How Venice Works

Venice Backstage. How does Venice work? from Insula spa on Vimeo.

3,000,000 tourists move through Venice each year. But when the tourists leave the city, 270,000 year-round residents stay behind, continuing their daily lives, which requires navigating an archipelago made up of 124 islands, 183 canals and 438 bridges.

How this complicated city works – how the buildings are defended from water, how the buildings stand on unsteady ground, how the Venetians navigate this maze of a city – is a pretty fascinating story.

These techniques have been worked out over Venice’s 1500 year history, and now they’re explored in a captivating 17 minute video produced by a Venetian government agency.

You can learn more about the inner life of this great city at Venice Backstage.