Venice is an assault on the senses. As a tourist, you don’t have just 10 palaces to explore, but hundreds; not five or six major churches, but dozen upon dozen. This sensory overload creates a kind of dizziness: the eye can’t find a place to rest, and on top of that, everything you normally expect from a city is turned upside down. There are no cars, only pedestrians, and the public transport consists of boats. There are no streets (with a few exceptions), but only gaps between houses, dark, narrow and slit-like, which serve as channels for people on foot. You can’t go much more than 200 yards in a straight line without ending up at a canal; and if there is no bridge, as is often the case, you’re at a dead end and will have to turn back and retrace your steps. In short: if you haven’t been there before, nothing can prepare you for this overwhelming experience. Venice is the quintessential fortean city, and offers a panorama of strange stories, weird buildings and curious relics.
ARCHITECTURAL CURIOSITIES
First, there are many architectural details one might miss because of the mass of fascinating things to see. In addition to the obvious sights, there are less conspicuous ones, often of a bizarre kind. For one,of the canals, and another canal (now walled off) runs right under the apse of the 18 century church known as I Gesuati.
