Grand Canal - Venice, Italy Stock Photo

The Grand Canal is the main waterway in fabulous Venice, Italy. It is a reverse `S` curved canal 2.4 mi. long, ranging in width from 98 to 295 feet. The average depth is about 16 feet. One end leads into the lagoon near the Santa Lucia railway station while the other end leads into the basin at San Marco. The banks of the Grand Canal are lined with more than 170 buildings, most dating from the 13th to the 18th centuries, and demonstrate the wealth and art created by the Republic of Venice. Because most of the city`s traffic goes along the canal, not across it, only one bridge crossed the canal until the 19th century, the Rialto Bridge. Since then three more bridges have been added. The Accademia bridge is the point from which this image was taken. The main transit vehicles used on the canal are gondolas, which are loved by tourists, vaporetti, or water buses, and private water taxis. A trip to Venice would not be complete without a romantic gondola ride down the Grand Canal.