3. Description
• Venice, capital of northern Italy’s Veneto region, is built on more than
100 small islands in a marshy lagoon in the Adriatic Sea. Its stone
palaces seemingly rise out of the water. There are no cars or
roadways, just canals and boats. The Grand Canal snakes through the
city, which is filled with innumerable narrow, mazelike alleys and
small squares.
4. Facts
• Bridges of Venice
• Venice is known for its bridges. There are 417 bridges in Venice and 72 of those
are private.
• Bridges in Venice usually don’t have steps on them since up until 16th century
many people were moving around on a horseback.
• Bridge of Sighs was built to connect the old prison in Doge’s Palace with the new
one across the river. One of the rare people escaping this prison was famous lover
Giacomo Casanova.
• According to Venetian tradition, the couple riding in gondola should kiss under
each bridge and they will stay in love forever.
• There are 3 major bridges across the Grand Canal – Accademia, Rialto and Scalzi.
There is a fourth one, just a few years old. What is interesting about that one is
that it already begins to show signs of decay, unlike the centuries old ones.
5. Facts (extended)
• Streets of Venice
• Venice has one of the narrowest streets in the world. Calletta, or
Ramo Varisco street, is only 53 cm wide. Canals were the main
communication routes, that’s why main entrances in old buildings
were always on the canal side. They didn’t worry much about space
between buildings on land, that’s why Venetian streets are often
narrow, sometimes weird and without logic.
• It’s almost impossible to find an address in Venice. Houses in Venice
are numbered according to the districts, not the streets. That is
confusing even for a postmen there. The easiest way for orientation is
to look the proximity of some monument, shop or famous building.
6. Facts (extended)
• Gondolas of Venice
• One of the most recognizable symbols of Venice are gondolas. Not
everyone thinks about things like how they are made while enjoying their
ride, but that is actually an interesting story: each gondola is made of eight
different types of wood. Left side is bigger than the right one for 24
centimeters (almost a feet), and the parts of gondolas are symbols of some
parts of Venice – front part represents six city zones, back part represents
island Guideka, and the central part represents famous Rialto bridge.
• There are about 350 gondolas and 400 gondolieri in the city of Venice.
• On average, gondola is 11 meters long and it weights almost 600 kilos.
• Until recently, Venice didn’t have female gondoliers. Venice got its first
female gondolier in 2010.
7. Facts (extended)
• Carnivals and Masks of Venice
• During Carnival, laws prohibiting wearing of expensive lace were suspended.
• Every year 18 million tourists visit Venice. That’s, on average, around 50 thousand
people per day. The peak time is during the carnival with more than three million
visitors.
• In 1608 Council of Ten approved wearing masks only during the carnival. The ones
who would broke the law were heavily punished, from two years in prison to
public beating and binding to the pillar of shame.
• There are three types of masks: bauta, moretta i larva. Bauta usually completely
covers face, doesn’t have mouth hole and it has a lot of gilt. Sometimes it covers
only upper parts of face so that you can talk, eat and drink, but it still hides the
identity. Moretta is oval mask in black velvet and was worn by women of all social
classes, usually during the visits to the monastery. Larva is usually white and is
worn with the hat and the cloak.
8. Facts (extended)
• Acqua alta
• Acqua alta, or higher water, happens when tide is 9 cm above normal
height. It mostly happens as a result of an interaction between
Sirocco and tides (Sirocco is a warm wind blowing from north Africa).
• Acqua alta is a big problem to the Venetians, but tourists usually find
it interesting and picturesque.
• Venecia tries to fight back to the acqua alta. There is a big engineering
project called Mose that they hope will be the solution of this issue. It
is a system of big movable barriers able to lift up when tides exceed a
certain level. That will prevent water from flooding the town.
9. Facts (extended)
• Canals of Venice
• There are 177 canals in Venice.
• The S-shaped Grand Canal is the biggest canal in Venice and it splits
the city in two.
• There are over 170 buildings that make the line of the Grand Canal.
• The canals were the main routes of communication in Venice. That is
why the main gates of the houses are always on a side of canals.
10. So like this was a powerpoint
• Hope u learned sumfin
• I had fun
• Did u
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