The Venetians made their living in the first place out of two commonplace things right at hand—fish and salt. That was the start of their fortune. There was also a great deal of another commonplace thing right at hand too—this was sand. Sand seems to have very little value, but the Venetians found out that they could make glass out of sand by melting it in a furnace with something else. They found out too that they could blow this melted glass as one blows soap-bubbles, and by blowing the glass in this way into different shapes they made wonderfully beautiful bottles, vases, beads, and drinking- glasses. The glass-blowers became as famous as any artist who could make beautiful paintings or beautiful music, and the glass-blowers made fortunes besides, for people everywhere sought their work and paid high prices for it. They were the most important people in Venice. A specially fine glass-blower was as important as the Doge himself—one glass-blower was made a Doge—and some of their daughters even married princes.

Venice is now no longer a country by itself. It is now only one city in Italy, but people go from all over the World to see St. Mark’s and the Doge’s palace, to bathe at its wonderful beach nearby called the Lido, to ride in gondolas on its canals, and listen to musicians who on warm moonlight nights sing and play on stringed instruments. Venice is one of the places in the World where every girl thinks she would like to spend her honeymoon when she is married.

An American girl once sent a postal card home: “Here I am in Venice. It is wonderfully beautiful—the golden palaces, the gorgeous sunsets, the enchanting music. I am sitting in a gondola on the Grand Canal and drinking it all in!” We speak of a person “thirsting” for knowledge or beauty, but one would have to be very thirsty to drink in the Grand Canal.

The “Boot” lies in the Mediterranean Sea, but the part of the sea that borders Venice is called The Adriatic. Venice is so beautiful it is known as the “Queen of the Adriatic.” Fame and fortune made from fish and salt and ships and sand!