For many of us, a vacation in Venice is that once in a lifetime, ultimate travel dream come true destination. Venice is all about the romance, the surreal experience of stepping back in time, letting go of your twenty-first century expectations and discovering real old world magic.
 

© photo Dan Bannister; Dreamstime.com

Venetian History & Heritage
As you might imagine, a city as unique and captivating as Venice has a long and illustrious history to tell. We will travel back to the third century BC when the region of Italy known as the Veneto first became a province of the Roman empire. The inhabitants of this coastal area were fishermen who made their living in and around the islands in the lagoon.

As the sun set on Rome’s great empire and Attila the Hun came sweeping down from the north, the islands of the Veneto, which were actually sedimentary banks in the Brenta River delta, became a refuge for the local people escaping the invaders. They survived, and a community took root. Eventually, the lagoon's inhabitants moved their capital to higher ground… Rivo Alto or Ri’Alto… high bank, and with landfill and a system of pilings, successfully increased their domain. Thus was the city which would become Venice... la Serenissima, created on mudflats, surrounded by water.

Three hundred years on, the forces of Pepin, son of Charlemagne attempted to conquer the Veneto and while the mainland fell, the islands in the lagoon, protected by the tidal channel, held fast. In 726 the Venetians elected their own leader, the first Doge. For the next thousand years Venice grew steadily into a great sea-faring, mercantile nation, one of the richest and most powerful city-states in Europe.

But then as now, nothing is forever. In the late middle ages Venice’s supremacy was overshadowed by the new imperial powers of Holland and England. Venetian trade routes declined and the city's once overflowing coffers stood empty. Today, the grandeur of Venice exists in a time warp... la Serenissima is the embodiment of faded glory, a city with an extraordinary legacy of Byzantine and Renaissance art, plus centuries of accumulated treasures and artifacts plundered from the crusades, and the fall, respectively, of Rome and Constantinople.

Venice in Peril
La Serenissima is still a city built on water… an intoxicating labyrinth of 116 islands, 409 bridges over 150 canals, where, try as you might, you will never be lost, although Venice herself some day may be. Every year Venetians watch portions of their city become submerged as the sea level rises while the land sinks. High tides have always flooded Venice, but whereas in the past the flooding occurred a half dozen times a year, today it happens forty times. Cherished buildings and monuments continue to be badly damaged by the erosive tides. The Italian government, UNESCO and a charity called Venice in Peril are raising money for restoration and research into a system of gates or barriers which would block the high tides and save Venice. Plans so far have been highly controversial, exorbitantly costly, and no one is sure that it can actually be done.
 

	Hotels in Venice
	Find Hotels in Venice at VeniceBy.Com. Beautiful Descriptions and Photographs.
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Venice photo credits this page © 2003 Elaine K. Beckham, except where noted.

Grand Canal & Rialto Bridge

Venice's Best Sights
Venice is the most unique city you will ever visit and one of the most romantic, evocative places on earth. Its distinctive energy speaks to the lover and the artist in every traveler. It will slow you down. If you're lucky it will stop you in your tracks.

There are no cars in Venice. You can walk or go by boat. While everyone's fantasy Venice vacation involves the lilting serenade of the gondolier as he sculls you across Venice's magical canals in his gondola, (and by all means don't miss that) in reality, the first boat ride for most visitors, and the one you will take most often, is the vaporetto from the Santa Lucia train station. One of the all time best sight-seeing deals in Venice, for the price of a bus ticket it will take you down the entire winding length of the Grand Canal to San Marco.

While Venice is full of remarkable architecture, palaces, churches and art, (and you will inevitably see most of it), half the magic of being in Venice is the layout and character of the city herself. Get off the beaten path and wander the alleyways, meander from one side of Venice to the other, linger on the narrow bridges over the narrowest canals and imagine the famous Venetians who lingered there before you... pioneer explorer, Marco Polo, adventurer Casanova, Renaissance masters Canaletto, Titian, Tiepolo and Tintoretto, playwright Pirandello and composer Antonio Vivaldi to name very few.

One of the most stunning realizations that will hit you in Venice is how little the city has changed over the centuries. When you find the Basilica San Marco or San Giorgio Maggiore, or the Doge’s Palace, depicted in some famous fourteenth century painting, the image will be exactly as the structure stands today. You are surrounded by living history.

Basilica San Marco
The basilica that stands today is the second to be built on its site. The first, built in 829, was destroyed by fire within a hundred years, and the rebuilding of the many-domed Byzantine and Romanesque structure which we know as San Marco took place between 1043-1071.

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As you have your picture taken in the piazza with San Marco in the background, the façade behind you spans almost fifty-two meters across. The five arched portals which open onto the square are inlaid with carved marble and mosaics, and the four magnificent bronze horses over the main portal are modeled after ancient Greek chariot horses. Thought to have been made in Byzantium in the third century BC, the horses, along with much other loot, became the spoils of war and were carried off by the Venetians during the sack of Constantinople in 1204. The original horses have been restored and are on display inside the Basilica. Five enormous domes crown the apex of Basilica San Marco, amid a field of ornate Byzantine spires. When you tour the inside of San Marco to see the incredible collection of treasures and relics, look up... the domes and vaulting are completely covered with a glowing sea of golden mosaics.
 
In Venice Today
IN VENICE TODAY - Venice guide to discover both museums and exhibitions. Photos of all the Venetian churches. Besides, suggestions for hotels, restaurants and nightlife: concerts and events.

Domes of San Marco & Palazzo Ducale

Piazza San Marco
Once you have explored the Basilica, familiarize yourself with the rest of Piazza San Marco and the adjacent Piazzetta, which leads into the main square from the quay. At the entrance you will see two tall columns, one supporting the Lion of St. Mark and the other St. Theodore, who was Venice's patron saint before Mark's remains were brought here, both statues brought to Venice in 1125. Dubbed Europe’s finest drawing room by Napoleon, Piazza San Marco is a splendid public space now bordered by historic buildings, chic shops, restaurants and cafes.

Find the Museo Correr…the Museum of the City and Civilization of Venice; the Museo Archeologico and the state library known as the Libreria Sansoviniana. The Torre dell’Orologio is the clock tower where the Mori… two bronze 'Moors' (named for their dark patina), have stood aloft since 1499, poised to strike a bell and ring out the time. Considered a technical marvel in its day, the clock face is gold and blue enamel, and in addition to the time, tells the phases of the moon, signs of the zodiac, and information about the tides for sailors and navigators.

The Campanile is the 325-foot tower across from the Basilica in the Piazzetta San Marco. Often called a bell tower, in the tenth century it functioned as a military watchtower and later, as its bronze roof glinted in the sun it became a beacon for ships approaching the Lagoon. It collapsed suddenly in 1902 and was rebuilt in 1912. You can take an elevator to the top for some spectacular views of the city and the lagoon. Galileo is said to have demonstrated his famous telescope for the Doge from here in 1609.

 
Bridge of Sighs

The Palazzo Ducale... The Doge's Palace was the official residence of Venezia’s rulers as well as the seat of her government. It houses a series of opulent, magnificent rooms designed and decorated by a who’s who of art’s grand masters. As you tour the palace you will find each subsequent salon, grander, more elaborate and more mind boggling than the last. Visit the Sala delle Quattro Porte with its ceiling by Palladio and frescoes by Tintoretto, the Sala del Collegio has a ceiling featuring the art of Veronese, the Sala del Senato has more Tintorettos on the ceiling, and then there is the massive Sala del Maggior Consiglio, the council chamber built to accommodate over 1500 council members. To give you an idea of the scale, it is adorned at one end by one of the largest oil paintings in the world, Tintoretto’s Paradise, a canvas over sixty feet across and more than twenty high.

Ponte dei Sospiri… The Bridge of Sighs, built in 1600 to connect the Palazzo Ducale’s Inquisitor’s Rooms with the Doge’s Prisons. Popular myth has it that it was so named for the sighs of the condemned prisoners glimpsing their last sight of Venice as they crossed the bridge to be incarcerated.
 

Books About Venice

 

 
Watch The World Go By
The art of people watching doesn't get any cooler than in the Piazza San Marco. Savor an overpriced cup of espresso at one of San Marco’s two famous cafes. In their day, they were the favorite haunts of such luminaries as Honoré de Balzac, Lord Byron and Henry James. Caffe alla Venezia trionfante was opened in 1720 by Floriano Francesconi, and henceforth known as Florian’s. Across the Piazza, Quadri’s has been brewing ‘real Turkish coffee’ since 1775. Another chic spot to be enjoyed for its legend, rather than its food or service, is the famed Harry’s Bar, still serving the Bellinis made ultra-hip by Hemingway. Come back to San Marco at night and have a similarly overpriced night cap at one of the outdoor restaurants with dueling orchestras… the musicians put on a lively show taking turns out-doing one another with their dazzling playing.
 
 

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