Venice on Stilts

Just because I never knew for sure, but everyone always looks at me funny when I said it: Venice is a city built on wooden pillars.

Here's a picture of what that looks like when you push away all that pesky water:

The pillars are called "piles," and they're made of alder wood, which has extremely high water resistance (important when your building is resting on top of submerged wood). The piles are driven down through the softer sand and mud at the bottom of the ocean, and rests on the much harder stone and mud deeper down. The wood was harvested from the southerwestern region of Slovenia known as Kras. While the timber was originally harvested in moderation, deforestation for grazing land has rendered it basically barren, with only 1/3 of the region covered in forest.

Reading about Venice has made me miss it a bit. Sarah says that she would go back immediately if given the change, but I sometimes have my reservations. Don't get me wrong: it's a magical place, and she and I had the most fantastic time on our honeymoon there. But I feel like we wore it out. We walked everywhere, saw almost everything, and savored it as much as we possible could. Maybe because of that -- or maybe I just don't like the idea of having to walk EVERYWHERE -- I'm content with leaving it to memory. I still want to travel and see more parts of the world, but I think I can cross Venice off the list for now. Maybe one day I'll change my mind, but right now I'm content with what it gave us.

And because I've been reading about Venice and seeing pictures from the article, here's another picture of one of my favorite places: the Rialto Bridge. (This is not my picture; although, we stood at that exact spot and got pictures at both night and day. Absolutely gorgeous.)

-JJ