Trip to Italy, 2007

Click on any of the little pictures to see it at normal size. Click on the '=0=' after the picture to see it in giant size (about 2 minutes to download on dialup connection and larger than screen size). This could be useful if you wanted to really look at one part of the picture or to make a print.

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Further along the walking tour, Nikki took these pictures. None of the buildings in Venice is very tall. However, even so Venice is slowly sinking as it built on swamp land and there is nothing solid under it. With the ocean rising as well, they often put down planks in the streets when it floods as more than just the canals are flooded. They now have water fountains like this around the city. Below on the right is one of the old rain cisterns that they used to use. Now they pipe in water from the mainland and, more important, pipe out the sewage. I have read that Venice used to stink much of the year (with the canals full of sewage). However, I imagine that the sewers are a problem. Normal sewers just use gravity to carry it away, but their sewers must be below the water table level and so be sealed and pumped (more complex than most places).	=0=
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The buildings around St. Marco Square had nice decorative columns and arches.	=0=
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Here are some more of Nikki's pictures. Above is the reconstructed Moors' Clock Tower and next to it is the Basilica San Marco clock. When it chimes there are mechanical men which come out and strike 'bells'. There were several arches with pretty mosaic decorations.	=0=
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