Venice

Venice is a city in northeast of Italy sited on a group of 118 small islands separated by canals and linked by bridges. It is located in the marshy Venetian Lagoon which stretches all the way along the shoreline between the mouths of thee Po and Piave Rivers.Venice is also known to be the capital of the Veneto region. In 2009, there were estimated to be around 270,098 people residing in Venice commune, around 60,000 people in actual Venice.

The name Venice is derived from the ancient Veneti people who inhabited the region by the 10th century BC. The city was historically the capital of the Venetian Republic. Venice has been know as many different names including; 'La Dominnate', 'Queen of the Adriatic', 'City of Water', City of Masks' and 'The Floating City'.

The Republic of Venice was once a major maritime power through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, being the centre stage of crusades and the battle of Lepanto, also it was a very important centre of commerce, mainly with silk, grain, spices and art, all the way through the 13th century up to the end of the 17th century. Therefore all this trading made the city extremely wealthy through most of it's history.  

Brief Origins

Venice was originally a Roman city and contained many refugees from near by Roman cites such as; Padua, Aquileia, Teviso, Altino, Concordia and from unprotected countryside villages, trying to escape waves of Germanic and Hun invasions. The most enduring immigration into the north of Italy was that of the Lombards in 568, leaving the Eastern Roman Empire a small strip of coast in the current Veneto. The Roman territory was organized as the Exarchate of Ravenna, administered from that ancient port and overseen by a viceroy appointed by the Emperor in Constantinople, but Ravenna and Venice were connected only by seaa routes and with the Venetian's isolated position came increasing autonomy. New ports were beginning to be built in the Venetian lagoon.

In 751 the Lombard King Aistulf conquered most of the Ravenna, leaving Venice a lonely autonomous Byzantine outpost. During this period, the seat of the local Byzantine governor was situated inn Malamocco. Settlement on the islands in he lagoon increased in correspondence with the Lombard conquest of other Byzantine territories as refugees sought asylum in the lagoon city.

In 775-1776, the Episcopal seat of Olivolo was created. During the reign of the duke Agnello Particiaco the ducal seat was moved Malamocco to the highly protected Rialto, which is now the current location of Venice.

Charlemagne wanted to subdue the city to his own rule. He ordered the Pope to expel the Venetians from the Pentapolis along the Adriatic coast and the Charlemagne's own son Pepin of Italy, King of the Lombards under the authority of his father, embarked on a siege of Venice itself. This however, proved to be a costly failure. The siege lasted 6 months with Pepin's army ravaged by the disease of the local swamps and eventually were forced to withdraw. A few months later Pepinn died from a result of disease contracted there. In the aftermath, an agreement between Charlemagne and Nicephorus in 814 recognized Venice as Byzantine territory and granted the city trading rights along the Adriatic coast.