"Venice" a Venice Travel Page by PetraG

Venice is one of the greatest places in Italy. It's situated in the North/East of the country, at the lagoon of Venice in the county of Veneto. The whole city is an island consisting of many small islands chained with thousands of small and big bridges.
The water-streets that lead through the island are called channels. They are used just like normal streets. So every Venetian own a boat. Even the busses and Taxis are boats. It's a really strange, but lovely world...

There are also some small islands that aren't connected to the "big one". The most famous ones are Murano, Burano and Volterra.
Each of them has a speciality. At Murano you can buy wonder ful glass-products. Burano is famous for handycrafts and in Volterra beautiful things are produced out of a stone called Alabastre.

The little black boats that you can see everywhere in Venice are called Gondole. They are coloured black to remind of the big pest-epidemic in mid age. The people (mostly men) riding these boats are called Godolieri. This is a very traditional and popular job (and also very difficult I think).
Renting a gondola is a gorgeous experience for tourists, but it's not cheap at all. So ask for the prices before!
A cheaper way to have a gondola-ride is to use a traghetto. These are gondole that traverse the Canale Grande from one side to the other. It's a short ride and most likely you'll have to stand in the boat because many people use it, but it's a very special experience - I promise you!