The Intricate Waterway of Venice

Aug. 16, 2010 - PRLog -- Venice is the capital of the region Veneto. With a name derived from the ancient tribe of Venrti that inhabited the region in Roman Times, Venice is a city that is recognised internationally. The New York Times has described it as 'undoubtedly the most beautiful city built by man' and the Times online has described it as being one of Europe's most romantic cities. Some of the nicknames for Venice are the 'city of water',  'the floating city' and 'the city of canals'. The city spreads across 117 small islands in the marshy Venetian Lagoon along the Adriatic Sea in the North east Italy. The climate of Venice has a humid subtropical climate with cool winters and cool summers

The grand canal is one of the main tourist spots. Here public transport is of the form of water buses called Vaporetto, a water bus operation that has a set of scheduled lines that serves locales helping them travel between Venice and nearby such as Murano and Lido. The name Vaporetto serves as the title for a single craft. The bus has a twenty-four-hour scheduled service, though its frequency varies depending on the lines, with several of the lines being limited during summer.

One end of the canal leads into the lagoon that is near the Santa Lucia Railway and the other end leads into Saint Mark Basin. In-between it makes a large 'S' shape through the central districts of the city.

The banks of the Grand Canal have more than 170 builds lined along, most of these building date from the 13th to the 18th century and they show the wealthy and how artistic the Republic of Venice were. The noble families in Venice spent a huge amount to show their palazzos, it was almost like a contest between them as it was a way of revealing their pride and deep bond with the lagoon.  Palazzo's are grand buildings (when translated to English the meaning is palace) they are often coined as a glamorous block of flats, some would have shops at the bottom floor while the upper levels would be home to many families. Amongst the many are the Palazzi Barbaro, Ca' Rezzonico, Ca' d'Oro, Palazzo Dario, Ca' Foscari, Palazzo Barbarigo and to Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, housing the Peggy Guggenheim Collection. With building like these the city can boast that no other villas in Italy can compare to the Palazzo's.

Most of the traffic goes through the Canal rather than across it, there was only one bridge that crossed the canal until the 19th century, the Rinalto Bridge. There were two more bridges, the Ponte degli Scalzi and the Ponte dell'Accademia.  A fourth controversial bridge (Ponte Della Costituzione) designed by Santiago Calatrava was recently erected, connecting the train station to the vehicle-open area of Piazzale Roma. Gondolas were at one point the main means of Transportation and most common water craft within Venice. Nowadays they serve as ferries over the Grand Canal. They are also used in special rowing races which are held amongst gondoliers. Although their primary role is to carry tourists on rides at slightly expensive.


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