Venice

Because of its famed art and architecture, Venice is one of the world’s most prominent tourist attractions. Every day, 50,000 visitors visit the city. It is recognized as one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

With its stunning cityscape, originality, and rich musical and artistic cultural legacy, tourism has been an important area of Venetian business since the 18th century, when it was a main hub for the Grand Tour. It became a popular center for the affluent and famous in the nineteenth century, with many staying or eating at luxury businesses such as the Danieli Hotel and the Caffè Florian. It remained a fashionable city until the early twentieth century. The Carnival of Venice was resurrected in the 1980s, and the city has since become a major hub for international conferences and festivals, such as the prestigious Venice Biennale and the Venice Film Festival, which draw visitors from all over the world for their theatrical, cultural, cinematic, artistic, and musical productions.

Today, Venice has several attractions, including St. Mark’s Basilica, the Grand Canal, and the Piazza San Marco. The Lido di Venezia is also a prominent worldwide luxury resort, drawing hundreds of actors, reviewers, celebrities, and others from the film industry. The cruise industry is very important to the city. According to the Cruise Venice Committee, cruise ship passengers spend more than 150 million euros (US $193 million) in the city each year.

However, Venice’s status as a major international tourist destination has resulted in a number of issues, including the fact that the city may be quite busy at certain times of the year. Some see it as a tourist trap, while others see it as a “living museum.” Unlike most other cities in Western Europe and throughout the globe, Venice has become well-known for its graceful decline. The rivalry for foreigners to purchase properties in Venice has caused prices to skyrocket, forcing many residents to relocate to more cheaper districts of Veneto and Italy, the most noteworthy of which being Mestre.

The Italian Transport Ministry has attempted to impose a restriction on big cruise ships entering the city in order to balance cruise tourist income with the maintenance of the city’s delicate waterways. Only cruise ships weighing less than 40,000 gross tons would be permitted to access Venice’s Giudecca Canal and St Mark’s Basin under the restriction. A regional court overturned the ban in January, but worldwide cruise companies said they would continue to follow it until a long-term solution for Venice’s preservation is found. The city pondered a ban on wheeled bags, but ultimately decided to prohibit hard wheels for freight beginning in May 2015.

July and August may be the worst months to visit since it is often quite hot and sometimes humid, there are mosquitoes and occasional fly infestations, and there are a LOT of visitors and enormous crowds wherever you go. Spring and fall are arguably the ideal times to visit, since they provide a good balance of weather (expect 5-15°C in March) and visitor traffic. Between November and January, you may be able to enjoy Venice entirely to yourself, which is an intriguing and peaceful experience. Winter weather may be chilly, windy, and wet. Fog is an added hazard whether you are driving in or out, and it is much more dangerous if you are piloting a boat. Having said that, if you’ve never been to Venice, it’s better to go in the summer than not go at all. You will not be sorry. In the summer, many towns are even worse, and Venice has no automobiles, thus there is no pollution.

In Venice, acqua alta (high water) has become a way of life. At times, the lagoon’s water level rises over the level of the squares and streets, flooding them. This might happen multiple times a year, at unpredictable intervals, mainly during the winter. Acqua alta often lasts a few hours and corresponds to high tide. Raised pathways will be visible in side alleyways, ready to be pushed out when acqua altahits. When the city starts flooding, sirens will ring to alert residents and businesses. If you speak fluent Italian, watch news shows since their forecasts of when the flood will begin and cease are generally correct. The tide normally rises and lowers in six-hour intervals.

An acqua alta map may be obtained at the tourist offices at the railway station or St Marks. This will display the higher, dry roads as well as those with walkways made up during the different flood warnings. A tide measurement station is located at the Rialto vaporetto piers, and a noticeboard at the foot of the Campanile in Piazza San Marco displays a live tide reading and forecast for the next several days.

Six boroughs make up the whole pensolon (municipality). Cannaregio, San Polo, Dorsoduro (containing the Giudecca and Isola Sacca Fisola), Santa Croce, San Marco (including San Giorgio Maggiore), and Castello (with San Pietro di Castello and Sant’Elena) are all part of the medieval city. A procurator and his staff were in charge of each sestiere. Nowadays, each sestiere is only a statistical and historical region with no autonomy. The six sestieri are represented by the six fingers or flanges of the ferro on the bow of a gondola.

The sestieri are split into parishes, which were once 70 in 1033 but were reduced by Napoleon to 38 today. These parishes existed before the sestieri, which were established about 1170.

Other islands in the Venetian Lagoon are not part of any of the sestieri and have traditionally had a high degree of autonomy.

Each sestiere has its own system of house numbers. Each home in the district has a unique number ranging from one to several thousand, which is normally numbered from one corner of the territory to another, although not always in an easily intelligible manner.

Venice’s economy has evolved throughout time. Venice was a prominent hub for business and trade throughout the Middle Ages and Renaissance because it controlled a wide sea-empire, and it became an extraordinarily affluent European metropolis, a leader in political and economic matters, and a center for trade and commerce. Pilgrimages to the Holy Land were available in Venice from the 11th through the 15th centuries. Other ports, like as Genoa, Pisa, Marseille, Ancona, and Dubrovnik, were unable to compete with Venice’s well-organized pilgrim transit.

By the 17th century, Venice’s commerce empire had been taken over by other nations such as Portugal, and its naval role had diminished. It thereafter became a significant agricultural and industrial exporter in the 18th century. The Venice Arsenal was the largest industrial complex of the 18th century, and the Italian Army still utilizes it today (even though some space has been used for major theatrical and cultural productions, and spaces for art). Today, the economy of Venice is mostly focused on tourism, shipbuilding (primarily in the nearby towns of Mestre and Porto Marghera), services, commerce, and industrial exports. Murano glass manufacture and lace making in Burano are also significant economic drivers.

PHONE

041 is the area code. If you call from inside the city, you must dial the area code and number, just like anyplace else in Italy. When calling from outside the country, add +39041 to the number. If you’re calling from Venice to another country, start by dialing 00.

INTERNET

There are various internet cafes in Venice, although they are significantly more costly than in the rest of Europe, with costs for an hour of access starting at roughly €6. Wi-Fi is offered in just a few of them. In Dorsoduro, there’s a fantastic tavern called Cafe Blue, which provides free (password-protected) wi-fi. Go all out with a spritz and a panini. Once registered with your ID card, you may browse for free for one hour at the Telecom Italia Future Centre in Campo San Salvatore (San Marco).

The city has been slowly expanding its municipal WiFi network, which currently covers almost the whole region around the Grand Canal and parts of the bigger squares in the center. Guest admission is available for about €5 per day at the same unified Venezia Unica site that sells transit and museum tickets.

To use an Internet café, you must either purchase a mobile SIM card or sign a contract for an Internet connection. In Italy, personal identity is required by law. Internet cafés will not allow you to use their computers unless you have a passport or a national ID card.

San Marco Calle Delle Botteghe 2970 Venezia A lovely internet café in the style of an art gallery, complete with a bookstore. It’s a little pricey at €3 for 15 minutes, but you can simply stroll in and play chess with a glass of wine.