Day 5. 10.22 Venice by Gondola!

Venice by Gondola!

This city and surrounding islands are beautiful and surreal! 

How Venice’s canals were built

To make the islands of the Venetian lagoon fit for habitation, Venice’s early settlers needed to drain areas of the lagoon, dig canals and shore up the banks to prepare them for building on. They began by digging canals and lining them by driving closely spaced wooden stakes – many of them made from water-resistant alder wood – through the sand and mud to rest on the harder clay beneath. On top of these stakes, they placed wooden platforms and then stone, and this is what the buildings of Venice are built on.

Of course, with no forest in the lagoon, this wood had to be imported by boat on a vast scale from forested areas that now form parts of modern Montenegro, Slovenia and Croatia. It may seem surprising that the wood on which Venice is built has withstood the test of time, but this is because it’s submerged in oxygen-poor water that doesn’t create the conditions needed for microorganisms to flourish and decay the wood. Not only that, but because it’s saltwater, salt and other minerals have, over time, seeped into the wood and hardened it to an almost stone-like state.