Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Brutalist bronze doors: this venerable theatre dates from 1622, and the jewel-box
interior seats just 800. (
041 240 20 14;
www.teatrostabileveneto.it
; Calle Teatro Goldoni
4650b; tickets €8-29;
box office 10am-1pm & 3-7.30pm Mon-Fri;
Rialto)
27
Multisala Rossini
CINEMA
Film buffs who miss the proverbial boat to the annual Venice Film Festival on the
Lido, rejoice: award-winning films and blockbusters screen year-round at the
city's newest and largest cinema. Sala 1 is the largest of three screening rooms,
with seating for 300 and excellent sound. Some films are screened in the original
language, but most are dubbed in Italian. (
041 241 72 74; Calle San Benedetto 3997a;
adult/reduced €7.50/6, 3D films €10/9;
shows Tue-Sun;
;
Rialto)
Understand
Keeping Venice Afloat
Impossible though it seems, Venetians built their home on 117 small islands connec-
ted by some 400 bridges over 150 canals. But if floating marble palaces boggle the
mind, consider what's underneath them: an entire forest's worth of petrified wood
pylons, rammed through silty
barene
(shoals) into the clay lagoon floor.
Venice is ingeniously constructed to contend with lagoon tides, so even a four-alarm
acqua alta
(exceptionally high tide) is rarely cause for panic. But on 4 November 1966,
record floods poured into 16,000 Venetian homes in terrifying waves, and residents
were stranded in the wreckage of 1400 years of civilisation. Thanks to Venice's inter-
national appeal, assistance poured in and Unesco coordinated 50 private organisa-
tions to redress the ravages of the flood.
Cleaning up after
acqua alta
is a tedious job for Venetians: pumping water out of
flooded ground floors and preventing corrosion by scrubbing salt residue off surfaces.
Venice's canals must also be regularly dredged, which involves pumping water out, re-
