World’s Most Romantic Honeymoon Destination

The poet, Lord Byron, called Venice “a fairy city of the heart.” With its picture-perfect canals and palaces that seemingly float on water, Venice remains one of the world’s most romantic destinations. Drifting down a canal in a gondola, snuggled together while the gondolier serenades you, spins a layer of magic over your honeymoon. At sunset, pass under the Bridge of Sighs and kiss. Then, according to local legend, you’ll be granted eternal love and bliss. Once a flourishing trading centre linking the Orient and Europe and a great military power — capturing Constantinople in 1204 — Venice reflects its heritage through a blend of Byzantine and Italian architecture. The lively art and culture scene dates back to the Italian renaissance. Spread over 117 islands, laced by 150 canals, Venice consists of strikingly different neighbourhoods. Candy striped pylons in Central Venice stand sentry outside tiny docks fronting ornately decorated stone palaces. The mansion’s steps descend into the gently lapping waters of the Grand C anal, which runs from the train station to the city’s main square, Piazza San Marco.

The heart of Venice Europe’s most famous square is the spiritual and artistic heart of Venice. Basilica di San Marco dominates the vast piazza. Built to house the body of Saint Mark stolen from Egypt in 828, the huge Romanesque- Byzantine style church is decorated inside and out with marble plundered from Constantinople after its conquest. Also looted, were the four horses prancing over the entrance. To protect the sculptures from pollution, copies have replaced the originals. Dazzling mosaics, also from Constantinople, depict scenes from the New Testament. Alongside the basilica, the red brick bell tower, Campanile. Corrupt priests once dangled from the tower in wood cages. The top of the 99-metre tower offers a panoramic view of Venice. Try to avoid going at noon when the ringing bells can be deafening. Until 1807, the rulers of Venice, the doges who lived in the adjacent white and pink marble Gothic palace, used the basilica as their private chapel. Large statues of Mars and Neptune guard the Giant’s staircase in Palazzo Ducale’s courtyard. Upstairs, exquisitely decorated rooms with frescoes by Titian, carved wooden ceilings and numerous stunning works of art. On the east side, the Bridge of Sighs connects the palace to the old prison. Art museums, housed in palaces exhibit works by famous artists, also let you peek into the past lives of wealthy Venetians. A plaque on the bridge near Palazzo Ca’ Rezzonico commemorates the poet, Robert Browning who lived and died in this Grand Canal palace. “Open my heart and you will see graved inside it, Italy.” Now a museum specializing in 18th century Venetian art, the palace reveals the grandeur of its past through antique furniture and tapestries within gilded ballrooms and frescoed salons. Another canal-side palace, previously home to the eccentric philanthropist, Peggy Guggenheim, presents contemporary European and American art. Much of the work belonged to the rich American whose white stone mansion looks modern but began as an 18th century palace. The city’s major art museum, Gallerie dell Academia, located within a convent complex, overflows with Madonnas and other 14th to 16th century religious works removed from churches.