Italy: Venice
"She is the Shakespeare of cities
unchallenged, incomparable and beyond envy."
-- John Addington Symonds
There's no escaping it: Venice is unique. For a start, this is a pedestrian's city
on a very human scale - cars are almost nonexistent, and beguiling narrow paths take
the place of ugly city roads. The harmonious architecture seems to have sprung uniformly
from somewhere between the 12th an 16th century, its secretive walls and enticing
balconies sparkling with flashes of water glimpsed through cracks and windows. Dark
paths suddenly emerge into the clear, bright daylight of a church-filled square or
cross the city's myriad canals by way of numerous and wonderful little bridges. The
atmosphere is magical and inexplicably festive.
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