In case you haven't heard, London's famous landmark Big Ben is leaning. The announcement was made just this month, with the detail that the very tippy top of the clock tower is 1.5 feet off center. This has naturally sparked fears that Big Ben may take a dive into the Thames, but—from all we know of Venice's various leaning towers, this won't happen in our liftetime...nor that of our children or children's children, so chillax.

For comparison, see the Campanile (bell tower) of Chiesa di Santo Stefano (St. Stephen's church) in our photo above. It's one of several towers with an impressive lean in La Serenissima, and it's been boozily tilting (and twisting) since it was rebuilt in the 1800s following a lightning strike nearly three centuries earlier. Although it's in constant danger of collapse, tourists still absentmindedly gather below it at pasticcerias and ristorantes.

Even worse is the 143' white campanile of San Giorgio dei Greci, which was completed in 1592 and has been leaning from the start. Paranoid travelers will now likely add "hard hat" to their Venice packing list, we suppose.]]> JetSetCD 2011-10-27T10:17:58-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2011/10/26/1485/5948

This is the kind of thing you miss when you pull the blind down on your window seat: Venice from the air.

We took this on a BA flight from Gatwick to Bari the week before last. When we’d flown the same route a couple of years before, we’d been treated to an unforgettable sight of Venice, with the Grand Canal snaking its way down the middle of the city. So this time we were prepared.

As we were crossing the Alps, we asked one of the flight attendants when we’d be going over Venice. “Will we be going over Venice?” she said, in that typical glum BA style. “I have no idea. Only the pilot would know that.” So we asked her to ask the pilot, who said that yes, in 10 minutes, it’d be coming up.

Ten minutes later, there it was. Not as perfect a view as the last time, but you can still make out the Grand Canal, Giudecca, San Michele, Murano and the Lido. Straordinario! ]]> juliab 2011-10-26T14:08:05-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2011/1/31/92212/4871

It's been quite a while since the paparazzi had to chase down Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie with water taxis in Venice, since The Tourist wrapped filming and hit the theaters months ago. The stars have moved on—Jolie to filming a Bosnian war movie and Depp to Hawaii for Pirates of the Caribbean 4—but apparently the musty allure of Venice crept into Depp's heart and stayed, as he's just bought himself a palazzo on the Grand Canal.

It's not a flashy one at all (as you can see in the photo above), but the Daily Mail reports that Palazzo Dona Sangiantoffetti is costing Depp £8.5million ($13.5 million) after a bidding war with an Arab prince. There are only so many available palazzi left right on the Grand Canal, we suppose, especially since many have been turned into museums. ]]> JetSetCD 2011-01-31T09:22:12-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2011/1/13/22449/6682

When the clock struck midnight on January 1, 2011, the capital city of Italy—Rome—rolled out a new policy to "tax" tourists per day they visit the city—even business travelers and Italians from other cities! The tourist tax, which ranges from 2-3 Euro per night, per hotel guest (paid in cash, at check-out) and an extra 1 plopped on top of museum entrance prices, is only just beginning with Rome. Two other Italian cities are looking very deeply into digging further into traveler pockets, and Venice and Florence could very well have their own taxes in place sooner rather than later.

Venice's mayor, Giulio Orsoni, is especially enthralled with the idea of taxing his city's 20-million-plus annual tourists with the aim of helping the city's own finances. It may also dissuade some from making the trip to La Serenissima, which isn't exactly a spoken goal of the tax, but it would help lessen tourist overcrowding a smidgeon.]]> JetSetCD 2011-01-14T12:48:14-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2010/8/30/224726/871

Black Swan will kick off opening night.

After a summer of lackluster movies—The Expendables and Piranha 3D, seriously?—we're eager to see some great fall flicks. The first place we're looking to is the 67th annual Venice Film Festival, which happens September 1 to 11.

Although the Venice event isn't the flashiest or most star-studded of the fests, it's got cred; it's the world's oldest film festival.

The fest will have some famous folks in attendance. Sofia Coppola will be there with her boyfriend's band "Phoenix" to promote her new drama, Somewhere, set in favorite Hollywood hotel Chateau Marmont. Natalie Portman, Helen Mirren, Ben Affleck and Quentin Tarantino are also expected to turn up at the fest.]]> Jennifer Kester 2010-08-31T09:31:29-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2010/4/8/03058/90370

One of the biggest issues a tourist to Venice will have is whether or not to pay over 80 Euros for max 40 minutes of being slowly rowed around the canals in the gondola. In fact, this is our number 1 "What Not to Do in Venice," since you can just as easily take a smaller gondola&151;called a traghetto—across the Grand Canal for pennies.

And now the rip-off gondola rides could possibly get worse with the introduction of plastic gondolas. The Independent reports that an Italian shipyard has construction lookalikes of the famous black boats in fiberglass, which has easier maintenance and cheaper cost to own. A traditional gondola—handmade of 280 pieces of 8 different woods—costs some €25,000 ($33,000) to buy, which the gondolier will easily make back in one summer tourist season. A fiberglass version would cost dramatically less, which means they could also possibly charge less per ride. ]]> JetSetCD 2010-04-08T09:32:54-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2010/4/6/105445/9351

The world's most set-jetting couple and their brood spent Sunday morning searching for Easter eggs and devouring chocolates like the rest of us, but, unlike the rest of us, they were on the beautiful Italian island of San Servolo.

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie rented the island in the Venetian lagoon for the day so their kids—Maddox, Pax, Zahara, Shiloh, Knox and Vivienne—could have a very big, very private Easter egg hunt. But don't think mom and dad were up at dawn hiding all those eggs, as apparently that's what bodyguards are for. After they found all of their eggs and opened their baskets, the whole family enjoyed a picnic on one of the island's Great Lawns.

How to visit San Servolo on your own, after the jump ]]> cmb 2010-04-06T13:05:17-05:00 Search Jaunted string http://www.jaunted.com/search/