VENICE. A port of Italy, the eapit al of the Province of Venice, 164 miles by rail east of Milan, situated on 120 small islands in the la goon between the mouths of the l'iave and the Po (Map:. Italy, 0 2). The railway enters over a eauseway miles long. The city is seven miles in circumference. A long narrow line of low sand dunes (lidi, fortified by masonry) pro tect it from the open sea on the east. The la goons are classed as laguna viva, where the tide rises and falls a little over two feet, and the shallow Laguna aorta, where the water remains about at One level and is somewhat stagnant. At times the winds cause the waters to rise sev eral feet, so that even the main squares of Venice are submerged. The climate is warm in summer and more or less raw and foggy in winter. The mean annual temperature is 561/2° F. The city is, however, much frequented as a winter resi dence, due in part to its freedom from noise and dust. The annual rainfall averages 30.1 inches.
Venice is the most unique and beautiful of cities. It lies like a mirage of marble in the waters of a sea where, under the Italian sun, the constant shifting and massing of lights are magical. Venice outwardly and richly reflects the fact that it had a great school of art. In architecture and in painting it shone par ticularly, and always distinct from the main land. It represents in full flower the transition from the Byzantine ideals to the Renaissance through the Romanesque and the Gothic in its numerous notable palaces, public edifices, and churches. These structures are distinguished by their many loggie and colonnades, by their wealth of exterior decoration and colored sur faces; while the interiors are enriched by the brushes of the superb Venetian colorists—BeRini, Giorgione, Palma Vecehio, Titian, Paris Bordone, Tintoretto, and Paul Veronese. Venice yielded but slowly to the rococo invasion. Sansovino, Palla dio, and Sammieheli were the prominent figures among the Venetian architects.
The city, with its weather-stained facades, its many decaying edifices, and indolent existence, affects one with an indefinable hut fascinating sadness and lethargy. It eontains about 16,000
buildings. Its foundations are piling. Over 150 canals curve among its houses and serve for streets and are spanned by some 400 bridges, nearly all of stone. The famous black gondolas and small steamers take exclusive place of horses and vehicles. But the city is also thoroughly penetrated by paved streets and tortuous. pic turesque lanes, and abounds in small squares (eampi). Venice mainly lies in a compact form, with the Grand Canal (q.v.) zigzagging mag nificently through its centre from the railway station in the northwest to the Doge's Palace in the southeast. A large arm of the city extends east. Along the south side of the city, and separated by the wide Canal della Gludecea (nearly a quarter of a mile in breadth), is a long inhabited island called the Gindeeea.
The great centre of interest is the far-famed Piazza of Saint Mark (for illustration, see SAINT MARK'S) , with the cathedral and also the Doge's Palace occupying the eastern por tion—the latter abutting upon tine broad Canale di San Marco. West of the Doge's Palace is the open space called the Piazzetta, reaching to the water. \Vest of this is the lung Procuratie NII0Ve (or, in its extended form, the royal palace) ; while along the north side of the Piazza extends the long Procuratie Vecchio, and on the west of the Piazza stands the Atrio, dating from 1810. This Piazza presents notably three distinct types of architecture, lIyzantine (the cathedral), Italian Cod& (the Doge's Palace), and Renais sance (the Procuratie). The Procuratie were the residences of the nine Proenrators, high dig nitaries of the ancient city. The old wing dates from 1496, the new from 1584. Along these two buildings and the Atrio (Nuova Fabbrica) runs a continuous arcade containing shops and ea f6s. At night the square is occupied by a picturesque throng of promenaders, and when the band plays and there is moonlight the whole seems like the scene of an enehanted dream. A feature of the Piazza by day is the immense flock of pigeons which throng about any one willing to feed them.