Page 23 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Venice & The Veneto

introducing venice and the vene t o  21
A PORTRAIT OF

THE VENETO

venice and the veneto form, on the face of it, an unlikely partnership. venice
is a romantic tourist city frozen in time, the veneto a forward-thinking and
cosmopolitan part of modern europe. Yet the commercial dynamism of the
mainland cities is a direct legacy of the old Lady of the Lagoon who, in her
prime, ruled much of the Mediterranean.

Venice is one of the few cities in the published, a rare occurrence on a
world that can truly be described as continent scarred by the aerial
unique. It survives against all the odds, bombing of World War II and the
built on a series of low mud banks demands of postwar development.
amid the tidal waters of the Adriatic More than 14 million visitors a year
and regularly subject to floods. Once succumb to the magic of this
a powerful commercial and naval force improbable city where the past has
in the Mediterranean, Venice has found more meaning than the present.
a new role. Her palazzi have become For all this, Venice has had a price
shops, hotels and apartments, her to pay. So desirable is a Venetian
warehouses have been transformed apartment that rents are beyond the
into museums and her convents means of the Venetians themselves.
have been turned into centres for Many of the city’s apartments are owned
art restoration. Yet little of the by wealthy foreigners who use them
essential fabric of Venice has altered perhaps for two or three weeks
in 200 years. A prewar guide to the city a year – unlit windows at night are
is just as useful today as when it was indicative of absent owners.

Children attending their first communion at Monte Berico, outside Vicenza
Elaborate costume and mask at the Venice Carnival

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