Here it is, the Venice of your dreams, wooing, intriguing, disorienting, and exhilarating visitors like no other city on earth. Misty and mystical bridge between East and West, straddling both yet belonging to neither, Venezia is like a faded, once great queen that still manages to enchant and beguile. The never-ending stream of tourism began well over 1,000 years ago, and no wonder: As Henry James said, a visit to Venice becomes a perpetual love affair.

THE TOP SIGHTS

GALLERIE DELL'ACCADEMIA - Venice's largest museum, the Accademia contains the most extensive collection of Venetian masters in the world, spanning the 13th to the 18th centuries and all the major painters including Titian, Tintoretto, Giorgione, Veronese, Bellini, and Carpaccio. Viewing 15th-century depictions of the city, it's amazing to see how little has changed. WHERE: Campo della Carità, Dorsoduro. Tel 39/041-522-2247.

CA' D'ORO AND THE GALLERIA GIORGIO FRANCHETTI - Created by early-20th-century philanthropist Baron Giorgio Franchetti, the Ca' d'Oro comprises two joined palaces (the opulent 15th-century Ca' d'Oro-one of the city's most famous and beautiful canalside palazzi - and the smaller Ca' Duodo) and contains the baron's private collection of paintings, sculpture, and furniture, which he donated to the Italian government during World War I.