Her streets may be thronged with tourists, but Venice is alive with those who live and work here — simply rise at dawn and wander through the fish markets behind the Rialto, or have a quiet coffee with the locals in a backstreet cafe before they head off to work to realise how many people live in this place of no cars.

Despite once boasting an Empire which ended only with the arrival of Napoleon, and so many of her buildings wearing an air of faded grandeur, Venice remains a city that has melded her past with the world of today.