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Venice: A Sinking City

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Venice, Northern Italy, is a city that is worth seeing before it is too late. The whole place is slowly sinking into the sea and in recent years the rate of that sinking has started to speed up. The City is built on a hundred and eighteen small islands in a lagoon off the coast of Italy. It’s a salt water lagoon and the islands are linked by bridges. The whole thing is indeed an amazing sight.

Life in Venice depends very much on the tides and during the Acqua Alta which is the peak time for the tide, everyone seems to disappear and take refuge inside. There are no cars here because there are no roads, just waterways, and transport is by boat, or on foot.

Basilica Di San Marco, Venice

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

Image by Eustaquio Santimano via Flickr

Basilica Di San Marco is probably one of the best known Venetian religious buildings. Building started in 828 and the structure was destroyed by fire a hundred years later. It was rebuilt in 1094 and again in 1807, so there has been a religious building on the site for more than a thousand years.

Things to See in Venice

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

Image by Eustaquio Santimano via Flickr

There are a number of galleries housing paintings, tapestries and ceramics, including the fifteenth century Gothic building, Ca’ d’ Oro, which as the name suggests, was once faced with gold. This has all worn off over the years.

Venice has two cathedrals and a number of Franciscan and Dominican churches. In fact there is an almost unbelievable density of ecclesiastical buildings in the city. These are interspersed among palatial sixteenth and seventeenth century mansions. For anyone who is interested in architecture the range of styles is a real treat for the senses.

The Lido, Venice

The Lido used to be a fashionable seaside resort but the water is often polluted and it isn’t very well kept. Apart from that it is horrendously expensive even for the hire of a sunbed, or deckchair. This is not the place to be if you prefer a beach holiday.

Mercato Ittico, Venice

Image by Eustaquio Santimano via Flickr

Mercato Ittico is a market which is well worth visiting if you get there early. It is held along Canale de San Domenico. There is everything you could imagine and more for sale here. The Venetian glass and lace is popular with visitors. It is a real experience and certainly not one to be missed.

Napoloeon’s Park and Gardens

Venice’s public gardens were built by Napoleon in 1811 and a complete residential district including four churches was burned to the ground to make room for the park. There are lots of shaded benches, a snack bar and a few swings for the children here, but not much else.

Venice: City of Light, Bridges and Strange Smells

Image by llamnudds via Flickr

Image via Wikipedia

This is a strangely mysterious city with its bridges and old buildings steeped in history, and its beautiful churches. It is known as the city of light, but to be frank, it smells. There is always an underlying odour of stagnant, dirty water and it follows you everywhere, into the restaurants, into your hotel room, and it clings to everything you own.

There are very few Venetians left in the city (about 64,000) and the majority of people who work there go back across the bridge at night time to their homes. It is only a matter of time before Venice and its beautiful architecture disappears beneath the salty waters of the Adriatic.