Venice City of Canals | Floating City Italy | Islands in a Lagoon | UNESCO World Heritage Centre

Venice, or Venezia, is a floating city in Italy, made of hundreds of tiny islands.

But did you know that gondolier is one of the most well-paid job in the city? Or that Venice is sinking every year?

Venice is built on 10 million underwater logs

You’re probably wondering how was Venice built.

Well, in 402, the settlers cut down trees from the forests of Slovenia, Croatia and Montenegro, and carried them to Venice. There, they made 1,106,657 wooden stakes, measuring 4 meters each (13 feet).

They then sunk the logs underwater, to create a basis for the city. On top of the logs, they built wooden platforms, and then constructed the buildings on top of the platforms.

In total, the whole process took 2 years; pretty impressive when you think about it!

Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987, Venice has many gorgeous monuments

Venice was listed as a World Heritage Site by the UNESCO in 1987. It includes the lagoon, and some of the stunning monuments found in the city center.

Here are the main monuments in Venice:

Saint Mark’s Basilica, on the St Mark’s Square
The Doge’s Palace, built in 1424 and old residence of the Doge, Venice leader
Rialto Bridge, the oldest bridge spanning the Grand Canal

There are over 400 bridges in Venice

The bridges are, with the canals and the gondolas, one of the symbols of Venice.

While no one seems to agree on the exact number of bridges in the city, there is a general consensus around 400 bridges, including private bridges.

The far majority of the bridges are made of stone (300), then around 60 are made of iron, and finally the rest are wooden bridges.

At first, the bridges were built without steps, to make it easy for horses and carriages to cross them; now most bridges have steps.

There are no roads in Venice

That’s a cool fact about Venice: there are no roads in the city!

Sure, you can drive in Venice, by crossing the Ponte della Libertà. But you can only go so far as right after the bridge, and you’ll have to park in one of the few big parking lots at the entrance of the city.

To get to the rest of the city, you can’t drive, because there are no roads in Venice.

There are 150 canals in the city

The main way to get around Venice is either by foot, or by boat using the canals.

In total, there are around 150 canals in the city, but some estimate that there are as much as 177.

The main canal is the Canal Grande, that splits Venice in 2.

Most of the canals are not very deep, around 2 meters (6.5 feet). The 2 main canals in the city are a bit deeper: Canal Grande is 5 meters deep (16 feet) and the Canale della Giudecca is 15 meters deep (49 feet).

Venice is sinking every year

The city, built on wooden logs, is extremely heavy. This causes the city to slowly compress the mud below, and it sinks at a rate of 1 to 2 mm per year (0.04 to 0.08 inches).

Venice has lost half of its population in 50 years

In 1950, there were around 174,000 people living in Venice.

In 2018, only 53,000 remained.

This massive exodus is caused in part by over tourism, with crowds of visitors making it hard to live in the city and all of the prices going up; and in part by the constant floods, that are happening more and more frequently in recent years.

There are around 400 gondolas in Venice

Let’s keep going with these facts about Venice in Italy with a few facts on gondolas.

In the 16th century, there used to be around 10,000 gondolas in Venice. This is a huge amount, but it was the main way of transportation in the city, which is why they were so many.

Today, gondolas are most of a tourist attraction; as such, there are only around 400 gondolas in the city today.

You need a professional license to be a gondolier in Venice

In the past, gondolier was a profession that was passed from father to son.

Now, you need a professional license to be a gondolier.

Gondolier is an extremely well-paid job

Gondolier is one of the best professions in Italy, and definitely among the most well-paid job in Venice.

You’re not allowed to ride a bike in Venice

This is one of the lesser known Italy Venice facts.

Boat rides and walking are the only 2 means of transportation allowed in the city. This means that bikes, skateboards, or roller skates are not allowed in the city.

More than 20 million tourists visit Venice each year

Venice is one of the most visited cities in Italy, after Rome and Milan.

Each day in Venice, there are around 60.000 tourists.

The Venice Carnival is world famous for its elegant masks

The Carnival of Venice is one of the most popular tradition of the city.

It started in 1162, as a celebration for a war victory from Venice. The carnival rose in popularity in the 18th century, and attracted people from all over Europe.

In 1797, the Venice Carnival was made illegal by Austria, who conquered the city back then.

The Italian government restored the carnival in 1979, and has since been a very popular event drawing crowds each year.