Venice

Venice is definitely one of the most popular cities in Italy and one of the most sought out tourist destinations in the world mainly due to its beautiful setting, dazzling architecture and striking artwork. The city of Venice is described by The New York Times as “undoubtedly the most beautiful city built by man,” and by the Times Online as one of the most romantic cities Europe has to offer. Venice has been a major maritime power during the Middle Ages and Renaissance – practically up to the 13th century, Venice was an extremely important center of commerce in Europe.

Education

Venice does not offer anything special in terms of education – the education system in Venice is similar or almost the same as in all other parts of Italy; that’s not to say however that their level of education is lacking in any manner. Venice is however home to the first Italian business college (Ca’ Foscari University) — founded in 1868, the school rests on the bend of the Grand Canal. The university mainly focuses on four major subject areas of teaching and research, including: economics, languages, sciences, and humanities. There are several other higher education institutions located in Venice and the elementary and secondary schools are all governed by the same body.

Climate

The climate in Venice is very similar to the rest of Italy – perhaps because the entire country is encapsulated in a mere 116,346 square miles. Venice, like Milan, features a humid subtropical climate with cold winters and hot summers. The average temperature during the winter time (January) is about 2.5 °C and 22.7 °C in the summer time (July) – which may not sound like much until the humidity is taken into account. Precipitation (rain or snow fall) averages about 80 cm per year – that’s just 20 cm less than Milan but still very close to many other parts of Italy.

Main Attractions

Like most other parts of Italy, Venice is another extremely popular tourist destination due to its outstanding reputation as a beautiful and artistic city. On average, the city has about 50,000 tourists per day (based on 2007 estimates) — and with a total of almost 3 million tourists annually, Venice is ranked the 28th most visited city in the world. Let’s take a look at some of the beautiful sights that Venice has to offer:

The Grand Canal
The Grand Canal is a spectacular sight for any tourist – the waterway splits the city in half and much of the activity in the city is encircled by the Grand Canal. The canal is 3,800 meters long, 30-90 meters wide (depending on the location), with an average depth of five meters – the canal makes a “S” shape when viewed from above.

St. Mark’s Square
St. Mark’s Square is and has been the principal center of Venice for a very long time – over there, it is referred to as simply “the Piazza.” The square features many shops and cafes for tourists as well as many beautiful sights – including churches and museums.

Rialto
Commercially, Rialto has always been at the top – it is known historically as the location at which the first bridge was built across the Grand Canal. Rialto features fruit and vegetable markets for the locals as well as souvenir shops and other kiosks for tourists.

Demographics

In 2009, it was estimated that an approximately 250,000 people resided in Venice, Italy. For the longest time, the majority of the population in Venice has been Italian – about 91% of the population consists of Italians while the other 9% consists of several other minorities. The largest minority of immigrants are the Romanians, comprising 33% of the total minority population — with few migrants from both East and South Asia.