La Serenissima, Queen of the Adriatic, captivating city of canals and palaces - or merely a floating rip-off merchant bursting with tourists...Call her what you will, Venice is simply unique. For a thousand years the city led an independent existence as one of the most enduring mercantile sea powers in history. Today the brilliance and influence have long since faded, leaving a town of tarnished glories that's out of time and out of place, so achingly beautiful and complete it's hard not to look for evidence of props. If you get caught up in the never-ending flow of visitors tramping the narrow main thoroughfares it can be the epitome of hell. Step off the main drag, however, and you'll discover the subdued, shabby charm of the real Venice, whose baroque backstreet churches are framed by lines of washing flapping in the breeze.

There's no denying that the proud city of the winged lion is slowly expiring, attacked by submergence, neglect and pollution. Rationally speaking she shouldn't exist at all. Venice is too small and her attractions too dainty to cope with the mass tourism she receives year in, year out. The preservation of her crumbling monuments and churches is almost an industry; the debate on how to stem the Adriatic floods is never ending; and the battle to clean the lagoon of toxic petrochemical waste is highlighted by media reports on building subsidence and rotting foundations. Venice will have to pull a pretty good stunt to survive, but love her or loathe her, life without her is utterly unthinkable.