There are reasons why some sites are so famous; Venice is a case in point. This really is a unique and magnificent city, and really justified as being one of the most famous cities in Europe.

My visit was a truly wonderful experience, walking around it was hard to wipe the grins off of our faces. Arriving at the waterfront near St Mark’s square for the first time felt like we had just stepped into a Canaletto painting. Aside from the unique atmosphere of the road free city, the main sights were also very impressive. My first visit to St Mark’s Basilica was incredible, the mid morning sun was streaming in and making the gold mosaics shine, it really was an impressive feeling. Also the Doge’s palace was well worth investigating, the sheer amount of impressive painted interiors really made it worth the entrance fee. Venice can be a pretty expensive city to visit, but I visited out of season and managed to get some cheaper accommodation, and there are plenty of ways to cut down cost. Perhaps the most fun I had saving money was eschewing the costly gondola ride (€120 p/h) in favour of the wobbling across the grand canal on a traghetto (a gondola in which you stand up) all for the princely sum of €0.50, we enjoyed it so much we did it again the next day as well.

One of my favourite parts of my visit was strolling through the vegetable and fish markets on Saturday morning; it helped to get some interaction with some of the locals and also the opportunity to buy some tasty treats.

I really loved Venice and it is certainly a place that will reward a long visit, like many tourist heavy European cities it can be expensive and crowded but with a little bit of savy you will be able to experience one of the highlights of the world heritage list.

[Site 9: Experience 8]

As an additional note I would just like to comment on perhaps the thing I was happiest to see in Venice which was one of its latest developments; Ponte di Calatrava/Constituzione. This new bridge linking the Bus and train station is to my eye exceptionally beautiful. I am a huge fan of the work of Santiago Calatrava and this is one of his finest projects that I have seen. The simple modern curve of the bridge is both extremely modern but also very fitting for its location. There seems to have been a fair bit of criticism of it however in my view it is a great piece of work, and shows that modern architecture can fit in with historic cities (maybe if Dresden had got a better architect it would still be a WHS?).