Venice may often seem metaphorically drowned under a sea of tourists at the height of summer, and even the landmark Piazza San Marco is often literally drowned during the flood tides, but there is no denying that La Serenissima (The Divine Republic) is an epic, unique and unforgettable city.

Venice has the capacity to impress not only goggle-eyed first timers, but also the most jaded of travellers. Quite simply, La Serenissima is unlike anywhere else on the planet, with a collage of 116 islands connected by 409 bridges, where cars are banned and everyone, including postmen and the police, goes by boat.

History is writ large in this northeastern Italian city and when visitors ease through the morning mists on empty canals, with grandiose buildings rising up on all sides, it is easy to slip back through the centuries, to the time of the Doges - the omnipotent rulers, whose influence spread well beyond the Venetian Lagoon.

Venice then was an exotic melting pot of East and West, where travellers breezed in and out and traders peddled their silk and spices. Venice under the Doges was a land of unimaginable wealth, and riches were spent wisely in crafting some of Europe's most memorable buildings, from the imposing Doge's Palace to the grand architecture of St Mark's Square, famously described by Napoleon as the ‘drawing room of Europe'.