We have been fortunate enough to visit Venice several times. It remains ouur favourite city on earth.
https://www.newenglishreview.org/articles/that-dolphin-torn-that-gong-tormented-venice/
Quote: "Venice is beauty raised to the temperature of faith, a city that seems to have persuaded stone to float and gold to hold daylight a little longer than physics allows. The basilica glitters like a reliquary set upon the sea, the campanile beats time for a republic that survives as light on water, the long arcades breathe a measured music of arches and shadow. If God is merciful to His creatures, He will let this improbable raft of domes and colonnades endure another thousand years, that we resilient human savages might remember what our hands can do when purpose weds patience, and what a commonwealth can become when it consents to be beautiful.