VENICE HISTORY
Sites about Venice history on the web tend to be either too detailed for the casual reader, or too trivial, other than Boglewood.com's excellent virtual history of Venice or the ever-growing Wikipedia encyclopaedia entry on La Serenissima. For a solid but easy printed introduction we heartily recommend the Blue Guide to Venice (see the panel below). You'll find these and other interesting books in our two holiday rental apartments; if you're planning to stay elsewhere, you might want to buy the Blue Guide either from amazon.co.uk or from amazon.com.
The Jewish Ghetto is just minutes away from our houses - the Jewish Venice site offers a capsule history of Venice and lots of information to help you plan a visit.
Myths?
Venice has accumulated many myths. If you've not yet been there, these points may interest you:
• In Venice proper (including Cannaregio), you can escape the tyranny
of the car: there is none (no scooters or bicycles, either).
• There is a magic to Venice at any time of year: even in fog and
mist, a trip down the Grand Canal, or across the lagoon, is filled with fascination.
• Quite apart from all this, Venice's permanent treasures invite
a lifetime's exploration: palaces, churches, art collections, and the streets
and canals themselves. At every street corner there is a new detail to enjoy.
• Venice does get crowded with tourists - but most of them stick
to a few well-worn routes, and it is easy to find a silent street only disturbed
by a haughty cat washing itself ...
• The Rialto fish market, with the accompanying fruit and vegetable
markets, is a foodie paradise.
Venice has accumulated many myths. If you've not yet been there, these points
may interest you:
• It is one of the few places in the world to which the word 'unique'
can truly be applied: a city in the middle of the sea.
• Venice is no longer sinking. The artesian wells that caused so
much damage in the last century were stopped; the islands are level. Now,
however, global warming is the challenge.
• The canals are no anachronism. They are the veins through which
the city's lifeblood flows: every service, from the dustmen to the fire brigade,
must use a boat.
• Twentieth-century buildings are a rarity. Centuries of outstanding
architecture, from the thirteenth to the nineteenth, are preserved in (sometimes
slightly peeling) grandeur.
