Venice

Some photos from in and around Venice, one of our favourite places in Italy!

These scenes capture some of the sights that have attracted literally millions of people over the centuries.  Venice was first a powerful trading nation and then became a place that people came and took in the wonder of the city built like no other, around water.  Today, however, Venetians themselves are finding it increasingly difficult to live there, with only about 60,000 permanent residents remaining.  Last visit we had to Venice, we had the privilege of living among them, seeing them go about their daily lives.  It is sad though that unless you work in tourism, there are few jobs still there.  Approximately 55,000 people visit the city DAILY, with annual visitors at around 20 million people!!  The volume of tourism has grown massively over the last half century and in the early 1950's about 1 million visitors came in a year and there were about 174,000 permanent residents on the islands.

Despite all the tourism, it is still a magical place and we have found the best way to see it is to stay right on the island, but not in the main tourist areas.  A large number of tourists are day trippers and Venice is a much more pleasant place first thing in the morning and in the evening after all these people have gone.

To me, photographs of Venice must capture something of the history or the unique way of life that has been lived here for so many centuries.  In some, I have endeavoured to capture some of the feeling that the place gives you.

I hope you can identify with some of this as you browse the images below.