Venice

For alternate meanings see: Venice (disambiguation).

The buildings of Venice are constructed on closely spaced poles, or pilings, which penetrate alternating layers of clay and sand. Most of these pilings are intact after centuries of submersion. The foundations rest on the pilings, and buildings of brick or stone sit above these footings. The buildings are often threatened by flood tides pushing in from the Adriatic between autumn and early spring.

During the 20th century, when many artesian wells[?] were sunk into the periphery of the lagoon to draw water for local industry, Venice began to sink noticeably. It was realised that extraction of the aquifer was the cause. This sinking process has slowed markedly since artesian wells were banned in the 1960s. However, the city still is threatened by more frequent low-level floods (so-called Acqua alta, "high water") that creep to a height of several centimetres over its quays, regularly following certain tides. In many old houses the ground floor is unoccupied due to the periodic floods, but people continue to live and work in the upper stories.

Some recent studies have led us to hope that the city is no longer sinking, but this is not yet certain; therefore, a state of alert has not been revoked. In May 2003 the Italian Prime Minister inaugurated the "Moses" project, which will lay a series of 79 inflatable pontoons across the sea bed at the three entrances to the lagoon; when tides are predicted to rise above 110 centimetres, the pontoons will be filled with air and block the incoming water from the Adriatic sea. This challenging engineering work is due to be complete by 2011.

Venice is served by the newly rebuilt Marco Polo Airport, Aeroporto di Venezia Marco Polo, named in honor of its famous citizen. The airport is on the mainland and was cunningly rebuilt away from the coast so that visitors now need to get a bus to the pier from which boats to Venice can be caught. You can catch an expensive watertaxi, or the Aliliguna waterbus.

Many works in art recall Venice: most famous is perhaps William Shakespeare's Othello or indeed The Merchant of Venice. Venice is also famous world-wide for its unique Carnival.

Table of contents 1 Places of note: 2 Famous Venetians 3 English words of Venetian origin 4 See also: 5 External links

Places of note:

• Piazza San Marco
• Basilica di San Marco
• Doge's Palace
• The Bridge of Sighs
• Palazzo Grassi[?]
• Peggy Guggenheim Collection museum
• Giudecca[?]
• Minor islands of Burano and Murano
• The Venetian Lagoon

Famous Venetians

• Canaletto, painter.
• Giacomo Casanova, legendary womanizer.
• Marco Polo, traveller.

English words of Venetian origin

ciao[?], ghetto, arsenal, Montenegro.

"Venezuela" meant "small Venice".

See also:

• Doges of Venice
• Venice Film Festival (This article incorporates some information taken from http://www.hostkingdom.net by permission.)

External links

• The Carnival of Venice (http://www.venetia.it/s-carn-eng.htm)
• La Biennale (http://194.185.28.38/)
• What people say about Venice... (http://www.venetia.it/s-dic-eng.htm)
• Palazzo Grassi (http://www.palazzograssi.it/)
• Teatro La Fenice (http://www.teatrolafenice.it/)
• Casino' Municipale di Venezia (http://www.casinovenezia.it/), with on-line Roulette (http://www.casinovenezia.it/giocagratis/roulette.asp) (requires Shockwave Player)
• A real-time webcam (http://turismo.regione.veneto.it/webcam/body.htm) (Canal Grande from Palazzo Balbi toward Rialto)
• Novels set in Venice listed and reviewed (http://pages.britishlibrary.net/jeffc/venice.htm/)
• http://www.lapanse.com/venise/venise1.html (in French)