Italy - Exploring Venice

Italy – Exploring Venice

1 Comment February 10, 2010 / Posted in Travel

The Venice Grand Canal

The floating city – VENICE

Unfortunately, Venice is drowning and the local authority is doing everything they can to protect this lagoon’s islands. Global Warming? Perhaps, but I’m making the most out of my stay and enjoying Venice.

Historically, Venice is a great merchant city where Marco Polo set sail from to China in 1271. This is probably also where Noodles arrived from China and wheat from the Mediterranean to make what we call Pasta, now national food of Italy.

I only had less than one day to explore the city as I arrived early in the afternoon and had to leave the next day. I forked out a big chunk of money exploring the Grand Canal, riding on a gondola as apposed to the more economic alternative of a vaporetto (small passenger ferry).

The advantage of being on a gondola was being able to experience smaller canal ways and to closely enjoy some very interesting architecture. In addition to Napoleon handing over Venice over to the Austrians in the 16th century, the city has a mixture of mixed nations architecture as a result. Venice has the most bridges in the world, from the small to the very large.

After exploring the Grand Canal, I hung out at Venice’s main square of Piazza San Marco. It’s full of shops designed to sell anything for the tourists. Other than that, the main attractions in the square include:

Torre dell’Orlogio – the clock tower
Basilica di San Marco (St Mark’s Basilica) with its Byzantine domes, mosaics and marble.

After I’d spent enough time in this Square, I decided to take the long way back to my hotel by getting lost in Venice’s many alleyways .

If you have time, I’d recommend you visit the island of Murano which is the home of Venetian glass. You can visit factories and buy authentic and beautiful craftsmanship made from Venetian glass. Alternatively, try the island of Burano which is the fishing island, famous for is malaria and lace .