Why I Love Venice

"La piu bella citta del monde" -- the most beautiful city in the world, is how I have always described Venice. It is an artist's dream. Every corner is picturesque...a blend of pastel-colored Renaissance era buildings, quaint arching bridges, and panoramas of sky and sea catching your eye at every turn. No traffic sound of horns, gargling engines, or holed mufflers. Just the swish of the water and the dull throb of boat engines moving people and products about this bustling city.

Venice does not have a "laundry list" of sights to see like its older sister Roma does. Instead she unabashedly flirts and shows off her loveliness at every turn of street and canal. This little sister took over and flexed her muscles as her elder declined, becoming one of the medieval era's most powerful cities. She was rich beyond the comprehension of her dowdy European cousins, Paris, London, Bruges. She inspired a love amongst her citizenry that made them fiercely defend her against Christian and Muslim Turk rivals. History slumbers on every corner as you walk through Venice.

So, without further ado, this History teacher and former art student presents you with his pictorial dissertation on why he loves Venice....

A misty start to an early morning...

Churches reign regally on the seascape that is Venice...

The Queen of queens, St. Mark's Cathedral...

Dusky, gold-flecked, mysterious...the sonorous interior of La Serenissima's greatest church...

Brought back as booty by the callous veterans of the 4th Crusade, this bronze four-horse chariot team, is a 2,000 year old masterpiece of Greek style art...

The sun strikes a rosy glow from the pink stone of the Doge's (Duke's) Palace, next door to St. Mark's...

The gilded interior of the Ducal Palace, that sumptuous tribute to the world's most unabashed oligarchy, where the rich rule...

The armory inside the Doge's Palace, replete with weapons used to defend the Republic from the bladed medieval era to the days of gunpowder

The Bridge of Sighs, that passageway from the Ducal Palace to the prisons, that elicited an outburst of longing for that last glimpse of their beloved city from condemned prisoners...

Your vehicle of choice if you live in Venice is a boat...it can be overstated enough how soothing a city's sounds can be when no automobiles are around...

The modern jostles elbow to elbow with the past in this panoply of energy, commerce, and beauty along the seacoast of northern Italy...

I hope my visual dissertation has swayed your heart to consider Venice for a visit, one day...yes, it is expensive...yes, it lives and breathe to make euros, those modern day ducats...but it is a rare glimpse of the poetry that was the European Renaissance, and is well worth a visit...