DK Travel : Venice : Editor's choice

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Is Venice still sinking?

Theoretically, that all came to a halt when the industries in Marghera stopped pumping out groundwater. However, recent studies document both a rise in relative sea level, combined with accelerating subsidence due to changes in plate tectonics and soft sediments compacting under the weight of buildings.
Lions

Symbol of Venice and St Mark, abundant statuary and paintings of lions in varying forms fill the city.
Parco Savorgnan

A well-hidden haven of chirping birds in towering shady trees, signposted from Campo San Geremia and Fondamenta Savorgnan. Part of the park once belonged to Palazzo Savorgnan, now a school, which backs on to it, and boasted statues, citrus trees and Roman stonework.
Pigeons

Piazza San Marco wouldn’t be the same without them, but their droppings play havoc with the stonework.
Rats

Rare, thanks to imported Syrian cats in the past, replaced by an effective council eradication campaign.
Rhinoceroses

One of the many exotic circus animals portrayed on canvas by 18th-century artist Pietro Longhi.
Rio Terrà Rampani

This quiet thoroughfare, around the corner from Ponte delle Tette, is usually referred to as the “Carampane” (Ca’ Rampani), alias the red-light district as of 1421. Venice had some 11,600 officially registered courtesans in the 1500s. A particularly narrow alley, Calle della Raffineria, site of a 1713 sugar refinery, runs off it.
Seagulls

Self-appointed garbage collectors, they do an admirable job around the markets.
What do the buildings stand on?

In the course of the city’s history, millions of pinewood piles from the Republic’s carefully cultivated forests in the Alps were driven deep into the compressed clay-mud base and, over time, petrified in the absence of oxygen. These were successively overlaid with horizontal planks and marble-like Istrian stone slabs which served as the foundations for buildings.
Why don’t people restore the crumbling buildings?

Strict regulations concern façades – only porous stucco can be used for renovation as anything else tends to come away in sheets in damp, windy weather and is a hazard for passers-by. As a result, freshly plastered façades start crumbling weeks after application due to the high humidity and salt content in the air.