History Main / CityofCanals

* The second act of ''Film/MissionImpossibleDeadReckoningPartOne'' takes place in Venice, where everyone who's interested in getting the keys to the source code of the rogue AI "The Entity" meets at a party at the Doge's Palace. A foot chase in the ground streets and fights on a bridge ensue.

* ''Manga/{{ARIA}}'' is set in the city of Neo Venezia, a copy of the original, with exact duplicates of some of the more famous landmarks, on a terraformed Mars and the source of a lot [[SceneryPorn beautiful imagery]].

* Osaka, Japan.
* Chicago, Illinois.

->''"They call it the Walls of Water, but it's not just the walls - it's the whole damn city."''

* ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfSuperMarioBros3'' had Venice, which Kootie Pie wanted to flood to make a water park.
* The Northern Water Tribe's city in ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' is something like this. Only it's made of ''ice'' with canals in it.
* The rat undercity in ''WesternAnimation/FlushedAway''.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS10E19MomAndPopArt Mom and Pop Art]]", Homer briefly turns Springfield into one of these. Surprisingly enough, no one's upset about this.
* The 1987 ''WesternAnimation/{{Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles|1987}}'' had the turtles touring Venice just in time for the Mardi Gras festival. Shredder and Krang plan flood the city with the Hydrofluxor.

* UsefulNotes/{{Venice}}, Italy, [[TropeCodifier obviously]].

** ''[[VideoGame/SonicRushSeries Sonic Rush Adventure]]'' uses this theme in Pirates' Island. Much of the stage takes place underwater, within the canals, and while the city has been long abandoned except for dolphins, their technology is still very much intact, and the means to move the water around the city form the bulk of this stage's unique features.

* ''Anime/PokemonHeroes'', the fifth ''Film/{{Pokemon}}'' movie, was set in a City of Canals called Alto Mare (Italian for ''high sea''); the director visited Venice beforehand to scout out the city. Within the games, there's Canalave City in ''Pokémon Diamond and Pearl''.

* Creator/SDTower's ''Literature/TheAssassinsOfTamurin'': Kurjain, the capital city of Bethiya, has Canals and Lagoons instead of streets, i.e. Copper Bell Canal and Jade Lagoon instead of Jade Street.

%%* Creator/SDTower's ''Literature/TheAssassinsOfTamurin'': Kurjain, the capital city of Bethiya,

* ''Literature/TheToughGuideToFantasyland'': Cited by name as one possible location that tourists may visit. It will be a maze of filthy canals, bridges, and mouldering houses that only locals know how to navigate and is typically ruled by a council of corrupt merchant-princes, once of which is likely to be the leader of the local Thieves' Guild.

* There's a level in ''VideoGame/TombRaiderII'' set in Venice.

* ''Literature/TheToughGuideToFantasyland'': Cited by name as one possible location tourists may visit. Its canals will be filthy and it will likely be ruled by a council of corrupt merchant-princes.

* The second half of ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII'' takes place in late 15th century Venice. [[PlayerCharacter Ezio Auditore]] can either use gondolas to move around on the canals or [[LeParkour parkour his way]] [[{{Roofhopping}} on the roofs]].

* ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII'' has over a third of the game set in Venice where Ezio can use gondolas, and ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedBrotherhood'' has a flashback level set in Venice as well.

* Stormwind of ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}}'' has extensive canals, though it still has cobbled roads.
** So does the Undercity, although the canals in question contain mysterious green goo instead of regular water.
** Suramar City in ''Legion'' is much more Venice-like, complete with gondolas; diving into the canals is one of the best ways to escape from enemies.
* ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII'' has over a third of the game set in Venice.

* A significant amount of ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade'' takes place in the fictitious catacombs of Venice, which in reality is a city pretty much at sea level and built on pilings constructed on islands.

* ''[[Film/TheNeverendingStory The Neverending Story II: The Next Chapter]]'' features the city of Amarganth, or Silver City, which is located on a lake full of HollywoodAcid (tears in the book).
%% * A high speed boat chase happens in one of these in ''Film/TheProtector''.

%% * Two ''Film/JamesBond'' films: ''Film/{{Moonraker}}'' and ''Film/CasinoRoyale2006''. The latter actually had Bond make a building sink by shooting at the buoys.

* The second half of ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII'' takes place in late 15th century Venice.

%% * The "Sad Country" in ''LightNovel/KinosJourney'' seems to consist of a city like this.

* The first part of Creator/MaryHoffman's ''{{Literature/Stravaganza}}'' series is set in an AlternateUniverse Renaissance version of Venice called Bellezza, presided over [[TheWomanWearingTheQueenlyMask by their beloved and masked Duchessa]].

* This is currently the only way to build a city with streets that can be driven on freely in VideoGame/{{Minecraft}} without using mods.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', Homer briefly turns Springfield into one of these. Surprisingly enough, no one's upset about this.

Besides Venice, a number of real cities do actually have canals—Amsterdam is the second most-famous Western example—though most lack Venice's aesthetics due to their most common, ahem, industrial function.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* Two cities are currently competing over the title of "Australia's Venice": Gold Coast (Queensland, south of Brisbane) and Woy Woy (New South Wales, north of Sydney). [[http://www.gold-coast.net/maps/mermaidbeachmap.gif Here's a map of Mermaid Beach, Gold Coast]], [[http://www.ozviews.com/MapWoyWoy.jpg and here's a map of southern Woy Woy]].

* In addition, several cities are titled "The Venice of..." because of the identification of this trope with the city. These include Amsterdam in the Netherlands, Annecy in France, Bruges in Belgium, UsefulNotes/{{Hamburg}} in Germany, [[UsefulNotes/SaintPetersburg]] in Russia, Stockholm in Sweden, Ft. Lauderdale in Florida, Birmingham in England, Suzhou in China and Recife in Brazil; and of course the Venice of Asia, UsefulNotes/{{Bangkok}} in UsefulNotes/{{Thailand}} (and, OnceUponATime, UsefulNotes/{{Manila}} in the UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}} too[[note]]especially in the American colonial period proper in the early 1900s, doubly so because it had a lot of very Westernised architecture at the time … but succeeding local governments filled up most of the canals, either by paving them over or allowing informal settlers to throw trash into them, diverting regular floodwaters onto city streets. In the last decade, however, there are attempts to systematically dredge, clean up, and beautify the banks of several historic creeks that empty into the Pasig River, within the Metro Manila area[[/note]]).

* In addition, several cities are titled "The Venice of..." because of the identification of this trope with the city. These include Amsterdam in the Netherlands, Annecy in France, Bruges in Belgium, UsefulNotes/{{Hamburg}} in Germany, St. Petersburg in Russia, Stockholm in Sweden, Ft. Lauderdale in Florida, Birmingham in England, Suzhou in China and Recife in Brazil; and of course the Venice of Asia, UsefulNotes/{{Bangkok}} in UsefulNotes/{{Thailand}} (and, OnceUponATime, UsefulNotes/{{Manila}} in the UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}} too[[note]]especially in the American colonial period proper in the early 1900s, doubly so because it had a lot of very Westernised architecture at the time … but succeeding local governments filled up most of the canals, either by paving them over or allowing informal settlers to throw trash into them, diverting regular floodwaters onto city streets. In the last decade, however, there are attempts to systematically dredge, clean up, and beautify the banks of several historic creeks that empty into the Pasig River, within the Metro Manila area[[/note]]).