Venice

Oh Venice, fabulous in so many ways and decrepit in so many others.  There is no other place like it on Earth.  It was literally the center of European trading for centuries - a whole city built on wooden stakes driven into the bed of the lagoon - all to facilitate commerce (boats are much more efficient at carrying cargo than are carts).  Its millionaires - probably the equivalent of billionaires at the time - built huge palaces to show off their success to passerbys.  The richest, like the Medicis, advertised their fortunes by commissioning artwork by the finest Italian artists.  Their conspicuous consumption gave birth to what we now call the Italian Renaissance.

Whether you are a history dork like me, or just looking for a place that is breathtaking in its uniqueness and quirkiness, you must visit Venice.  Of course, Venice is no secret and the place is completely crushed in the summer, especially from the hours of 9 to 5, when the cruise ship crowd attacks the city.  I was here once in December, and even though the weather can suck, it's a way better time to visit.  It's nearly empty, hotels are much cheaper, and you can really let your imagine run on what it must have looked like during its prime.

Today, Venice's population has dwindled, while the number of tourists has soared.  Unless you really work to get off the beaten path, you'll get the quasi-theme park version of Venice, and you'll constantly be on guard from pickpockets and all sorts of legitimate businesses that are actually out to take your money.  It is hot, there's nowhere to sit, the lines are long and the food is overpriced, but it's still worth it.  Take your time - especially if you stay an evening - and you'll have a much better experience.  Some people have even called the evening scene "romantic" - which is hard to believe at noon when you are pushing through a crowd of Chinese tourists, looking for a bathroom.

Sadly, the city is literally falling apart.  The facades are crumbling, the foundations are sinking into the lagoon even as the sea level is rising.  The most famous monuments, like St. Peters, are in good shape, but a ride down the grand canal - Venice's 5th avenue - has dozens of buildings that are begging for some serious restoration work.

The good news is that Venice's problems are fixable - all it would take is some organization and a lot of cash.  The bad news is that both are in short supply in this corner of Italy, and so the city depreciates year by year.  Hopefully it can save itself from itself before it literally sinks into the sea.

For me, Venice also begged the question of where the next great city would be, and what would the great cities of today - New York, London, and Hong Kong - look like in a different world?  Would New York one day be a city of empty skyscrapers, with tourists from China and India making the trip to see what the world's financial capital looked like hundreds of years in the past?  Dubai, sure it will, when all of its oil runs out one day and its people try to live out their days on the enormous savings they have accumulated.  On my tour of the world, this was one of many monuments to the temporary nature of wealth - Venice is one of many ghost cities, whose glory days are far behind them.  Cuzco, Peru used to be one of the most gilded cities in the history of the world.  Potosi was the 17th century version of Dubai.  Patagonia was home to billionaires who made their fortunes in the sheep and cattle trade.  The people of Buenos Aires used to be richer than their counterparts in Europe.

Venice's decay is probably overstated - the place has been around for nearly a thousand years and probably will be around much longer than we expect.  It certainly is one of the wonders of the world - a place to visit, experience, and ponder.