Venice is certainly an interesting place, and one that hasn't changed much since we were last here 25 yrs ago.
Venice was first populated by mainlanders who fled the barbarian invasion in the 4th century. Control of Venice has changed hands many times, from Romans, Lombards, Byzantines, to a period of independence in which it was a key successful centre of trade with the Byzantines. Napoleon invaded in 1797, then handed it to the Austrians and 8 yrs later took it from them to create Naploeons kingdom of Italy but was returned back to the Austrians after his defeat in 1814 until finally in 1849 it became part of Italy.
Venice is actual 2 islands separated by the Grand Canal and is part of the 118 islands that make up the Venetian Lagoon.Contrary to popular belief, the island isn't sinking. The island is considered to be floating as it is built on millions of closely spaced timber poles driven into the marsh bed. Many of the poles have been there for centuries due to the lack of oxygen in the water and the Alder wood, which was taken from 2 regions in Croatia, leaving them both still barren today.
  There was a period in the sixties when the city was in fact sinking, this was due to the locals extracting fresh water from aquifers. Once discovered, this practice was banned and the island is no longer sinking. It is however very susceptible to sea level changes and once a year they have our equivalent of king tides that can inundate the city. The government is building a massive sea wall/ barrier that will lock the lagoon to prevent this inundation - work will be completed in 2014.
We got an apartment right on one of the side canals off the Grand Canal and near a piazza full of restaurants and cafes. Venice island is relatively small, from the centre your within 1-2 Kms of everything, so real easy to walk to all the sites.
The main things to see is St Marks Square, the grand canal and Rialto bridge and of course take a gondola ride and there is also an island just of Venice called Murano, which is renoun for its glass blowing. But the best thing to,do is to take a stroll through the streets and across the 409 bridges linking up Venice while enjoying the odd gelato or 2 :P
We climbed the church bell tower and took some pics across Venice, nice views (see below)
Henry and I decided one evening to set a challenge - we took a random stroll for 10 mins until we were roughly in the middle of the island, then had to find our way home through the maze of narrow streets and bridges before dark (45 mins) without the use of any navigation aids. It was good fun, with little landmarks and a bunch of tourists following rat runs through the town, we surprisingly smashed the challenge, ending up in our local piazza after just 15 mins - more arse than class as it caught us by surprise! Needless to say we had fun and sampling a few more gelato shops along the way. After all that walking, have now chalked up 285 kms on the trip so far, with a whole more to go.
just before I go, I had to add this to my wtf file - it is an inflatable statue, part of an art exhibition in Venice - maybe you can figure it out, too me it just way to wacky :/
Got an early start tomorrow, heading off to Zermatt, a small Swiss village in the alps that is home to the Matterhorn. Hopefully the kids will see some snow.