When you are considering retirement,Venice, Florida has to be number 1.

Venice, a city of approximately 21,000, is located in Sarasota County Florida. The city's early as well as present claim to fame lies in its airport located on the south side of town.Built in the early 1940s by the United States Army Air Force it served as a military training facility base, being used as well by( ATC), Air Transport Command to deliver US built aircraft to Britain. As soon as the war was over the US government gave the airport to the city of Venice.

The airport has 2, 5000 runways and is the base of FFTC (Florida Flight Training Center), that does pilot training as well as charter service within Florida and the surrounding states.

Triple Diamond is the main FBO and provides assistance to jet aircraft.

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."

Due to the beauty of the area, warm weather, and white sandy beaches ,many of the men and women who. were stationed in Venice during the war came back to make it their permanent home

Having been listed in many circles as the shark's tooth capital of the world , Venice holds an annual shark's tooth festival to commemorate the abundance of shark's teeth(some of which are known to be thousands of years old) that can be found in the area. Teeth can be found by walking the beach and sifting through the sand, although the best results are had by diving off shore. One can only hope to find the teeth without the shark attached. Just kidding, shark attacks are extremely rare, no shark attacks have been reported in Sarasota County in many,many years.

Probably the best area to find shark's teeth is south of town behind the airport at a beach known as Caspersen's Beach, although Sharkey's Beach is also popular, where shovels and scoops can be rented to find teeth anywhere from 1/4 in. to 3 inches and larger.

In the past, due to the near perfect weather and beautiful scenery, Venice has been the winter home for many organizations,including the Kentucky Military Institute as well as the Ringling Circus .

Be it for a short stay or a lifetime home, Venice calls .

Learn more about this author, Gary Wonning.
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