Venice, the city that other cities aspire to be, is called La Serenissima - the most serene, by its citizens. The reasons are easy to understand - there are no roads and streets, and therefore no speeding cars and roaring mopeds. Only waterways - as many as 177 canals including the arterial S-shaped Canal Grande. No sooner were we out of the train station that we got our first sight of the canals. In fact, we needed to take one of the vaporettos (water buses) to get to our hotel and got into one going into the other direction! Several stops, much waiting, and another vaporetto ride later, we landed up at our hotel. It rained the whole of the next day and we spent our time indoors - visiting the Correr Museum, the Doge's Palace, and other buildings in the environs of the Basilica of San Marco. Venetian art, as captured in the Correr Museum and the Doge's Palace, is very different from what we saw at Rome and Florence. Venetians being the seafarers that they were, brought in influences from Asia Minor (notably Turkey) and other parts of Asia. Grand is the word that best describes the paintings, decoration and scale of art inside the Doge's Palace. There are numerous paintings by Tintoretto and Titian. Also remember to cross the Bridge of Sighs (Ponte de Sospiri) and go across to the rooms which used to be dungeons for prisoners and enemies of the state.

The Rialto bridge over the Canal Grande is a virtual street market with several shops and stalls selling all sorts of souvenirs (Murano glass, Venetian masks etc), trinkets, football t-shirts, cameras... you name it and they had it! We found something quite funny in some of these stalls - they were selling silk (?!!?) ties with colourful designs. However, they were all being displayed back-side front and we wondered why that would be the case. It turned out that the back side of the ties had a pictures of nude women printed on it!

Food is quite expensive in Venice - its become a tourist-oriented city. The best bet would be to pick up a sandwich or pizza slice from the many bars and smaller shops which abound. Venice has a rich maze of narrow lanes and passageways which beckon you all the time. A part of the fun is getting lost in these streets and then emerging somewhere altogether different and finding your way back home.

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