What a whole different world. Venice has turned into strictly an island for tourists. Few people actually live on the island. No cars are allowed on the island, and you have to get their by boat. The small roads/alleys go on in a forever maze, making it quite easy to get lost. Some of the roads you can spread your arms out and touch walls on both sides at the same time. You can shop forever in Venice. We went to the famous original glass blowing factory of Murano. It was incredible to watch a man create a glass horse from a hot ball of glass within 45 seconds with 2 simple hand tools. Just incredible. We also went to the island of Burano, which was similar to Venice, but with more people living there. The houses were all painted with different colors. This whole area was incredible for shooting photos. All of these water cities were built by the Venetians on sand dunes (pretty much hundreds of very small tiny islands real close together). It is quite an interesting story.