Italy · The floating city
There is no city on earth like Venice. Built across a hundred islands in a shallow lagoon, it has no cars and no roads, only canals, footbridges and narrow lanes that open without warning onto a glittering waterway. To arrive is to step into a place that has changed remarkably little in five hundred years.
At its heart is St. Mark's Square, the grand piazza watched over by the golden Basilica of San Marco and the soaring Campanile. From there the Grand Canal sweeps through the city past faded palaces, best seen low on the water from a gondola or a public vaporetto, while the arched Rialto Bridge and its market mark the city's old commercial soul.
We love giving Venice time to breathe. A night or two lets you wander the quiet lanes after the day-trippers leave, take a boat out to the brilliantly painted houses of Burano, and watch glass blown on Murano, all at the gentle pace the floating city deserves.
