t Gondola ride under the Rialto Bridge.
t Gondola ride under the Rialto Bridge.
Experience Venice
Lying in the extreme northeast of Italy, Venice, gateway to the Orient, became an independent Byzantine province in the 10th century. Exclusive trading links with the East and victory in the Crusade of 1204 brought wealth and power, which were only gradually eroded by European and Turkish rivals. Today, Venice’s ties are with the local Veneto region that stretches from the flat river plains to the Dolomites.
Venice is one of the few cities in the world that can be truly described as unique. It survives against all the odds, built on a series of low mudbanks amid the tidal waters of the Adriatic, and regularly subject to floods. During the Middle Ages, under the leadership of successive doges (chief magistrates), Venice expanded its power and influence throughout the Mediterranean to Constantinople (modern Istanbul). Its immense wealth was celebrated in art and architecture throughout the city.
The riches of St Mark’s alone bear witness to Venice’s position as a world power from the 12th to 14th centuries. After slowly losing ground to the new states of Europe, however, it fell to Napoleon in 1797. Finally, Venice joined the Kingdom of Italy in 1866, so bringing unity to the country for the first time in its history.
Little of the essential fabric of Venice has altered in 200 years. The city’s sounds are still those of footsteps and the cries of boatmen. The only engines are those of barges delivering supplies or water-buses ferrying passengers between stops. The same well-worn streets are still trodden. More than 20 million visitors a year succumb to the magic of this improbable place whose “streets are full of water” and where the glories of the past are evident at every turn.