VENICE

A unique city in the world, visited so much that they had to establish paid entry although it was cheap and traffic lights for people walking in its alleys, there are no cars, only boats for passengers and the characteristic and very expensive gondolas. It was born when the inhabitants of nearby Aquileia which was then the second city of the empire, today a small town; they had to flee to the islands of its lagoon to escape Attila's hordes. It happened around the end of the 16th century, then the city of Byzantine influence it slowly grew so much that it became a rich and powerful republic around 1200 which owned territories throughout the Adriatic Sea and also in the eastern Mediterranean, dominated mercantile traffic and challenged the Turkish and Austrian empires in war. It was Napoleon who ceded it to the old Austrian enemy at the end of 1700 until the liberation after the third Italian war of independence in 1866 which reunited it with the Italian state, but even today it has strong autonomist tendencies. The wealth accumulated through trade allowed her to beautify the city by paying the best artists of the time until it became an open-air museum. It is losing inhabitants from year to year because the houses are very expensive, bought by rich foreigners and the Venetians are moving to Mestre and other nearby places. Furthermore, restaurants, bars and shops are bought above all by smart Chinese who know well how much they are worth and how much can be earned given the constant arrival of tourists. As usual, we Italians get ripped off even at home! But let's come to artistic and tourist Venice. The main jewel is the large Piazza San Marco with the basilica of the same name, the Palazzo Ducale and the Campanile. Unfortunately it is often invaded by water and the government has tried to solve the problem by building a very expensive MOSE, a system of bulkheads that cost around 5.5 billion euros and each opening costs over 200,000 euros! The Basilica of San Marco is in Byzantine Romanesque Gothic style, its construction began around the year one thousand and ended around 1600!!!! ​Saint Mark the Evangelist is buried inside. The domes are Moorish in style. The original horses were stolen by Napoleon when in 1797 he ceded Venice to Austria (the Republic with the Doge as its head of state and government, known as the Serenissimo, hence the Serenissima Republic, began in 697 and, having ended in 1797, lasted exactly 1,100 years). The horses were brought back to Venice on the orders of the Austrian emperor and are now kept in the museum on the top floor of the Basilica together with the Pala d'Oro, a collection of approximately 2,000 gems, 1300 pearls, 400 sapphires and 400 emeralds as well as other precious stones The internal beauty is mainly due to the splendid mosaics of the domes and walls. The two columns in the square carry the winged lion at the top which is the symbol of the Serenissima Rep. and at the other San Teodoro to protect the citizens. The construction of the bell tower began in the 9th century and continued until 1500 but in 1902 it suddenly collapsed, it was rebuilt and inaugurated in 1912 for the feast of St. Mark on 25 April. Naturally at the top it houses the clock second in fame only to Big Ben in London. The Palazzo Ducale, in Gothic style, was the seat of the doge and the judiciary. It contains the Doge's apartment, armouries, prisons, institutional rooms, the most beautiful part is the portico and Foscari arch. For a century in the 19th century it housed the Marciana library, then it was restored and since 1923, therefore for a century it has been a state museum, then a municipal one for about 30 years. There are the monumental rooms where ambassadors and politicians visiting Venice were received and the prisons from where only the famous Giacomo Casanova, a great Latin lover but also a writer and interested in various branches of culture, managed to escape. The Accademia Gallery is worth a visit to admire the collection of paintings from the 15th and 16th centuries. Bellini, Giorgione, Mantegna, etc. are represented. Worth seeing is the Jewish ghetto in the Cannareggio district with a Jewish museum and a couple of synagogues but above all with the spirit of the past. There is the Bridge of Sighs considered the most romantic in the world but in fact it is called that because it was crossed by those destined for prison and therefore emitted a sigh of disappointment and regret for their lost freedom. A truly larger and more beautiful bridge on the Grand Canal is the Rialto Bridge, a true architectural and artistic beauty. Outside Venice but not far away, Murano is famous for the production of blown and colorful glass and Burano for its colorful houses and lace and then the Lido with the beach and the Palace where every year the Film Festival takes place which competes with Cannes for the primacy in Europe. Venice also hosts a famous Biennale which attracts artists and visitors from all over. The tour of the bacari is recommended to taste the cicchetti similar to Spanish tapas and drink the famous sparkling white prosecco wine. And how can we forget the Venice Carnival perhaps second in the world only after that of Rio de Janeiro, no allegorical floats but fabulous masks who arrive in pairs and groups from all over Italy to perform in a street and square show unique in the world, I will post the photos and you will realize it. While writing, I realized that few cities in the world have a cultural and artistic life comparable to Venice. ​