Venice: The Patina of Decay

For me, the beauty of Venice is its decay. A thousand years of floods, saltwater, and sea winds have worked together to give the city a patina that can stop you in your tracks. You'll walk past stately wooden doors that compel you to pause to admire their rotting beauty. You wonder if you've ever seen anything so beautiful. Everything in Venice is an elegy, everything is dying, but everything still lives.