Venice is of course an incredibly beautiful place and one that other cities can’t help but compare themselves to. Apparently, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Amsterdam and Bruges all fancy themselves the “Venice of the North”. Well after years of hearing these comparisons, it was great to finally visit the “Venice of Italy”. Sorry to those other cities, but while each is beautiful in its own right, a few canals, islands or rivers don’t make a Venice. We were impressed by the scale and beauty of this amazing place but also by the novelty of a city infrastructure built entirely around waterways.
Thanks to Alex’s parents for a great itinerary where we avoided the worst of the crowds (it is peak tourist season in one of the most famous destinations in the world after all), but still managed to visit a number of interesting sites, including the main squares and bridges, some of the smaller churches, as well as the Peggy Guggenheim Collection.
Except for the massive crowd in front of St Mark’s, it does look like you managed to escape the crowds (even if not the heat). I see that your picture of the crowds at St Marks shows many “tour guides” holding their numbered panels. Huge cruise ships have been coming into Venice. Did you see any? They are so large that they look incongruous with the scale of Venice.