Venezia: Venice is unique

A walk around VENEZIA

There's no escaping it: Venice is unique. For a start, this is a pedestrian's city on a very human scale - cars are almost nonexistent, and beguiling narrow paths take the place of ugly city roads. The harmonious architecture seems to have sprung uniformly from somewhere between the 12th and 16th centuries, its secretive walls and enticing balconies sparkling with flashes of water glimpsed through cracks and windows. Dark paths suddenly emerge into the clear, bright daylight of a church-filled square or to cross the city's myriad canals by way of numerous and wonderful little bridges. The atmosphere is magical, and inexplicably festive.

The city is built on 117 small islands, and is linked to the mainland service town of Mestre by a road and rail causeway. The Grand Canal insinuates itself around the city, emerging at the unforgettable vista of Piazza San Marco, boasting its campanile, Doges' Palace, St Mark's Basilica and elegant pigeon-filled piazza. The Piazza is the uncontournable starting point of your walk through Venice. Buildings bordering the Piazza testify of about a thousand year's history. The St Mark's Basilica is the most famous monument of Venice. The visitor can discover there a lot of works of art : sculptures (loggia dei cavali), mosaics, paintworks and so on.

The Bridge of Sighs build in 1602 links the palace, where sat the Court, to the gloomy old prisons. The interior of this famous bridge is divided in two narrow passages separated by a wall. The bobbing gondolas are overlooked by the stunning Santa Maria della Salute, San Giorgio Maggiore and del Redentore churches.

It takes only half an hour or so to walk from the train station to San Marco: that is if you can resist the temptation to take one of the many paths which diverge from the main drag (Lista di Spagna) and assuming that you can follow the signs which appear every now and then indicating nonsensical directions. To appreciate the fine palaces which line the Grand Canal, swallow your 'but I'm not really a tourist' phlegm and take a gondola.