July 24, 2012 (retrospective from 2024)
I can see why visitors flock to Venice–to the point where the citizens of the Serene Republic have limited access to increasingly expensive housing, and have sought ways to reduce the number of visitors. Tour boats have been shunted to Trieste and other ports to take some of the pressure off Venice.
The city is certainly historic, scenic, and unique. Before commerce shifted from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic, Venice vied for leadership with other Italian city states. As party to the 4th Crusade in 1204, which 
conquered and looted and ruled Byzantium, Venice acquired many artefacts from Constantinople, which now grace places like St. Mark’s in Venice. Two that come to mind are the four horses that graced the Hippodrome in Constantinople, and the Portrait of the Tetrarchs, celebrating Diocletian’s efforts to make the unruly Roman 
empire manageable by dividing it into east and west and having assistants. Napoleon took the four horses to Paris as spoils of war, but the French returned them as part of the Vienna treaties, which ended the Napoleonic Wars–and the independence of Venice. There are, however, over 800 items in the Treasury in St. Mark’s Cathedral that were further east before the 13th century.
Set in a lagoon on land that is apparently sinking, Venice is a pastiche of colors, churches, and palaces, best accessed on foot or by boat. No trip to the city is complete without a gondola ride–and even our hotel had a boat entrance.
The city also housed the first ghetto in Europe, remnants of which are still extant.
What I loved about the city is that it’s a wonderful place to wander. You’d spot some intriguing doorway, open it, be treated to baroque artwork, and wonder why it wasn’t in the Lonely Planet. I finally realized if the Lonely Planet listed 
everything worth seeing in Venice, it would be in a book that filled the Library of Congress. With the waterways, too, I couldn’t go too far in any direction. If you wanted to go somewhere else, such as Murano, home of famous glass blowing, you had to take a water taxi. No wonder the bridge got a lot of foot traffic!