Travel destination of the week: Venice

 

 

Venice is a city in northeast Italy sited on a group of 118 small islands separated by canals and linked by bridges. Venice is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. The city in its entirety is listed as a World Heritage Site, along with its lagoon. 

Names:

Venice has been known as the "La Dominante", "Serenissima", "Queen of the Adriatic", "City of Water", "City of Masks", "City of Bridges", "The Floating City", and "City of Canals". Luigi Barzini described it in The New York Times as "undoubtedly the most beautiful city built by man”.

Climate:

Venice has a humid subtropical climate with cool winters and very warm summers. The average in January is 2.5 °C (36.5 °F), and for July this figure is 22.7 °C (72.9 °F).

Tourism:

Venice is one of the most important tourist destinations in the world for its celebrated art and architecture. Today, there are numerous attractions in Venice, such as St Mark's Basilica, the Grand Canal, and the Piazza San Marco. The Lido di Venezia is also a popular international luxury destination, attracting thousands of actors, critics, celebrities, and mainly people in the cinematic industry.  

Shopping:

Today, Venice is also a major fashion and shopping centre in Italy, not as important as Milan, Florence, or Rome, but par to Turin, Vicenza, Naples, and Genoa. Many of the fashion boutiques and jewelry shops in the city are located in the Rialto Bridge and the Piazza San Marco. At the current time, there are Louis Vuitton and Ermenegildo Zegna flagship stores operating in the city.

Venice in popular culture:

Venice has been the setting or chosen location of numerous films, novels, poems and other cultural references. Examples of these include Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice and Othello, Casanova's autobiographical History of My Life, Anne Rice's Cry to Heaven and Thomas Mann's novella, Death in Venice. The city has also been a setting for numerous films, including three entries in the James Bond series: From Russia with Love, Moonraker and Casino Royale, The Tourist, Fellini's Casanova, Indiana Jones and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. 

The Carnival of Venice:

The Venice Carnival is one of the most important events in the arts calendar. It is held annually in the city, starting around two weeks before Ash Wednesday and ends on Shrove Tuesday, where the biennial exhibition of Italian art is celebrated. The carnival is closely associated with Venetian masks.