See Rock City

See Rock City

Friday, July 10, 2009

Venice, FL


Downtown Venice (Venice Avenue West)

Venice is a city in Sarasota County, Florida, United States. According to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2007 estimates, the city had a population of 21,015. It is noted for its large snowbird population. Its newspaper is the Venice Gondolier Sun. Tampa Bay's Univision affiliate WVEA-TV is licensed to Venice, though it is based in Tampa, and broadcasts from Riverview.


Cadillac Motel

Venice is a principal city of the Bradenton-Sarasota-Venice, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Shark's Tooth Capital of the World


Divers hunting shark teeth at Venice


Fish, shells and shark teeth at Venice

Venice, Florida has been listed in many publications as being the "Shark's Tooth Capital of The World". It hosts an annual festival, the Shark's Tooth Festival, every year to celebrate the abundance of fossilized shark's teeth that can be found on its shores. In addition to finding shark's teeth on beach shores, many large sized teeth can be found freediving off of the coast or by excavating in the many shell deposits that are left over from the dredging of the Intracoastal Waterway. Beach renourishment efforts also brought new sand from a few thousand yards off the coast, yielding new, but fewer, fossilized shark's teeth. The teeth in the area can vary in size from an eighth of an inch to 3 inches and, on occasion, even bigger. A good place to look is on the very south end of the island part of Venice, known as Caspersen's Beach.


Business district : Venice, Florida, 1958

Robert Hanssen connection

After Robert Hanssen was arrested on February 18, 2001, on charges of spying for the KGB, the media came to Venice when it was discovered that his mother lived there.


Venice street scene,1950

Notable Residents

Scott Palguta - Professional soccer player

9/11 Affiliation

On September 12, 2001, national news and the FBI descended on Venice as it was discovered that three of the WTC 9/11 terrorists, Mohamed Atta, Marwan Al-Shehhi, and Ziad Jarrah, had all lived in Venice for the purpose of taking flight training lessons at the Venice Municipal Airport. The trio had all enrolled in Huffman Aviation.

Atta's time in Venice has been chronicled by Daniel Hopsicker in his book, Welcome to Terrorland.


Street view with the Westinghouse hardware and electric store at the left : Venice, Florida




San Marcos Hotel : Venice, Florida


Interior view of a fine store : Venice, Florida


"Venice delux coach" parked on roadside : Venice, Florida


View down east end of Venice Avenue : Venice, Florida


Construction workers planting palms on Venice Avenue : Venice, Florida


Fisherman's wharf : Venice, Florida


Smack McDonald's restaurant : Venice, Florida




Venezia Motor Inn : Venice, Florida






Palm lined business area : Venice, Florida


Aerial view of the Venice Centre Mall


Venice street scene


Florida Medical Center with Spanish courtyard in front : Venice, Florida

External links:

City of Venice official site

Venice Florida! dot com unofficial site

VeniceFla.US Venice events, on-line community

Venice Florida.org Information about Venice

Gulf Coast Community Foundation of Venice

The Venice Gondolier newspaper