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Published: November 16th 2011
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If you can only go to one place then the place you must go is to Venice - the most romantic city in the world. She stands like an serene ever so slightly decaying graceful lady set in the most beautiful lagoon you can ever imagine. You need a heart and a soul to understand Italy and certainly need one to understand the beauty of Venice. Yes it can be busy with the heaving bodies of day tourists,noisy in parts but stay there for a week and you see a different side to the city. Venice deserves more than one day to a visit. To understand her charm one needs to spend time quietly wandering down the lanes hunting out the special secret places, the narrow alleyways, the gondolas parked up in the glinting water. My first introduction to Venice was in 1999 and I spent one day in the city walking the duck boards due to the Autumn high tides. I always vowed to go back and it took rather more years than I had ever imagined before I found myself looking at the city from the air whilst landing at the airport. What an impressive sight. On landing the
best way to arrive at the city is on one of the private motor boats that you can hire. Why arrive in the water taxi when you can have a boat to yourself - a touch of the arrival of the Queen of Sheba. The cost isnt that expensive and well worth every penny. It's not every day you arrive in Venice so make the most of it. The journey from the airport takes around 40 minutes and the whole journey is a unique adventure as you pass through narrow channels, past pink pastel palazzos - some small and others larger past lighthouses, the arsenal and then see the Grand Canal, the Doges Palace and St Marks Square opening out. Yes you have arrived and what an arrival!! On arrival we dumped the cases and set out to walk into the backstreets heading away from the hustle and bustle of St Marks and the square . Venice is like a maze, you can see where you want to go but sometimes you reach the end of the street and realise water is in the way of where you want to go to. Water taxis are the quickest and cheapest way
of crossing the Grand Canal. We started off with the main St Marks Square, the Campanile and the basilica before heading into the darker narrower alleyways leading out from the centre. The campanile is a real landmark built exactly the same as it was before it fell down. Thank goodness the Venetians decided to rebuild it the way it was. A lift carries vistitors to the top where the view over Venice unfolds beneath you. The red roofs of the palazzos, the onion domes of St Marks, the mass of tangled streets but not one sight of the Grand Canal. St Marks is a real confection of east meeting west an exotic cathedral which evokes a mixture of emotions.. I can imagine you could either hate or love it . The patterned brickwork and stone work Moorish in style, the gleaming gold of the mosaics all define the difference between the exterior and the interior. The interior dark and gloomy with the most fabulous treasures hidden in the gloom. The Pala Doro a gilden altarpiece decorated with 15 rubies, 300 sapphires, 300 emeralds, 400 garnets and 1300 pearls. Spend time on the loggia looking over the square, admiring the copies
of the horses and seeing the originals in the small museum. And finally night in Venice - once the tourist had left it was wonderful to see the street lights shed their pink glow on the pavements and the hundreds of tiny lights glittered on the water. Good night Venice .
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