I LOVE Venice

That pretty much sums it up. As a city, it's is stunningly beautiful and so different to anything I've seen before. The city stretches across 118 small islands along the Adriatic Sea, but it's very easily navigatable by foot. There is no transport apart from the water taxis, and there are hadly any tourists at this time of year, and that just adds to be city's appeal. It really feels at times that you have the city to yourself to explore.

Twilight Venice on our first day:





The heart of the city is Piazza San Marco - which is framed by by the Basilica, the Doge's Palace and the Campanile (bell tower). The Piazza San Marco is the lowest point in Venice, and as a result during "high water" surges from the Adriatic, or even heavy rain, it is the first to flood. When we walked around we saw what looked like long tables stacked up on top of each other, and we wondered why. Well, it ended up raining for 2 days in Venice and we found out why: to construct above-ground walkways!

Saint Mark's Basilica is the most famous of the city's 100+ churches and is an stunning example of Byzantine architecture. I loved the gold ceiling, and the multiple domes. Very different to the Gothic Cathedrals dominating Europe.





You can climb up to the dome too:



Horses of Saint Mark were captured in Constantinople during the 4th Crusade in 1204 and carried to Venice as a trophy. They were made in the second century!


Views of Grand Chanal:


There seems to be hundreds of smaller ones:


And if you need transportation...