Venice is recognised as being one of the most romantic cities in the world with its captivating labyrinth of winding canals, gondolas, and narrow streets for losing yourselves together. Venice unforgettable moments, it is confirmed to be always one of the most popular destinations for honeymooners in search of romance. Its shape is unique in the world, the canals, the gondolas, the absence of self and the ability to take walks, maybe the moonlight make the romantic city par excellence. The city, set on 118 islands surfacing, crossed by 177 canals with 400 bridges, is at the center of the lagoon, four kilometers from the mainland and two from the open sea, separated from the sea walls.
Unique and envied by all. Copied, but especially adored by acclaimed writers, filmmakers, poets of all time. Venice with its canals, its streets and gondolas is one of the most popular tourist destinations of foreigners or not. The best way to visit is overcome quickly the triangle better known, perpetually under the flash of the Japanese, or San Marco, Rialto and Accademia, and get lost among the districts with their romantic bridges, small squares, fields and squares. Revenue in the typical wine bars (small inns) win by leaving Venetian food. Despite the museums of Venice are in the van and well cared for, every corner of this city looks like a work of art.
The main body of Venice, seen from above, has the shape of a fish and is spread in the lagoon on 118 islands and the mainland. Named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1987 (together with its lagoon), Venice is the capital of the Veneto region, but for centuries it was the capital of the vast Republic of Venice. Here were born some of the most important personalities of history and culture, Marco Polo, Carlo Goldoni, Giacomo Casanova, the printer Manunzio, Antonio Vivaldi and artists such as Tintoretto, Bellini, Canaletto, Tiepolo, Canova.
The decadent charm of Venice has won everyone over the centuries. Shakespeare and Thomas Mann stage where here some of their finest masterpieces. A curiosity about Venice: the first woman in the world to graduate was just a blind, Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia, June 25, 1678 that he received the title of Doctor in Philosophy at the University of Padua. A good record for Venetian women.
Built in a lagoon, the high rate of humidity is a certainty in every month of the year. The sea mitigates its climate, but at certain times of the tides every six hours can also cause the phenomenon of high water. Spring and autumn are the best seasons to visit Venice. During the summer the temperatures touching 35 ° C and moisture does not worsen the perception of the stifling heat. The winter is mild, hardly drops below freezing and snowfalls are rare: the positive side of visiting Venice this season is that there is no mass tourism (excluding day of the Carnival, of course).
Airports close to Venice are two: the Marco Polo , in Tessera, and Canova , in the locality of S. Angelo, in the province of Treviso. The Venice airport is the third largest in Italy for number of passengers each day is connected with direct flights with major Italian cities Milan, Rome, Turin, Catania, Bari, Palermo, Pisa, Naples served by various airlines between which Alitalia, Easyjet, Air One, Ryanair and Meridiana. In Treviso, however, the national air traffic connects the Veneto with Alghero, Brindisi, Bari, Cagliari, Palermo, Trapani.
From Marco Polo to Venice city center about 12 km away you can take public transportation services the exit takes you to the foot of the pier Alilaguna water bus , which comes with several lines in San Marco, Rialto, Lido . Better to buy the ticket on the floor why do it on board requires a supplement on the rate. The bus then arrive in the center of Venice: the company Atvo offers service to 3 euro, instead the line 5 l ACTV costs 2 euro, but it is often crowded and it makes all the stops. Finally, the taxi to the ground, which cost about 30 euro for 20 minutes of travel and water, about 90 euro for 30-40 minutes
A convenient solution and economic: the new high-speed lines of Trenitalia connect the main Italian cities of Venice Saint Lucia station located in the center, the journey from Florence tough 2 hours, 4 from Rome, Bologna and 20 hour all with the Red Arrow, from Milano 2 and a half hours with White Arrow. Starting from the stations of Turin, Naples, Bari need to change trains once. The State Railways also offer regional trains or eurocity to reach Venice, cost less but take longer.
Venice is easily accessible by car, the signage is clear and detailed. The only problem is the parking once you arrive: San Marco square in rates have an average of 30 euro per day and often all the garages in the area are complete. From the cities of northern Italy, including Milan (280 km) and Turin (400 km), you must take the A4 Venice until the exit for the A57, from here you have to continue on the E55. From Rome instead are 550 km and you have to take the A1 and then the A14 towards Padova.
There are several bus lines that arrive in Venice: the company Saj part from Cosenza and coming to Ferrara and Padua before arriving in the lagoon in a little more than 12 hours of travel; Baltour part from Rome and Milan, but you need the changes in Bologna. The real Venetian walking, dodging tourists and runs on the catwalks of high water. The best way to immerse yourself in this city is right to do as the Venetians and turn it on foot . It's not great, just divide the areas and routes if necessary, and use of the comfortable steamers.
These connect all the points of the city and the rates vary depending on the route. The lines of interest for tourists are those of the city center. Buy tickets at tobacconists or newsagents , otherwise you'll pay a premium on the rate. On the website of the company ACTV you may find useful combinations for those who stay a few days in Venice. One of the secrets of the Venetian is the ferry, a kind of collective taxi-gondola that crosses the Grand Canal from one bank to another. The cost is 50 cents. The water taxi is quaint but very touristy and expensive. The classic gondola ride in Venice is no exception: rates from 80 to 150 euro for 30 minutes, but it's the romantic dream of many and the best way to enjoy channels from another perspective.
Ca 'Rezzonico. One of the most beautiful buildings in Venice, contains ballrooms, impressive staircases and magnificent decorations. It is here that is home to the Museum of Eighteenth Century Venice, with some of the most important works by Canaletto, Tintoretto, Bonifacio de 'Pitati. And yet, sculptures, and eighteenth-century furnishings, precious frescoed ceilings. A museum to revive and revise the ancient Venice.
Guggenheim Collection. Picasso, Mondrian, Duchamp, Braque, Magritte, Kandinsky. These are just some of the artists featured in the personal collection of Peggy Guggenheim. Masterpieces of Cubism, Futurism and Surrealism are exhibited in the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, an unfinished masterpiece, known as the unfinished building, which differs from the other buildings of the Grand Canal to its clean lines.
Ca 'Pesaro. This beautiful seventeenth-century palazzo on the Grand Canal houses the Museum of Oriental Art and the International Gallery of Modern Art, which houses collections of nineteenth and twentieth century paintings and sculptures. Among the most important are those masterpieces by Klimt, Chagall, Kandinsky, Klee and Matisse.
Museum of Glass. Glassware island of Murano are active before the year one thousand. In the past, the Serenissima was jealous of an art that had made her famous all over the world then forced the glassmakers to live on the island and could not leave Venice without a special permit. This museum traces the long history of the art of glass and collects works really unique like the nineteenth-century chandelier 60 arms and presented at the first exhibition of Murano glassmaking in 1864, where he was awarded a gold medal
Palazzo Ducale. symbol-One of the buildings of the city, Palazzo Ducale should be visited to realize what was beautiful, the rich and powerful capital of the Republic of Venice. This palace is a masterpiece of Gothic art, and over the centuries has undergone several layers and ornamental influences: not every detail is left to chance and surprise the beauty of the loggia, courtyard, institutional facilities, and apartment Duke.
The bridge of sighs dates back to the romantic and facilitated use of the public to the New Prisons: is so named for the sighing of the prisoner who went through it, looking for the last time the lagoon with small windows. Are really curious and fascinating itineraries secrets of this building: wind along some of the rooms devoted to important matters of administration and policy.
Campanile di San Marco. Its construction began in the ninth century, with the aim of making an observation tower and lighthouse. 98.60 meters high, collapsed on itself in 1902 and was rebuilt identically in less than 10 years.
On its summit stands a golden angel, whose wings revolving indicate the direction in which the wind blows. The bells are five in the past and they all had a meaning: Maleficio was the death sentences; the Marangona marked the beginning and the end of the work of cormorants (carpenters) Arsenal; the Mezzana sounded at noon; Pregadi the senators announced the start of meetings in the Palazzo Ducale, and the Trottera invited the nobles to put their horses to a trot to not be late to the Palazzo Ducale. Clocktower. Renaissance building in Piazza San Marco, is the famous his watch in blue enamel and gold that tells the time, date, moon phases and zodiac.
This watch has a mechanism to chime (now depending only on the day of the Epiphany), which activates a series of wooden statues that represent the coming of the Magi. Placed on top of the tower, however, we find the "Moors of Venice": two statues in bronze dark, hence the name depicting an old man and a young man with hammers flying the central bell. Their particularity is to never play the exact time, the old man is the past and beats the bell 5 minutes before the hour and the youth is the time to come and play 5 minutes after
Rialto Bridge. One of the oldest and most beautiful bridges in Venice, a true monument of the Grand Canal. Already in 1180 he had been concocted a pontoon bridge to join the two sides, that about a century after it was redone with wooden stilts. This first sketch of Rialto bridge collapsed in the fifteenth century and was rebuilt mo drawbridge: a representation of the framework is found in The Miracle of the Relic of the Cross on the whim.
Only a few years later it was decided to rebuild it in stone, so it was set up a public tender for the project: Palladio also participated but did not win. He was chosen the design of Antonio da Ponte, which is what we see today still achieved. It was built in the late 1500s and for three hundred years was the only way to cross the Grand Canal.
Phoenix, the opera house of Venice and is located in Campo San Fantin. Its history has been punctuated by major nineteenth-century Italian opera stars and fire that completely destroyed it several times. Today it is the headquarters of the opera season, and the International Festival of Contemporary Music. Here were represented for the first performance of great Italian composers such as Rossini, Bellini and Giuseppe Verdi, whose La Traviata was booed by the audience Venetian.
That alone is enough to make Venice a unique place to enjoy step by step, getting lost in the maze of canals and squares. Itinerary base, in water, leaves from Piazzale Roma where the station along the Grand Canal.
On the Edge of the east you can see the Palazzo Corner della Ca Granda, Palazzo Grassi, the seat of the arts center and costume and prestigious exhibitions, Grilani Palace, Ca 'd'Oro , perhaps the most famous Venetian palace, in a refined and flowery Gothic Palazzo Vendramin, home of Winter the casino; on the western shore, the baroque Palazzo Pesaro, Ca 'Pisani, Ca' Foscari, Ca Rezzonico, the museum of the eighteenth-century Venice, Gallerie dell'Accademia, the Rialto Bridge and Santa Maria della Salute , monumental baroque church. Ed Here we are in Piazza San Marco , one of the most beautiful in the world, on which stands the slender campanile.
The square is enclosed on three sides by the Magistrates New (1584-1540), a complex of buildings with arcades and two continuous rows of loggias; on the fourth side, the Basilica of San Marco , built in the second half of the eleventh century on the tomb of the apostle, called the golden church for the beautiful mosaics that adorn it.
Venice is dotted with public parks. Are six green areas of the city; of course, were once more and there were some real fields where they were grazing animals, now the verdant square meters have decreased. Among the public, there are the Pineta of St. Helena , the Napoleonic Gardens , those Reali , the Groggia Gardens, the Gardens Papadopoli and those Savorgnano.
Even private homes can have gardens that grow vertically to the lack of space, so walking through the streets you can see the foliage of tall trees behind the roofs. A district is definitely not to be missed the Cannaregio : which owes its name to the reeds that were in this area in the past. Really one of the liveliest quarters of Venice and still in the hands of the Venetians. The squares in this area is having an evening filled with young people and in the evening the locals really attract a lot of people.
From here just a few minutes walk to delve into one of the oldest and most historic of Venice from a "SotoPortego", at the foot of the Bridge of Spires , on which are still visible in the hinges of the iron gate that closed it, you enters the Jewish ghetto. This area is linked to the history of segregation that several decrees Venetians have for centuries, the Jewish families. You can visit the beautiful synagogues such as the Levantine School and the School Ponentino Baroque and admire the tall buildings also 8 floors, the result of the concentration in a short space of a population that reached the 5 thousand units.
Among the routes Venetians, to discover is the district Dorsoduro, the museum district, the ancient palaces. Here, every corner is to be admired, every church, every tavern, every bridge. Dorsoduro includes the island of Giudecca , the largest of the city, separated by a channel very broad in ancient times it was called "Spinalonga" because of its shape like a fish bone, then changed their name to the Venetians Zuecca (perhaps for a primitive presence of zudei, ie Jews). In this neighborhood are very interesting churches: that of the Redeemer of the Palladium, for example, that of the Old Maids or that of St. Euphemia , to name a few.
The Palazzo Ducale, with its marble facades in white lozenges and pink, overlooking the square and, with one hand on the lagoon. The interior is a continuous theory of gilded ceilings and majestic paintings, including the Paradise of Tintoretto, the largest canvas in the world. In the square there is also another symbol of Venice, the Clock Tower, topped by two Moors, which strike the hours on the bell for five centuries without ever having failed.
Dalla Torre begin the Haberdashers , the ancient trade routes that reach the Rialto Bridge. Towards the lagoon, along the Riva degli Schiavoni is reached instead of the Bridge of Sighs, covered passageway between the Doge's Palace and the prisons, the notorious weights of front, in the middle of the lagoon, the island of San Giorgio with its church of the sixteenth century, designed by Palladio. Later, the island of Giudecca , quiet and away from the assault tourist Piazza San Marco: spaces green, a few beautiful buildings and the Church of the Redeemer.
Arsenal , Cannaregio, the sestrieri, the Lido, the islands of Murano, Burano and Torcello. Among the many museums, do not miss the Gallerie dell'Accademia , that preserve the great masterpieces of Venetian painting from the fourteenth to the seventeenth century (the Bellini, Mantegna, Carpaccio, Giorgione, Lotto, Titian, Veronese, Tintoretto, Tiepolo) and the Museum of Palazzo Ducale . Very interesting also the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, which brings together 200 works of the major avant-garde 900.
Near Marina of axes meet the remains of Velia or Elea, the ancient center of Greek origin become important resort in Roman times. Like other cities in the Campania coast was abandoned in the Middle Ages as a result of the continuous raids of the Saracens. In the period greek Velia was the home of the philosophical school, attended by Parmenides and Zeno, and met, as evidenced by the important ruins, a substantial urban development and monumental.
The excavations, which began in 1921 and still in progress, have brought to light the great Porta Rosa, one of the best Italian examples of Greek architecture with barrel vault, the acropolis of the fifth century BC, sections of walls, baths and the Hellenistic agora.
Venice is synonymous with Carnival. You can say that because he was born here, in 1094, in a document, the word carnival appears for the first time and shows a day in the year in which the people could have fun, subverting the rules of society: beauty became crippled, the poor noble, the servant of a lady. And so was born also the craft of masks and costumes, more elaborate and meticulous attention to detail. Throughout Venice, and especially in the Piazza San Marco, came to life dances, shows, jokes and celebrations of all kinds. In 1500, then, was performed for the first time what would become the Angel Flight : an acrobat turkish managed to cross the square on a rope, but the event was canceled a few years later, following the death of one of those artists.
Today, well-known faces are called to play the role of the Angel, which descends from the bell tower. Another unmissable event in Venice is the Venice International Film Festival , organized by La Biennale di Venezia for almost 70 years on the Lido of Venice, in the Palazzo del Cinema. Il Leone d'Oro is the characteristic award that is awarded to the best film and film criticism of this festival has an international standing equal to that of the American Oscars or the Cannes competition.
The Festa della Salute in Venice (November 21) is an opportunity to celebrate the Week of the Venetians. Every year, for centuries, the city would like to thank the Madonna della Salute for saving them from the plague in 1630 The custom has it that lights a candle in the Church of the Salute to protect your family, go in procession, while in the streets and markets stalls are set up, where to buy pancakes and castradine meat specialties offered by the Venetian Dalmatia during the plague. The Biennale every two years, also organizes the International Art Exhibition, an event of contemporary art since 1895 has its heart in the Gardens, which houses 29 pavilions of foreign countries.
Venice was the queen of the seas, as he could not bring home the flavors and tastes of distant lands? The Venetian culinary tradition has enriched the simple tastes of the Veneto and the gardens of the lagoon islands with oriental spices. Some recipes were instead designed because it retained long on ships of the Venetian sailors like sardines in sauce , sardines marinated in which there is also a fried version. Very famous and popular is the Venetian liver with onions and a dash of white wine. Even today many of the Venetian taverns serve him among the dishes.
The specialties with the fish are obviously the protagonists of the Venetian menu: the risotto de gò is prepared with goby in dialect gò, lagoon fish, dried cod, the cod fish and stockfish. In antiquity the fish caught in the lagoon was made cook in the evening in the kilns where they worked glass. But the real culinary institutions in Venice are related to the aperitif: the spritz Venetians consume it with Cinar and not with Aperol as in the rest of the Veneto, which is accompanied by Cicchetti , appetizers and Spain would call tapas.
And again, still hour of the aperitif, you can enjoy a glass of Prosecco or a Bellini, historical cocktail invented at Harry's Bar in Venice. Before dinner or lunch is compulsory to pass in a bacaro in the streets of Venice, one of the busiest areas in these hours is field Beautiful Vienna . The tavern Cantina Do Spade one of the regulars was Giacomo Casanova and still today you can breathe? ancient spirit of Venice (San Polo Sestiere 860).
In Venice you can pretend to be ladies of the eighteenth century and turn to the streets in search of fine fabrics, precious damasks, silks and brocades: the San Marco Bevilacqua Weaving hiding ancient artifacts of three or four centuries, the Palazzo Corner Spinelli showroom Rubelli company was founded in 1858, and to the Giudecca Fortuny Weaving still uses the original frames created by the sailor Fortuny.
But Venice, in the world, is famous for its carnival. For the whole city at any time of the year you can find small shops or workshops masks, costumes, clothes, accessories reminding us that many Venetians take in this tradition. The costumes in the style of the eighteenth-century costumes, period of maximum splendor Venetian carnival. Glass, glass and glass. Murano is the capital and here you can find objects blown by the artisans of a thousand shapes and colors, from vases to necklaces, chandeliers pearls.