Venice [antikvár]

THE GRAND CANAL Here is a wide view of a tract of the Grand Canal. This stupendous artery with its sparkling surface, seen from above, as-sumes the shape of an « S » back to front which divides the city in half. It is 3.800 metres long, its width varies between thirty and seventy metres and it is 5 metres deep. In order to enjoy the whole of the Grand Canal it is necessary to travel along it in a gondola because this is the only means of transport from which one can really ad-mire the particular splendour of the small ca-nals, palaces, large squares, canals and foun-dations, any one of which proposing a reál motive of beautv which is always present at whatever time of the year. For people of culture every glancé brings back a historical, artistic or literary memory, whereas simpler people feel an unrepeatable suggestion and cömmotion that really shouts at them from the incomparable scene that is placed before them; a changeable landscape that benefits from sun and clouds, from rain and the impetuosity of the sea, and from the vegetation and the multiform sequence of houses and palaces, giving it an unreal and snggestive atmosphere that no other city in the world is able to express.