Nobody arrives in Venice and sees the city for the first time. Depicted and described so often that its image has become part of the European collective consciousness,
Venice
can initially create the slightly anticlimactic feeling that everything looks exactly as it should. The water-lapped palaces along the Canal Grande are just as the brochure photographs made them out to be, Piazza San Marco does indeed look as perfect as a film set, and the panorama across the water from the Palazzo Ducale is precisely as Canaletto painted it. The sense of familiarity soon fades, however, as details of the scene begin to catch the attention - an ancient carving high on a wall, a boat being manoeuvred round an impossible corner, a tiny shop in a dilapidated building, a waterlogged basement. And the longer one looks, the stranger and more intriguing Venice becomes.
Founded fifteen hundred years ago on a cluster of mudflats in the centre of the lagoon, Venice rose to become Europe's main trading post between the West and the East, and at its height controlled an empire that spread north to the Dolomites and over the sea as far as Cyprus. As its wealth increased and its population grew, the fabric of the city grew ever more dense. Very few parts of the hundred or so islets that compose the historic centre are not built up, and very few of its closely knit streets bear no sign of the city's long lineage. Even in the most insignificant alleyway you might find fragments of a medieval building embedded in the wall of a house like fossil remains lodged in a cliff face.
OVERLOOKING SAN GIORGIO ISLAND / VENICE The Luna Hotel Baglioni is a 12th century hotel with grand two- tier atrium overlooking San Giorgio Island and the Grand Canal and 10 meters from San Marco Square in Venice.
BETWEEN ST. MARK'S AND RIALTO / VENICE With views of Saint Mark's Square, the brand new Palace Bonvecchiati is a quality hotel located in the heart of Venice, 150 meters from the Palace of the Doges.
Call toll free..
US and Canada: 1-800-780-5733
Europe: 00-800-11-20-11-40
Use discount code: 89865
