Note: click photograph for a larger view

We captured this photograph while cruising the famous Grand Canal of Italy.  While I’m not certain, I imagined that this man was making his morning commute to the office.

You see, Venice has no cars, or even bicycles for that matter.  To get around in Venice, you have two choices: foot or boat.

Venice consists of roughly 250,000 people living on a group of 118 small islands separated by canals and linked by bridges.  Because of this unique topography, and the remarkable history of this northern Italian city, the entire city and its surrounding lagoon are listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Here is a very typical canal scene in Venice.  Here you can see resident boats parked alongside the canal, one of the 400+ bridges, and the adjacent buildings soaring 4-5 stories above the narrow canal.

Note: click photograph for a larger view

Google Earth Map of Venice

Evidently, there are no historical records to tell us when Venice was founded, but historians seems to agree that the city began with refugees from nearby Roman cities fleeing Germanic and Hun invaders.

As you might imagine, the early residents became expert fisherman and boatsmen.  And remarkably, some 2,000 years later, that is still the case in this most unusual city.

My case in point?  Most people, when they think of Venice, evoke mental images of a gondola floating down a Venetian canal.

More on that later.  Stay tuned!

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