itself), while the rest of the population in the region are either at “mainland” side, Mestre, or within the hundreds of islands of the lagoon.
In terms of information about Venice Italy, the Venetian lagoon contains a total of 118 islands, which have been divided into districts, called ‘sestiere’ (of which there are six in total), including Cannaregio, Santa Croce, San Marco, Dorsoduro, and San Polo.
Other major districts in the lagoon include the islands of Murano and Burano.
The street names in Venice are written in small white squares on the side of the buildings and are called “nizioleti.” The streets often have unusual names, often taken from historic events that took place right on the spot, or from the work of people who lived in the street.
The real ‘streets’ in Venice, however, are the water canals, as demonstrated by the fact, that the main doors to the palaces were, and are, the ones that opened to the water.
Venice is, in fact, the only pedestrian city in the world that is easily explored on foot, and the absence of cars makes the experience very pleasant.
However, walking and standing still all day can be tiring, so it is good idea to use information about Venice Italy, and plan your days and tour itineraries well before arriving in Venice.
The vaporetti water buses are, generally speaking,, the best way to move around the city, and they are less expensive than private water taxis.
If you want a romantic gondola ride along the canals, the visit becomes an experience to remember, but you should be prepared to spend quite a lot of money.
As a city of narrow alleyways, it is almost impossible to get around the city without a good map at hand. As Venice is divided into districts, and as the houses are numbered according to districts (and not the streets), this problem is more compounded.
Often, with information about Venice Italy, it is easier to navigate Venice if you know the place’s proximity to a monument, an attraction, or at least some other famous place.
When planning for your experiences in Venice, you should consider the slow passages of gondolas, visits to Piazza San Marco, or simply enjoying a coffee near the Bridge of Sighs.
Along the Grand Canal and its side canals, for information about Venice Italy, you’ll see a cavalcade of domes of famous churches and Renaissance palaces, delicate arched historical bridges and hidden alleyways.
For beauty, you will be mesmerized by the beauty of the mosaics at the great Basilica of San Marco, one of the most important architectural monuments of the world, which was a cultural bridge between Europe and a door to the east, Byzantium.
Since 1094 the church (cathedral from 1807) offers a fascinating mix of styles and ornaments that are unique in the world: ceiling contain a collection of mosaics in gold and bronze, adorned with a variety of priceless precious stones depicting biblical scenes.
The current building is a replacement of an earlier church dating from the year 828, built to house the relics of Saint Mark that were retrieved by Venetian merchants from Alexandria. The relics now lie beneath the altar of the church.
Historically for information about Venice Italy, Venice was ruled by a “Doge” and his residence, the Doge’s Palace was the administrative base: it was used for a variety of different functions (from residence to the court, a prison, a ceremonial and administrative center of the Venetian empire), on a great location, overlooking the lagoon, on one side of the Piazza San Marco.
Inside the palace, you can find works of art by such masters as Tintoretto, Titian, and Veronese, and, not to be missed, is a visit to the room that contains frescoes of the historical maps of the world.
Also, Rialto Bridge is one of the eternal symbols of Venice, on a location, which historically had several wooden bridges, but they were all destroyed by fires. Once, in 1444, the Rialto bridge collapsed under the weight of the crowd that had gathered to see the wife of the Marquis of Ferrara. However, the steady bridge of today, made out of stone, was built to last in the sixteenth century.
You should also consider the experience of Venice floods, ‘acqua alta’ in Italian, one of those moments to capture in a photograph. Technically speaking, the phenomenon occurs only a few times a year in the presence of very high tides, a low atmospheric pressure, and strong winds forcing the waters of the Adriatic Sea to the lagoon.