Grand Canal at Venice
Who hasn’t heard of Venice? This island city, one of the most beautiful and romantic of destinations, is my latest stop in our European tour. I have heard of Venice since I was a kid and I have seen photos of it in books. Amusingly, I got to know about Venice because of my interesting in the planets. Mars in particular, was said to have to have canals when it was first looked at through a telescope, canals much like the canals of Venice. The canals I had in mind were the dirty sewer type of canal which was common where I lived. That was until I saw photos of the canals of Venice. The canals here are more like rivers. And looking at it right now, the are even larger than I imagined them to be.
A Look at the Grand Canal in Venice
Venice is an island in a small archipelago in its own lagoon. Venice was very well known way back then and it was a very prosperous city. Unsurprisingly, Shakespeare wrote a book, called the Merchant of Venice. Venice is a water town and the whole place is practically built on top of water. The lagoon is relatively shallow and this allows people to build buildings. You can see how close to the water most of the buildings are and it is a wonder they don’t wash away over time. Right outside the railway station is the Venice Grand Canal, this is the main canal of Venice as you can probably tell from the name. It is more like a river which snakes through the entire island. You can also think of it as the main highway of Venice. Venice doesn’t have roads but rather waterways. Countless boats or vaporetto traverse the Grand Canal ferrying visitors to various destinations.
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