Photograph of the week: Venice, Italy

The Floating City. City of Canals. La Serenissima. Venice, the capital of northern Italy’s Veneto region, goes by all these names. Built on 118 small islands in a lagoon in the Adriatic Sea, with no roads to get around, only canals, Venice is unquestionably one of Italy’s most picturesque cities. Indeed, the world’s. With its 177 winding canals, striking architecture, romantic gondolas taking the place of cars, and 417 beautiful bridges, this is a city built for romance, whimsy, and picture-perfect memories.

There is far, far more to Venice, though, than Instagrammable marriage proposal opportunities.

Like the fact that Venice is not built directly on the land of those 118 islands, but on wooden stilts, made up of millions of petrified logs driven into the ground. These logs are primarily sourced from Alder trees, a wood known for its water resistance, and were brought to Venice by boat from other countries such as Slovenia and Croatia.

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