The Sleeping City Venise by Douglas Scott

The sleeping city in Italy is called Venice.

It is divided into six zones namely San Marco, San Polo, Cannaregio, Dorsoduro, Castello and Santa Croce. The zones do not really have strict divisions, but they are characterized in different ways. San Marco has the Basilica and Piazza. San Polo is a down to earth area where the locals live and hang out. Cannaregio is home to the historic. Dursoduro contains students and the cities university. Castello has the beautiful Giardini and the Venice Arts Festival. Santa Croce is next to the station.

Venice is the only European city and one of the few in the world to have its public transport located entirely on the water. Run by Actv Company, the timetable constantly changes, depending on the tide. The main waterway in Venice is shaped like an S. This means that if you want to travel from San Marco to Rialto by boat, it will take you twice as long as it would to walk. The Grand Canal has only three bridges, but at certain points along the canal you can hire a gondola to cross the stretch of water; this often saves a great deal of time.

If you prefer taxis, the water cabs have very different charges to the more generally found land taxi. You should always tell the driver your destination and find out the price before stepping aboard. Gondolas are also subject to additional charges. They will charge you for an hour even if your trip only lasts fifty minutes.

When you compare Venice to other major cities of the world it is rather quiet. There are several reasons for this. The first is the high average age of its citizens probably the highest in Italy. The second is the relative difficulty there is to get around. This is not a place for cars and other private means of transport and a boat ride is not really ideal for an evening out. Finally, there is a lack of space in Venice, so everything is very cramped.

By nature Venetians enjoy entertaining friends in the privacy of their own homes. As a consequence, there are very few restaurants which stay open until late. Campo Santa Margherita in the summer is an exception to this rule. The presence of hundreds of students on their summer holidays transforms the square into a pleasure pavilion, with restaurants, live music and extemporaneous art exhibitions.

In comparison with other Italian cities hospitality in Venice doesnt come cheap, this may be due to the romantic environment.

Author Resource: Douglas Scott writes for The Cheap Car Hire Specialist. and is a free lance writer for The Villa Rental Site

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