Queen of the Adriatic

Continuing stories about my Italian travels, I'm here to tell you about "Queen of the Adriatic", "City of Water", "City of Bridges" and "City of Light" or simply about Venice - one of the most famous cities in the world.

As I wrote a bit before EBC conference was in Lignano - Sabbiadoro which is around 1 hour to go from Venice, so obviously I couldn't miss a chance to see the place I've heard so much about... and, I didn't regret it I must say:)

Venice is built on three hundred and seventeen small islands, and holds one hundred and fifty canals, connected by an amazing four hundred and nine bridges, of which only three cross the main canal. The area it covers is a mere 458 kilometres. Although the city appears small, it is really quite extensive for its size. While most tour guides don’t recommend getting lost in the majority of cities, Venice is the place to get hopelessly lost for a day which is actually a very easy thing to do. Venice is a labirint of the most narrow and short streets that I've ever seen, which all are so similar and diverse at the same time. I don't really know how much time on should live in Venice not to feel a complete idiot in city orientation:)

The population is roughly 63, 000 people, but there is belief that Venice will, over time, lose most of its population and become merely a large theme park, purely for the entertainment of tourists and I actually quite belive it since I obviously have seen more toursts then locals in Venice, don't ask me how do I distinguish them, but it's really easy to do.

What I got to know is that Venice is Venice is the world's only pedestrian city, is beautifully walkable, and the absence of cars makes it a particularly pleasant experience but very exausting indeed due to hundreds of bridges that you have to pass each 3 minutes:)

Venice today remains the same as centuries ago, but I'd never say that this is a place where you feel the pressure of history. And it's no wonder - apart from San Marco and Doge's Palace there are almost no huge buildings - it's not possible to imagine neither a huge gothic church nor a skyscraper among all these miniature bridges, small streest and 2 floor old houses.

You know, I'm a photo freak and I always take a lot of pictures, everywhere, but in Venice I simply couldn't help to stop myself from taking pictures of streets, channels and houses again and again even tough I know I already have many:) well, in the end I have around 200 pictures, some of them are available here.
My acquaintance with Venice this time was rather visual and haptic - I didn't get to know a lot of history, didn't visit any museum, didn't go inside San Marco or Doge's Palace. Venice is the city that you should discover step by step and I'm sure our acquaintance with this magic city is to be continued soon...