Visiting Venice.

Not only is Venice one of Italy’s top travel cities, it’s also one of the most beautiful and romantic destinations in Europe. Venice offers attractions for everyone, and you will always find something that interests you around the corner. With its traffic-free streets beside the canals, magnificent churches and palaces, squares bursting with life and interesting shops, offering everything from the latest fashion to hand made presents. Venice is most defiantly an important world tourist destination, and an amazing place to visit.

Venice is assessable by all modes of transport, and it is up to your very own preference how you arrive to this magnificent city. Visiting Venice as a shore excursion is something I would recommend. Although the city is bursting with things to discover, it may be abit to much to handle for a week. I loved visiting the city for a day and a night, and enjoyed every minute of it. You can also visit Venice by plane, and with the flight being less than two hours, is a great way to travel to the city. If you are travelling from another city within Italy or even France, you can arrive to Venice by train.

Getting around the city is just as easy as arriving, with water-bus’ and motorboats ready to take you to a place of your choice quickly. If however you are in no rush they is always the Gondola ferry, which is cheap but very picturesque. These services are available at various points across the canal.

With so many attractions to visit in the city, you wouldn’t have thought that one of the best things to do is actually free, and that is to take some time wondering along the canals. You can walk for miles alongside the canal, it can get rather crowded in the middle of the day, but in my opinion the best time to visit would defiantly be at dusk. One of the best views I have ever seen, was the lights flickering on the boats as you walk down, seeing the reflections of the historic buildings in the water.

But the canal is defiantly not the only interesting thing about Venice:

• Rialto Bridge (Ponte di Rialto) is the main bridge crossing the Grand Canal in the heart of Venice, being over 400 years old the bridge is a great historic attraction and you really get the feel like you’re in old town Venice when you are crossing it.
• The Rialto Market is also a great place to visit and should not be missed during your visit. With lots of little quaint shops and a lively food market, this setting also gives the impression that you have just stepped back in time.
• San Marco Square, the Piazza San Marco is the main square of Venice, surrounded by cafes and fancy shops this is a great place to enjoy the scenery and people. The Piazza is a great place to visit day and night but beware that prices go up drastically at night, especially if you would like to appreciate the square with outside seating. If you are so lucky to visit the city during October or November you can witness the rising water, where the square is flooded by a still lake of water, and is a magical moment and one you are lucky to have witnessed.
• Doge’s palace is also situated on San Marco Square and is, in my opinion, the most impressive building in Venice, tours are available and I would recommend to anyone. The Palace was the political and judicial hub of Venetian government until 1797, and is connected to prisons by the famous ‘Bridge of Sighs’, also a great sight.

Even though Venice is heavily touristed, it still remains a beautiful, interesting and historic city, and a place I would recommend everyone to visit before it’s too late.