Venice's main street is seventy meters of water: two hundred Gothic-Byzantine palaces competing for five centuries, crowned by marble Rialto (1591) with its shops hanging over the flow. Vaporetto line 1 end-to-end is obligation — the open bow seat is Earth's finest palace tour at bus fare. Rialto at dawn (with the fish market pulsing) and again lit at night; the €1 standing traghetto crossing is the pocket gondola; the free-but-booked Fondaco rooftop stays half-secret.