Venice!

Hello!

So, on our way back from Croatia, we spent a day in Venice!

The winged lion, the symbol of Venice

Venice is often recognized as one of the must-visit cities in Europe, and I couldn't agree more with this. Built on a swamp, the city flourished during the renaissance, building a Mediterranean trade empire that stretched from Great Britain to China and even the far east. Using the wealth gained from this trades, powerful merchant families (especially the Medici's) built incredible churches, palaces, and bridges which now cover the city.

Many of the buildings in Venice that I saw

When you walk through the piazza San Marco (where all of the main churches are) the sense of the city is that it is drowning. Rising sea levels, combined with the fact that the city is built on a sinking marsh, means that the water is rising up between the plaza flagstones, creating massive puddles of seawater in the centre of piazza. While this doesn't happen every day (yet) I arrived on a high water day, and was greeted to churches with sights such as these. 

there is very much a sense that the city is living on borrowed time, and I encourage you all to visit it before the beautiful churches and buildings are completely submerged.

Another of the basilica's that can found almost anywhere in the city

Standing in front of the San Marco Basilica. Below are photos of the interior of the church

One of the famous Gondolas. All of the gondolas in the 

city either look exactly the same or very similar.

Michi and I standing on a bridge in front of a typical Venetian canal.

I don't think I need to promote Venice any more than it has already been promoted: If and when you can, go there. Preferably soon, because the one thing that the city represents is how the march of time threatens everything, regardless of what it looks like or how long it has lasted.

A cruise ship coming up the Grand Canal, a fairly common 

occurrence (although the locals aren't happy about it).

The interior of the church tower from which I took the cruise ship photo

All right, this is it for the first week of my exchange. Sorry I'm so far behind, but after this we should catch up very quickly I'd hope. Thanks again for reading all of these, and if you have a comment or an article suggestion, post it in the comments space. I'll leave you with a picture of what I'm guessing is one of the oldest casinos in the world.

See you later,