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It's a city floating on a silver disk.

In a world where everything is converging, where skyscrapers,

crowd, skylines, you can walk into the same coffee shop on six continents, this is a place apart.

It's a place of magic and beauty. I have sailed a little boat into Venice,

and it just doesn't feel right.

It feels like it shouldn't be allowed.

But in you go.

You sail from the Adriatic, just in.

Just sail in from the ocean.

Through the narrowest of entrances in the thin, low-lying barrier islands.

Past the Punta Sabione lighthouse, you just keep going, and there it is. There it is, Venice. You can tie up your little boat in the marina by the San Giorgio Maggiore Church, right opposite St. Marks is Square. It's actually the best kept secret. You pay a few pounds, a few bucks, a few euros. You can stay there overnight. You have the best view in the world.

Or you keep cruising a little bit further on.

You actually just sail into the Grand Canal itself,

straight on up until you get to the Ponte de la Academia.

...