Gran Teatro La Fenice di Venezia

Where is the main entrance to a building? In Venice this question is a little bit more complicated than in any other city. It's not even clear where the main entrance to the city itself lies. Today most visitors arrive of course by plane, train, bus or car and drive from the mainland over the 4 kilometer long Ponte della Libertà. Thomas Mann once said, this is like entering a palace through the backdoor, because Venice was meant to be approached by ship from the sea (if you compare Palazzo San Marco with Piazzale Roma you understand exactly what Thomas Mann meant).
Maybe it's true for a lot of buildings in Venice as well: Traditionally they were approached by boat but today the entrance on the street-side is more often used.
It's a shame that Venice lost so much to mass tourism. A lot of Venetians were forced to leave town to make room for Hotels. Today Venice feels more like an open-air museum than an actual city. You find a souvenir shop every step but it can be hard to find a shop that sells things like bread and toiletpaper.
On my photo above you see the water-side entrance from the big opera house in Venice "La Fenice" (which means "the phoenix" - a fitting name considering the place burnt down three times in history). It looked dead on that particular evening I took the picture. Imagine how different and magical it was some 200 years ago when Venice was populated by people who actually live there and for whom it is the most normal thing to take the boat if you're going to the opera.