A Sinking Feeling - Venice

Venetian Mask - Nick

The day we visited Venice (Venezia); the tide was high, the streets and squares were paved with water. Ohhh..I have this sinking feeling about Venice but in a romantic way…it reminds me of Giacomo Cassanova! Venice itself is a romantic city with the Italian man standing tall maneuvering his Gondola in between the canals.  Though we wished to go to the nearby island of Burano and Murano, due to time constraint we decided to limit ourselves just exploring this lovely city in three hours. It wasn't really that bad…we got to see most of the things we wanted.

It is much cheaper to use the Vaporetta (water taxi) which will take you to every stop by the canal. The routes are pretty much similar to the subway system but here, it is in the water. The Vaporetta carries you swiftly from one point to another with no collision.

Observing the people around us, we can easily tell that most of them are tourists like us. In the last five years or so the population of Venice has declined and today it is estimated to be about 270,000. The residents may have moved to a much stable ground. It was reported that Venice has subsided 24cm in the past 100 years. It will continue to sink as Adratic sea level rises, the impact of global warning continues and the occasional flood hits the city.

The geography, art, culture and history have made Venice very special and a city that must be visited at least once in a lifetime. Venice and the Venetian Lagoons are entirely UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987. I hope the expensive movable Mosses dam project would be able to save this charming city from extinction.

The water has risen to the ground floor of the building

The busy grand canal 

A Gondola station

Row of Gondolas

A modern residential area in Venezia

 Residential flats

Colorful view

Another Vaporetta and Gondola station

The gondolas move into the smaller canals