Venice GE Tour

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I have heard of the fame of Venice but never had the chance to really know the so called magical city. Itʼs hard to imagine what a water city looks like. By chance, my daughter is working on a book relate to Venice. Therefore, I want to use Google Earth to introduce this city to you. By collecting information from the web, I build a virtual tour by using Google Earth. Now, follow me to a journey to this city of northeast Italy on islets within a lagoon in the Gulf of Venice, a wide inlet of the northern Adriatic Sea.

I feel that every creation is like preparing a feast; the dish list include as follow:
1. Google Earth 3D Model.

2. Dynamic Gondola; I adopt Kleran Orrellʼs Gondola model, however, I kept only hull to decrease the file size.

3. PanoTour: I put 328 transparent panos on the Canal; by press play, it will take you to a 360 panoramio view with several Gondolas slide passing you during the journey.

4. I recorded two Tours; one is from Earth global fly down to Venice; the other is circle around the Venice.

5. Important landmark.

6. Panoramio picture.

7. “Family Tree” song from Venice Band.

8. “Venice, Italy – August 3 2006” from youtube; recored by VeniceArtists.

So, how do you like the feast! Enjoy!

GE operation Instructions:

Even though thereʼs lot of hints, itʼs better to have a well explained operation instruction.Iʼll provide the instruction based on my experience.

1. Itʼs better to download Google Chrome application to view the 3D object. It makes no difference if you just view 2D object, however, Google Chrome product gives better effect.

2. To start, you may turn on layers by check the border box then press “Fly to” under “Venice”. It start from global earth fly over the Mediterranean, and then fly to northeastern corner of Italy in the Venice lagoon; to provide everyone a basic understanding of Veniceʼs geographic location.

3. Now, you may turn on the Gondola layer by check the box; on the upper left corner will show Time Slider; Click “options for the time slider” icon (on the right corner) , set the speed of the animation slow, click the checkbox of loop animation to play continuously; then press the second left “play” icon; it can make more than 10 shuttle fleet Gondola flow on the Grand Canal.

4. Turn on “3D Building” layer. City of Venice model has finished.

5. Turn on “Placemark” layer. I have labelled some major landmarks in Chinese.

6. Pressed “Fly to” under “Get around”; you may zoom in the fly over Venice. First, itʼll take you to the international Airport, youʼll see several piers near the Airport. It takes 15 mins to Venice by boat. Then fly to a bridge that connect the local and Venice. On the bridge, you can see the railroad and road were constructed. At the end of the Bridge, thereʼs a rail station and a big parking lot. Venice does not take into account the traffic within the vehicle so there is a need for a large parking lot. Then along the Grand Canal and then fly over the most famous San Marco Piazza, and then fly to the north of serval islands over the the last stay in Venice.

7. Now you can press “Play” under “Grand Canal pano tour” to lead you to a 360 panoramio journey which will simulate the tour boat sailing. You can see the scenery along the coast, through the bridge, occasionally can be seen Gondola boat floats through the side. You can move the view to change the 360 view angle; by pressing “+” will accelerate the speed; by pressing “-” will decelerate the speed; to press “>>” will move down; to press “<<“ will move up; or press “||” to pause; and press”▊” to stop the fly over.

8. It’s up to you how would you like to enjoy your journey from different sources: Youtube, Panoramio picture, wikipedia or basil web sites, or/and along with music from Venice band.

<This post was translated to English by Chiuwen Ray>