Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern
Italy
Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
and the capital of the
Veneto
Veneto, officially the Region of Veneto, is one of the 20 regions of Italy, located in the Northeast Italy, north-east of the country. It is the fourth most populous region in Italy, with a population of 4,851,851 as of 2025. Venice is t ...
region
In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...
. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are linked by 438 bridges.
The islands are in the shallow
Venetian Lagoon, an enclosed bay lying between the mouths of the
Po and the
Piave rivers (more exactly between the
Brenta and the
Sile). As of 2025, 249,466 people resided in greater Venice or the
Comune
A (; : , ) is an administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions () and provinces (). The can also have the City status in Italy, titl ...
of Venice,
of whom about 51,000 live in the historical island city of Venice (''centro storico'') and the rest on the mainland (''terraferma'').
Together with the cities of
Padua
Padua ( ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Veneto, northern Italy, and the capital of the province of Padua. The city lies on the banks of the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice and southeast of Vicenza, and has a population of 20 ...
and
Treviso, Venice is included in the
Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area (PATREVE), which is considered a statistical metropolitan area, with a total population of 2.6 million.
The name is derived from the ancient
Veneti people who inhabited the region by the 10th century BC. The city was the capital of the
Republic of Venice
The Republic of Venice, officially the Most Serene Republic of Venice and traditionally known as La Serenissima, was a sovereign state and Maritime republics, maritime republic with its capital in Venice. Founded, according to tradition, in 697 ...
for almost a millennium, from 810 to 1797. It was a major financial and maritime power during the
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...
and
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...
, and a
staging area
A staging area (otherwise staging base, staging facility, staging ground, staging point, or staging post) is a location in which organisms, people, vehicles, equipment, or material are assembled before use. It may refer to:
* In aviation, a desi ...
for the
Crusades
The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding t ...
and the
Battle of Lepanto, as well as an important centre of commerce—especially silk, grain, and
spice
In the culinary arts, a spice is any seed, fruit, root, Bark (botany), bark, or other plant substance in a form primarily used for flavoring or coloring food. Spices are distinguished from herbs, which are the leaves, flowers, or stems of pl ...
, and of art from the 13th century to the end of the 17th. The then-
city-state
A city-state is an independent sovereign city which serves as the center of political, economic, and cultural life over its contiguous territory. They have existed in many parts of the world throughout history, including cities such as Rome, ...
is considered to have been the first real international financial centre, emerging in the 9th century and reaching its greatest prominence in the 14th century. This made Venice a wealthy city throughout most of its history.
For centuries, Venice possessed numerous territories along the Adriatic Sea and within the Italian
peninsula
A peninsula is a landform that extends from a mainland and is only connected to land on one side. Peninsulas exist on each continent. The largest peninsula in the world is the Arabian Peninsula.
Etymology
The word ''peninsula'' derives , . T ...
, leaving a significant impact on the architecture and culture that can still be seen today. The
Venetian Arsenal is considered by several historians to be the first factory in history and was the base of Venice's naval power. The sovereignty of Venice came to an end in 1797, at the hands of
Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...
. Subsequently, in 1866, the city became part of the
Kingdom of Italy
The Kingdom of Italy (, ) was a unitary state that existed from 17 March 1861, when Victor Emmanuel II of Kingdom of Sardinia, Sardinia was proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, proclaimed King of Italy, until 10 June 1946, when the monarchy wa ...
.
Venice has been known as "La Dominante", "La Serenissima", "Queen of the
Adriatic", "City of Water", "City of Masks", "City of Bridges", "The Floating City", and "City of Canals". The lagoon and the city within the lagoon were inscribed as a
UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987, covering an area of .
Venice is known for several important artistic movements – especially during the
Italian Renaissance
The Italian Renaissance ( ) was a period in History of Italy, Italian history between the 14th and 16th centuries. The period is known for the initial development of the broader Renaissance culture that spread across Western Europe and marked t ...
– and has played an important role in the history of instrumental and operatic music; it is the birthplace of
Baroque music
Baroque music ( or ) refers to the period or dominant style of Classical music, Western classical music composed from about 1600 to 1750. The Baroque style followed the Renaissance music, Renaissance period, and was followed in turn by the Class ...
composers
Tomaso Albinoni and
Antonio Vivaldi.
In the 21st century, Venice remains a very popular tourist destination, a major cultural centre, and has often been ranked one of the most beautiful cities in the world. It has been described by ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...
'' as one of Europe's most romantic cities and by ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' as "undoubtedly the most beautiful city built by man". However, the city faces challenges, including
overtourism, pollution, tide peaks, and cruise ships sailing too close to buildings.
Because Venice and its lagoon are under constant threat, Venice's UNESCO listing has been under constant examination.
History
Origins
Although no surviving historical records deal directly with the founding or building of Venice, tradition and the available evidence have led several historians to agree that the original population of Venice consisted of refugees – from nearby
Roman cities such as Patavium (
Padua
Padua ( ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Veneto, northern Italy, and the capital of the province of Padua. The city lies on the banks of the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice and southeast of Vicenza, and has a population of 20 ...
),
Aquileia, Tarvisium (
Treviso),
Altinum, and Concordia (modern
Portogruaro), as well as from the undefended countryside – who were fleeing successive waves of
Germanic and
Hun invasions. This is further supported by the documentation on the so-called "apostolic families", the twelve founding families of Venice who elected the first
doge, who in most cases trace their lineage back to Roman families. Some late Roman sources reveal the existence of fishermen, on the islands in the original marshy lagoons, who were referred to as ''incolae lacunae'' ("lagoon dwellers"). The traditional founding is identified with the dedication of the first church, that of
San Giacomo on the islet of
Rialto (''Rivoalto'', "High Shore")—said to have taken place at the stroke of noon on 25 March 421 (the
Feast of the Annunciation
The Feast of the Annunciation () commemorates the visit of the archangel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary, during which he informed her that she would be the mother of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It is celebrated on 25 March; however, if 25 Marc ...
).
Beginning as early as AD 166–168, the
Quadi
The Quadi were a Germanic peoples, Germanic people during the Roman era, who were prominent in Greek and Roman records from about 20 AD to about 400 AD. By about 20 AD they had a kingdom centred in the area of present-day western Slovakia, north ...
and
Marcomanni
The Marcomanni were a Germanic people who lived close to the border of the Roman Empire, north of the River Danube, and are mentioned in Roman records from approximately 60 BC until about 400 AD. They were one of the most important members of th ...
destroyed the main Roman town in the area, present-day
Oderzo. This part of
Roman Italy was again overrun in the early 5th century by the
Visigoths
The Visigoths (; ) were a Germanic people united under the rule of a king and living within the Roman Empire during late antiquity. The Visigoths first appeared in the Balkans, as a Roman-allied Barbarian kingdoms, barbarian military group unite ...
and, some 50 years later, by the Huns led by
Attila
Attila ( or ; ), frequently called Attila the Hun, was the ruler of the Huns from 434 until his death in early 453. He was also the leader of an empire consisting of Huns, Ostrogoths, Alans, and Gepids, among others, in Central Europe, C ...
. The last and most enduring immigration into the north of the Italian peninsula, that of the
Lombards in 568, left the
Eastern Roman Empire only a small strip of coastline in the current Veneto, including Venice. The Roman/Byzantine territory was organized as the
Exarchate of Ravenna, administered from that ancient port and overseen by a viceroy (the
Exarch) appointed by the Emperor in
Constantinople
Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...
. Ravenna and Venice were connected by just sea routes, and with the Venetians' isolation came increasing autonomy. New ports were built, including those at
Malamocco and
Torcello in the Venetian lagoon. The ''tribuni maiores'' formed the earliest central standing governing committee of the islands in the lagoon, dating from .
[Traditional date as given in William J. Langer, ed. ''An Encyclopedia of World History''.]
The traditional first
doge of Venice,
Paolo Lucio Anafesto (Anafestus Paulicius), was elected in 697, as written in the
oldest chronicle by
John, deacon of Venice . Some modern historians claim Paolo Lucio Anafesto was actually the
Exarch Paul, and Paul's successor,
Marcello Tegalliano, was Paul's ''
magister militum
(Latin for "master of soldiers"; : ) was a top-level military command used in the late Roman Empire, dating from the reign of Constantine the Great. The term referred to the senior military officer (equivalent to a war theatre commander, the e ...
'' (or "general"), literally "master of soldiers". In 726 the soldiers and citizens of the exarchate rose in a rebellion over the
iconoclastic controversy, at the urging of
Pope Gregory II. The exarch, held responsible for the acts of his master, Byzantine Emperor
Leo III, was murdered, and many officials were put to flight in the chaos. At about this time, the people of the lagoon elected their own independent leader for the first time, although the relationship of this to the uprisings is not clear.
Ursus was the first of 117 "doges" (''doge'' is the
Venetian dialectal equivalent of the Latin ''
dux'' ("leader"); the corresponding word in English is
duke
Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of Royal family, royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and above sovereign princes. As royalty or nobi ...
, in standard Italian ''duca'' (see also "
duce".) Whatever his original views, Ursus supported Emperor Leo III's successful military expedition to recover Ravenna, sending both men and ships. In recognition of this, Venice was "granted numerous privileges and concessions" and Ursus, who had personally taken the field, was confirmed by Leo as ''dux'' and given the added title of ''
hypatus'' (from the Greek for "
consul
Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states thro ...
").
In 751, the
Lombard King
Aistulf conquered most of the
Exarchate of Ravenna, leaving Venice a lonely and increasingly autonomous Byzantine outpost. During this period, the seat of the local Byzantine governor (the "duke/dux", later "doge"), was at Malamocco. Settlement on the islands in the lagoon probably increased with the Lombard conquest of other Byzantine territories, as refugees sought asylum in the area. In 775/6, the
episcopal seat of Olivolo (
San Pietro di Castello) was created. During the reign of duke
Agnello Particiaco (811–827) the ducal seat moved from Malamocco to the more protected Rialto, within present-day Venice. The monastery of
St Zachary and the first
ducal palace and
basilica of St. Mark, as well as a walled defense (''civitatis murus'') between Olivolo and Rialto, were subsequently built here.
Charlemagne
Charlemagne ( ; 2 April 748 – 28 January 814) was List of Frankish kings, King of the Franks from 768, List of kings of the Lombards, King of the Lombards from 774, and Holy Roman Emperor, Emperor of what is now known as the Carolingian ...
sought to subdue the city to his rule. He ordered the pope to expel the Venetians from the
Pentapolis along the Adriatic coast; 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 a costly failure. The siege lasted six months, with Pepin's army ravaged by the diseases of the local swamps and eventually forced to withdraw in 810. A few months later, Pepin himself died, apparently as a result of a disease contracted there. In the aftermath, an agreement between Charlemagne and the Byzantine Emperor
Nicephorus in 814 recognized Venice as Byzantine territory, and granted the city trading rights along the Adriatic coast.
In 828 the new city's prestige increased with the acquisition, from
Alexandria
Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...
, of relics claimed to be of
St Mark the Evangelist; these were placed in the new basilica. Winged lions – visible throughout Venice – are the
emblem of St Mark. The patriarchal seat was also moved to Rialto. As the community continued to develop, and as Byzantine power waned, its own autonomy grew, leading to eventual independence.
Expansion
From the 9th to the 12th centuries, Venice developed into a powerful maritime empire (an Italian
thalassocracy known also as ''
repubblica marinara''). In addition to Venice there were seven others: the most important ones were
Genoa,
Pisa
Pisa ( ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Tuscany, Central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for the Leaning Tow ...
, and
Amalfi; and the lesser known were
Ragusa,
Ancona
Ancona (, also ; ) is a city and a seaport in the Marche region of central Italy, with a population of around 101,997 . Ancona is the capital of the province of Ancona, homonymous province and of the region. The city is located northeast of Ro ...
,
Gaeta
Gaeta (; ; Southern Latian dialect, Southern Laziale: ''Gaieta'') is a seaside resort in the province of Latina in Lazio, Italy. Set on a promontory stretching towards the Gulf of Gaeta, it is from Rome and from Naples.
The city has played ...
and
Noli. Its own strategic position at the head of the Adriatic made Venetian naval and commercial power almost invulnerable. The Republic's embrace of
sound monetary policies, especially its reliable
gold ducat
The ducat ( ) coin was used as a trade coin in Europe from the Late Middle Ages, later Middle Ages to the 19th century. Its most familiar version, the gold ducat or sequin (coin), sequin containing around of 98.6% fine gold, originated in Venice ...
, underpinned growing confidence in Venetian trade and finance, further strengthening its position in international commerce. With the elimination of pirates along the
Dalmatian coast, the city became a flourishing trade centre between Western Europe and the rest of the world, especially with the
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived History of the Roman Empire, the events that caused the ...
and
Asia
Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...
, where its navy protected sea routes against piracy.
The
Republic of Venice
The Republic of Venice, officially the Most Serene Republic of Venice and traditionally known as La Serenissima, was a sovereign state and Maritime republics, maritime republic with its capital in Venice. Founded, according to tradition, in 697 ...
seized a number of places on the eastern shores of the Adriatic before 1200, mostly for commercial reasons, because
pirates based there were a menace to trade. The doge already possessed the titles of Duke of Dalmatia and Duke of
Istria
Istria ( ; Croatian language, Croatian and Slovene language, Slovene: ; Italian language, Italian and Venetian language, Venetian: ; ; Istro-Romanian language, Istro-Romanian: ; ; ) is the largest peninsula within the Adriatic Sea. Located at th ...
. Later mainland possessions, which extended across
Lake Garda
Lake Garda (, , or , ; ; ) is the largest lake in Italy. It is a popular holiday location in northern Italy, between Brescia and Milan to the west, and Verona and Venice to the east. The lake cuts into the edge of the Eastern Alps, Italian Alp ...
as far west as the
Adda River, were known as the ''Terraferma''; they were acquired partly as a buffer against belligerent neighbours, partly to guarantee
Alpine trade routes, and partly to ensure the supply of mainland wheat (on which the city depended). In building its maritime commercial empire, Venice dominated the trade in salt, acquired control of most of the islands in the
Aegean, including
Crete
Crete ( ; , Modern Greek, Modern: , Ancient Greek, Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the List of islands by area, 88th largest island in the world and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fifth la ...
, and
Cyprus
Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...
in the Mediterranean, and became a major power-broker in the
Near East
The Near East () is a transcontinental region around the Eastern Mediterranean encompassing the historical Fertile Crescent, the Levant, Anatolia, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and coastal areas of the Arabian Peninsula. The term was invented in the 20th ...
. By the standards of the time, Venice's stewardship of its mainland territories was relatively enlightened and the citizens of such towns as
Bergamo,
Brescia, and
Verona rallied to the defence of Venetian sovereignty when it was threatened by invaders.

Venice remained closely associated with Constantinople, being twice granted trading privileges in the Eastern Roman Empire, through the so-called
golden bulls or "chrysobulls", in return for aiding the Eastern Empire to resist Norman and Turkish incursions. In the first chrysobull, Venice acknowledged its homage to the empire; but not in the second, reflecting the decline of
Byzantium and the rise of Venice's power.
Venice became an imperial power following the
Fourth Crusade
The Fourth Crusade (1202–1204) was a Latin Christian armed expedition called by Pope Innocent III. The stated intent of the expedition was to recapture the Muslim-controlled city of Jerusalem, by first defeating the powerful Egyptian Ayyubid S ...
, which, having veered off course, culminated in 1204 by capturing and sacking
Constantinople
Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...
and establishing the
Latin Empire. As a result of this conquest, considerable Byzantine plunder was brought back to Venice. This plunder included the
gilt bronze horses from the
Hippodrome of Constantinople, which were originally placed above the entrance to the cathedral of Venice,
St Mark's Basilica (The originals have been replaced with replicas, and are now stored within the basilica.) After the fall of Constantinople, the former Eastern Roman Empire was partitioned among the Latin crusaders and the Venetians. Venice subsequently carved out a sphere of influence in the Mediterranean known as the
Duchy of the Archipelago, and captured Crete.
The seizure of Constantinople proved as decisive a factor in ending the Byzantine Empire as the loss of the
Anatolia
Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...
n
themes, after
Manzikert. Although the Byzantines recovered control of the ravaged city a half-century later, the Byzantine Empire was terminally weakened, and existed as a ghost of its old self, until
Sultan Mehmet The Conqueror took the city
in 1453.
Situated on the
Adriatic Sea
The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula. The Adriatic is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the Strait of Otranto (where it connects to the Ionian Se ...
, Venice had always traded extensively with the Byzantine Empire and the
Middle East
The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq.
The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...
. By the late 13th century, Venice was the most prosperous city in all of Europe. At the peak of its power and wealth, it had 36,000 sailors operating 3,300 ships, dominating Mediterranean commerce. Venice's leading families vied with each other to build the grandest palaces and to support the work of the greatest and most talented artists. The city was governed by the
Great Council, which was made up of members of the noble families of Venice. The Great Council appointed all public officials, and elected a Senate of 200 to 300 individuals. Since this group was too large for efficient administration, a
Council of Ten (also called the Ducal Council, or the Signoria), controlled much of the administration of the city. One member of the great council was elected "
doge", or duke, to be the chief executive; he would usually hold the title until his death, although several Doges were forced, by pressure from their
oligarchical peers, to resign and retire into
monastic
Monasticism (; ), also called monachism or monkhood, is a religious way of life in which one renounces worldly pursuits to devote oneself fully to spiritual activities. Monastic life plays an important role in many Christian churches, especially ...
seclusion, when they were felt to have been discredited by political failure.
The Venetian governmental structure was similar in some ways to the republican system of ancient Rome, with an elected chief executive (the doge), a senator-like assembly of nobles, and the general citizenry with limited political power, who originally had the power to grant or withhold their approval of each newly elected doge. Church and various private property was tied to military service, although there was no knight tenure within the city itself. The ''Cavalieri di San Marco'' was the only order of
chivalry ever instituted in Venice, and no citizen could accept or join a foreign order without the government's consent. Venice remained a republic throughout its independent period, and politics and the military were kept separate, except when on occasion the Doge personally headed the military. War was regarded as a continuation of
commerce
Commerce is the organized Complex system, system of activities, functions, procedures and institutions that directly or indirectly contribute to the smooth, unhindered large-scale exchange (distribution through Financial transaction, transactiona ...
by other means. Therefore, the city's early employment of large numbers of mercenaries for service elsewhere, and later its reliance on foreign mercenaries when the ruling class was preoccupied with commerce.
Although the people of Venice generally remained orthodox Roman Catholics, the state of Venice was notable for its freedom from religious fanaticism, and executed nobody for religious heresy during the
Counter-Reformation. This apparent lack of zeal contributed to Venice's frequent conflicts with the
papacy
The pope is the bishop of Rome and the Head of the Church#Catholic Church, visible head of the worldwide Catholic Church. He is also known as the supreme pontiff, Roman pontiff, or sovereign pontiff. From the 8th century until 1870, the po ...
. In this context, the writings of the Anglican divine
William Bedell are particularly illuminating. Venice was threatened with the
interdict on a number of occasions and twice suffered its imposition. The second, most noted, occasion was in 1606, by order of
Pope Paul V.
The newly invented German
printing press
A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a printing, print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in whi ...
spread rapidly throughout Europe in the 15th century, and Venice was quick to adopt it. By 1482, Venice was the printing capital of the world; the leading printer was
Aldus Manutius, who invented paperback books that could be carried in a saddlebag. His ''Aldine Editions'' included translations of nearly all the known Greek manuscripts of the era.
Decline
Venice's long decline started in the 15th century. Venice confronted the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...
in the
Siege of Thessalonica (1422–1430) and sent ships to help defend
Constantinople
Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...
against the besieging Turks in 1453. After the
Fall of Constantinople
The Fall of Constantinople, also known as the Conquest of Constantinople, was the capture of Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire by the Ottoman Empire. The city was captured on 29 May 1453 as part of the culmination of a 55-da ...
,
Sultan Mehmed II declared the first of a series of
Ottoman-Venetian wars that cost Venice much of its eastern Mediterranean possessions.
Vasco da Gama's 1497–1499 voyage opened a sea route to
India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
around the
Cape of Good Hope
The Cape of Good Hope ( ) is a rocky headland on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa.
A List of common misconceptions#Geography, common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Afri ...
and destroyed Venice's monopoly. Venice's
oared vessels were at a disadvantage when it came to traversing oceans, therefore Venice was left behind in the race for
colonies.

The
Black Death
The Black Death was a bubonic plague pandemic that occurred in Europe from 1346 to 1353. It was one of the list of epidemics, most fatal pandemics in human history; as many as people perished, perhaps 50% of Europe's 14th century population. ...
devastated Venice in 1348 and struck again between 1575 and 1577. In three years, the
plague killed some 50,000 people. In 1630, the
Italian plague of 1629–31 killed a third of Venice's 150,000 citizens.
Venice began to lose the position as a centre of
international trade during the later part of the
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...
as Portugal became Europe's principal intermediary in the trade with the East, striking at the very foundation of Venice's great wealth. France and Spain fought for
hegemony over Italy in the
Italian Wars, marginalising its political influence. However, Venice remained a major exporter of agricultural products and until the mid-18th century, a significant manufacturing centre.
Modern age
The Republic of Venice lost its independence when
Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...
conquered Venice on 12 May 1797 during the
War of the First Coalition
The War of the First Coalition () was a set of wars that several European powers fought between 1792 and 1797, initially against the Constitutional Cabinet of Louis XVI, constitutional Kingdom of France and then the French First Republic, Frenc ...
. Napoleon was seen as something of a liberator by the city's Jewish population. He removed the gates of the
Ghetto and ended the restrictions on when and where Jews could live and travel in the city.
Venice became Austrian territory when Napoleon signed the
Treaty of Campo Formio on 12 October 1797. The Austrians took control of the city on 18 January 1798. Venice was taken from Austria by the
Treaty of Pressburg in 1805 and became part of
Napoleon's Kingdom of Italy. It was returned to Austria following Napoleon's defeat in 1814, when it became part of the Austrian-held
Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia. In 1848 a revolt briefly re-established the
Venetian republic under
Daniele Manin, but this was crushed in 1849. In 1866, after the
Third Italian War of Independence, Venice, along with the rest of the Veneto, became part of the newly created
Kingdom of Italy
The Kingdom of Italy (, ) was a unitary state that existed from 17 March 1861, when Victor Emmanuel II of Kingdom of Sardinia, Sardinia was proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, proclaimed King of Italy, until 10 June 1946, when the monarchy wa ...
.
From the middle of the 18th century,
Trieste
Trieste ( , ; ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital and largest city of the Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, as well as of the Province of Trieste, ...
and papal
Ancona
Ancona (, also ; ) is a city and a seaport in the Marche region of central Italy, with a population of around 101,997 . Ancona is the capital of the province of Ancona, homonymous province and of the region. The city is located northeast of Ro ...
, both of which became free ports, competed with Venice more and more economically. Habsburg Trieste in particular boomed and increasingly served trade via the
Suez Canal
The Suez Canal (; , ') is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, Indo-Mediterranean, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia (and by extension, the Sinai Peninsula from the rest ...
, which opened in 1869, between Asia and Central Europe, while Venice very quickly lost its competitive edge and commercial strength.
During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, the historic city was largely free from attack, the only aggressive effort of note being
Operation Bowler, a successful
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...
precision strike on the German naval operations in the city in March 1945. The targets were destroyed with virtually no architectural damage inflicted on the city itself. However, the industrial areas in Mestre and Marghera and the railway lines to Padua, Trieste, and Trento were
repeatedly bombed. On 29 April 1945, a force of
British and
New Zealand
New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...
troops of the
British Eighth Army, under Lieutenant General
Freyberg, liberated Venice, which had been a hotbed of anti-Mussolini Italian partisan activity.
Venice was listed as a
UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987, inscribing it as "Venice and its Lagoon".
Geography

Venice is located in northeastern Italy, in the Veneto region. The city is situated on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by 438 bridges. The historic center of Venice is divided into six districts, or sestieri, which are named
Cannaregio, Castello,
Dorsoduro, San Marco, San Polo, and Santa Croce.
Venice sits atop alluvial silt washed into the sea by the rivers flowing eastward from the Alps across the
Veneto
Veneto, officially the Region of Veneto, is one of the 20 regions of Italy, located in the Northeast Italy, north-east of the country. It is the fourth most populous region in Italy, with a population of 4,851,851 as of 2025. Venice is t ...
plain, with the silt being stretched into long banks, or ''lidi'', by the action of the current flowing around the head of the
Adriatic Sea
The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula. The Adriatic is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the Strait of Otranto (where it connects to the Ionian Se ...
from east to west.
Subsidence
Subsidence, the gradual lowering of the surface of Venice, has contributed – along with other factors – to the seasonal ''
Acqua alta'' ("high water") when the city's lowest lying surfaces may be covered at high tide.
Building foundations
Those fleeing barbarian invasions who found refuge on the sandy islands of Torcello, Iesolo, and Malamocco, in this coastal lagoon, learned to build by driving closely spaced
piles consisting of the trunks of
alder trees, a wood noted for its water resistance, into the mud and sand, until they reached a much harder layer of compressed
clay
Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...
. Building foundations rested on plates of
Istrian limestone placed on top of the piles.
Flooding

Between autumn and early spring, the city is often threatened by flood
tides pushing in from the
Adriatic. Six hundred years ago, Venetians protected themselves from land-based attacks by diverting all the major rivers flowing into the lagoon and thus preventing sediment from filling the area around the city. This created an ever-deeper lagoon environment. Additionally, the lowest part of Venice,
St Mark's Basilica, is only above sea level, and one of the most flood-prone parts of the city.
In 1604, to defray the cost of flood relief, Venice introduced what could be considered the first example of a stamp tax. When the revenue fell short of expectations in 1608, Venice introduced
paper
Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, Textile, rags, poaceae, grasses, Feces#Other uses, herbivore dung, or other vegetable sources in water. Once the water is dra ...
, with the superscription "AQ" and imprinted instructions, which was to be used for "letters to officials". At first, this was to be a temporary tax, but it remained in effect until the fall of the Republic in 1797. Shortly after the introduction of the tax, Spain produced similar paper for general taxation purposes, and the practice spread to other countries.
During the 20th century, when many
artesian wells were sunk into the periphery of the lagoon to draw water for local industry, Venice began to
subside. It was realized that extraction of water from the
aquifer
An aquifer is an underground layer of water-bearing material, consisting of permeability (Earth sciences), permeable or fractured rock, or of unconsolidated materials (gravel, sand, or silt). Aquifers vary greatly in their characteristics. The s ...
was the cause. The sinking has slowed markedly since artesian wells were banned in the 1960s. However, the city is still threatened by more frequent low-level floods – the ''
Acqua alta'', that rise to a height of several centimetres over its
quay
A wharf ( or wharfs), quay ( , also ), staith, or staithe is a structure on the shore of a harbour or on the bank of a river or canal where ships may dock to load and unload cargo or passengers. Such a structure includes one or more Berth (mo ...
s – regularly following certain tides. In many old houses, staircases once used to unload goods are now flooded, rendering the former ground floor uninhabitable.
Studies indicate that the city continues sinking at a relatively slow rate of 1–2mm per year; therefore, the state of alert has not been revoked.
In May 2003, Italian Prime Minister
Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi ( ; ; 29 September 193612 June 2023) was an Italian Media proprietor, media tycoon and politician who served as the prime minister of Italy in three governments from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. He was a mem ...
inaugurated the
MOSE Project (), an experimental model for evaluating the performance of hollow floatable gates, expected to be completed by the end of 2025; the idea is to fix a series of 78 hollow
pontoons to the sea bed across the three entrances to the lagoon. When tides are predicted to rise above , the pontoons will be filled with air, causing them to float on lagoon side while hinged at sea floor on seaside, thus blocking the incoming water from the Adriatic Sea. This engineering work was due to be completed by 2018. A
Reuters
Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world.
The agency ...
report stated that the MOSE Project attributed the delay to "corruption scandals". The project is not guaranteed to be successful and the cost has been very high, with as much as approximately €2 billion of the cost lost to corruption.
According to a spokesman for the National Trust of Italy (
Fondo Ambiente Italiano):
Mose is a pharaonic project that should have cost €800m �675mbut will cost at least €7bn �6bn If the barriers are closed at only 90 cm of high water, most of St Mark's will be flooded anyway; but if closed at very high levels only, then people will wonder at the logic of spending such sums on something that didn't solve the problem. And pressure will come from the cruise ships to keep the gates open.
On 13 November 2019, Venice was flooded when waters peaked at , the highest tide since 1966 (1.94 m). More than 80% of the city was covered by water, which damaged cultural heritage sites, including more than 50 churches, leading to tourists cancelling their visits.
The planned
flood barrier would have prevented this incident according to various sources, including Marco Piana, the head of conservation at St Mark's Basilica.
The mayor promised that work on the flood barrier would continue,
and the Prime Minister announced that the government would be accelerating the project.
The city's mayor,
Luigi Brugnaro, blamed the floods on
climate change
Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...
. The
chambers of the
Regional Council of Veneto began to be flooded around 10 pm, two minutes after the council rejected a plan to combat global warming. One of the effects of climate change is
sea level rise
The sea level has been rising from the end of the last ice age, which was around 20,000 years ago. Between 1901 and 2018, the average sea level rose by , with an increase of per year since the 1970s. This was faster than the sea level had e ...
which causes an increase in frequency and magnitude of floodings in the city. A ''
Washington Post
''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
'' report provided a more thorough analysis:
"The sea level has been rising even more rapidly in Venice than in other parts of the world. At the same time, the city is sinking, the result of tectonic plates shifting below the Italian coast. Those factors together, along with the more frequent extreme weather events associated with climate change, contribute to floods."
Henk Ovink, an expert on flooding, told
CNN that, while environmental factors are part of the problem, "historic floods in Venice are not only a result of the climate crisis but poor infrastructure and mismanagement".
The government of Italy committed to providing 20 million euros in funding to help the city repair the most urgent aspects although Brugnaro's estimate of the total damage was "hundreds of millions" to at least 1 billion euros.
On 3 October 2020, the MOSE was activated for the first time in response to a predicted high tide event, preventing some of the low-lying parts of the city (in particular the Piazza San Marco) from being flooded.
Climate
According to the
Köppen climate classification
The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...
, Venice has a mid-latitude, four season
humid subtropical climate
A humid subtropical climate is a subtropical -temperate climate type, characterized by long and hot summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between ...
(''Cfa''), with cool, damp winters and warm, humid summers. The 24-hour average temperature in January is , and for July this figure is . Precipitation is spread relatively evenly throughout the year, and averages ; snow is not uncommon between late November and early March. During the most severe winters, the canals and parts of the lagoon can freeze, but with the warming trend of the past 30–40 years, the occurrence has become rarer.
Demographics
The city was one of the largest in Europe in the
High Middle Ages
The High Middle Ages, or High Medieval Period, was the periodization, period of European history between and ; it was preceded by the Early Middle Ages and followed by the Late Middle Ages, which ended according to historiographical convention ...
, with a population of 60,000 in AD 1000; 80,000 in 1200; and rising up to 110,000–180,000 in 1300. In the mid-1500s the city's population was 170,000, and by 1600 it approached 200,000.
In 2021, there were 254,850 people residing in the Comune of Venice (the population figure includes 50,434 in the historic city of Venice (Centro storico), 177,621 in Terraferma (the mainland); and 26,795 on other islands in the lagoon).
47.8% of the population in 2021 were male and 52.2% were female; minors (ages 18 and younger) were 14.7% of the population compared to elderly people (ages 65 and older) who numbered 27.9%. This compared with the Italian average of 16.7% and 23.5%, respectively. The average age of Venice residents was 48.6 compared to the Italian average of 45.9. In the five years between 2016 and 2021, the population of Venice declined by 2.7%, while Italy as a whole declined by 2.2%. The population in the historic old city declined much faster: from about 120,000 in 1980 to about 60,000 in 2009, and to 50,000 in 2021.
, 84.2% of the population was Italian. The largest immigrant groups include: 7,814 (3.1%)
Bangladeshis, 6,258 (2.5%)
Romanians
Romanians (, ; dated Endonym and exonym, exonym ''Vlachs'') are a Romance languages, Romance-speaking ethnic group and nation native to Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. Sharing a Culture of Romania, ...
, 4,054 (1.6%)
Moldovans
Moldovans, sometimes referred to as Moldavians (, , ), are an ethnic group native to Moldova, who mostly speak the Romanian language, also referred to locally as Moldovan language, Moldovan. Moldovans form significant communities in Romania, It ...
, 4,014 (1.6%)
Chinese, and 2,514 (1%)
Ukrainians
Ukrainians (, ) are an East Slavs, East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine. Their native tongue is Ukrainian language, Ukrainian, and the majority adhere to Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, forming the List of contemporary eth ...
.
Venice is predominantly
Roman Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
(85.0% of the resident population in the area of the
Patriarchate of Venice in 2022), but because of the long-standing relationship with
Constantinople
Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...
, there is also a noticeable
Orthodox presence; and as a result of immigration, there is now a large
Muslim
Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...
community (about 25,000 or 9.5% of city population in 2018) and some
Hindu
Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...
, and
Buddhist
Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...
inhabitants.
Since 1991, the Church of
San Giorgio dei Greci in Venice has become the
see of the
Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Italy and Malta and Exarchate of Southern Europe, a
Byzantine-rite diocese under the
Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.
There is also a historic
Jewish community in Venice. The
Venetian Ghetto was the area in which Jews were compelled to live under the Venetian Republic. The word ''ghetto'' (''ghèto''), originally
Venetian, is now found in many languages.
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...
's play ''
The Merchant of Venice'', written in the late 16th century, features
Shylock, a Venetian Jew. The first complete and uncensored printed edition of the
Talmud
The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...
was printed in Venice by
Daniel Bomberg in 1523. During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, Jews were rounded up in Venice and deported to
extermination camps. Since the end of the war, the Jewish population of Venice has declined from 1500 to about 500. Only around 30 Jews live in the former ghetto, which houses the city's major Jewish institutions. In modern times, Venice has an
eruv, used by the Jewish community.
Government
Local and regional government
The legislative body of the Comune is the City Council (''Consiglio Comunale''), which is composed of 36 councillors elected every five years with a proportional system, contextually to the mayoral elections. The executive body is the City Administration (''Giunta Comunale''), composed of 12
assessors nominated and presided over by a directly elected
Mayor
In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...
.
Venice was governed by
centre-left
Centre-left politics is the range of left-wing political ideologies that lean closer to the political centre. Ideologies commonly associated with it include social democracy, social liberalism, progressivism, and green politics. Ideas commo ...
parties from the early 1990s until the 2010s, when the Mayor started to be elected directly. Its region,
Veneto
Veneto, officially the Region of Veneto, is one of the 20 regions of Italy, located in the Northeast Italy, north-east of the country. It is the fourth most populous region in Italy, with a population of 4,851,851 as of 2025. Venice is t ...
, has long been a conservative stronghold, with the coalition between the regionalist
Lega Nord
Lega Nord (LN; ), whose complete name is (), is a right-wing politics, right-wing, federalism, federalist, populism, populist and conservatism, conservative list of political parties in Italy, political party in Italy. In the run-up to the 201 ...
and the
centre-right
Centre-right politics is the set of right-wing politics, right-wing political ideologies that lean closer to the political centre. It is commonly associated with conservatism, Christian democracy, liberal conservatism, and conservative liberalis ...
Forza Italia winning absolute majorities of the electorate in many elections at local, national, and regional levels.
The current mayor of Venice is
Luigi Brugnaro, a centre-right independent businessman who is currently serving his second term in office.
The municipality of Venice is also subdivided into six administrative boroughs (''municipalità''). Each borough is governed by a council (''Consiglio'') and a president, elected every five years. The urban organization is dictated by Article 114 of the
Italian Constitution. The boroughs have the power to advise the Mayor with nonbinding opinions on a large spectrum of topics (environment, construction, public health, local markets) and exercise the functions delegated to them by the City Council; in addition, they are supplied with autonomous funding to finance local activities.
;Notes
''Sestieri''
The historic city of Venice has historically been divided into six ''
sestieri'', and is made up of a total of 127 individual islands, most of which are separated from their neighbors by narrow channels only.

Each ''sestiere'' is now a statistical and historical area without any degree of autonomy.
The six fingers or phalanges of the ''ferro'' on the bow of a
gondola represent the six ''sestieri''.
The ''sestieri'' are divided into
parish
A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...
es—initially 70 in 1033, but reduced under
Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...
, and now numbering just 38. These parishes predate the ''sestieri'', which were created in about 1170. Each parish exhibited unique characteristics but also belonged to an integrated network. Each community chose its own patron saint, staged its own festivals, congregated around its own market centre, constructed its own bell towers, and developed its own customs.
Other islands of the
Venetian Lagoon do not form part of any of the ''sestieri'', having historically enjoyed a considerable degree of autonomy.
Each ''sestiere'' has its own
house numbering system. Each house has a unique number in the district, from one to several thousand, generally numbered from one corner of the area to another, but not usually in a readily understandable manner.
Economy
Venice's economy has changed throughout history. Although there is little specific information about the earliest years, it is likely that an important source of the city's prosperity was the trade in slaves, captured in central Europe and sold to North Africa and the
Levant. Venice's location at the head of the Adriatic, and directly south of the terminus of the
Brenner Pass over the Alps, would have given it a distinct advantage as a middleman in this important trade. In the
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...
and the
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...
, Venice was a major centre for commerce and trade, as it controlled a vast sea-empire, and became an extremely wealthy European city and a leader in political and economic affairs.
From the 11th century until the 15th century,
pilgrimage
A pilgrimage is a travel, journey to a holy place, which can lead to a personal transformation, after which the pilgrim returns to their daily life. A pilgrim (from the Latin ''peregrinus'') is a traveler (literally one who has come from afar) w ...
s to the
Holy Land
The term "Holy Land" is used to collectively denote areas of the Southern Levant that hold great significance in the Abrahamic religions, primarily because of their association with people and events featured in the Bible. It is traditionall ...
were offered in Venice. Other ports such as
Genoa,
Pisa
Pisa ( ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Tuscany, Central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for the Leaning Tow ...
,
Marseille
Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...
,
Ancona
Ancona (, also ; ) is a city and a seaport in the Marche region of central Italy, with a population of around 101,997 . Ancona is the capital of the province of Ancona, homonymous province and of the region. The city is located northeast of Ro ...
, and
Dubrovnik
Dubrovnik, historically known as Ragusa, is a city in southern Dalmatia, Croatia, by the Adriatic Sea. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations in the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean, a Port, seaport and the centre of the Dubrovni ...
were hardly able to compete with the well organized transportation of pilgrims from Venice.
Armenia
Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia (country), Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to ...
n merchants from
Julfa were the leading traders in Venice, especially the
Sceriman family in the 17th century. They were specialized in the gems and diamonds business. The trade volume reached millions of tons, which was exceptional for 17th century. This all changed by the 17th century, when Venice's trade empire was taken over by countries such as Portugal, and its importance as a naval power was reduced. In the 18th century, it became a major agricultural and industrial exporter. The 18th century's biggest industrial complex was the
Venice Arsenal, and the Italian Army still uses it today (even though some space has been used for major theatrical and cultural productions, and as spaces for art).
Since World War II, many Venetians have moved to the neighboring cities of
Mestre and
Porto Marghera, seeking employment as well as affordable housing.
Today, Venice's economy is mainly based on tourism, shipbuilding (mainly in Mestre and Porto Marghera), services, trade, and industrial exports.
Murano glass production in
Murano and lace production in
Burano
Burano is an island in the Venetian Lagoon, northern Italy, near Torcello at the northern end of the lagoon, known for its lace work and brightly coloured homes. The primary economy is tourism.
Geography
Burano is from Venice, a 45-minute tr ...
are also highly important to the economy.
The city is facing financial challenges. In late 2016, it had a major deficit in its budget and debts in excess of €400 million. "In effect, the place is bankrupt", according to a report by ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
''.
Many locals are leaving the historic centre due to rapidly increasing rents. The declining native population affects the character of the city, as an October 2016 ''
National Geographic'' article pointed out in its subtitle: "Residents are abandoning the city, which is in danger of becoming an overpriced theme park".
The city is also facing other challenges, including erosion, pollution, subsidence, an excessive number of tourists in peak periods, and problems caused by oversized cruise ships sailing close to the banks of the historical city.
In June 2017, Italy was required to bail out two Venetian banks – the
Banca Popolare di Vicenza and
Veneto Banca – to prevent their bankruptcies. Both banks would be wound down and their assets that have value taken over by another Italian bank,
Intesa Sanpaolo
Intesa Sanpaolo Società per azioni, S.p.A. is an Italian international banking group. It is Italy's largest bank by total assets and the world's 27th largest. It was formed through the merger of Banca Intesa and Sanpaolo IMI in 2007, but has a ...
, which would receive €5.2 billion as compensation. The Italian government would be responsible for losses from any uncollectible loans from the closed banks. The cost would be €5.2 billion, with further guarantees to cover bad loans totaling €12 billion.
Tourism

Venice is an important destination for tourists who want to see its celebrated art and architecture.
The city hosts up to 60,000 tourists per day (2017 estimate). Estimates of the annual number of tourists vary from 22 million to 30 million.
This "
overtourism" creates overcrowding and
environmental problems for Venice's ecosystem. By 2017,
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...
was considering the addition of Venice to its "In-Danger" list, which includes historical ruins in war-torn countries. To reduce the number of visitors, who are causing irreversible changes in Venice, the agency supports limiting the number of cruise ships as well as implementing a strategy for more
sustainable tourism
Sustainable tourism is a concept that covers the complete tourism experience, including concern for Impacts of tourism, economic, social, and environmental issues as well as attention to improving tourists' experiences and addressing the needs o ...
.
Tourism has been a major part of the Venetian economy since the 18th century, when Venice – with its beautiful cityscape, uniqueness, and rich musical and artistic cultural heritage – was a stop on the
Grand Tour. In the 19th century, Venice became a fashionable centre for the "rich and famous", who often stayed and dined at luxury establishments such as the Danieli Hotel and the
Caffè Florian, and continued to be a fashionable city into the early 20th century.
In the 1980s, the
Carnival of Venice was revived; and the city has become a major centre of international conferences and festivals, such as the prestigious
Venice Biennale and the
Venice Film Festival, which attract visitors from all over the world for their theatrical, cultural, cinematic, artistic, and musical productions.
Today, there are numerous attractions in Venice, such as
St Mark's Basilica, the
Doge's Palace, the
Grand Canal, and the
Piazza San Marco. The
Lido di Venezia is also a popular international luxury destination, attracting thousands of actors, critics, celebrities, and others in the cinematic industry. The city also relies heavily on the cruise business.
The Cruise Venice Committee has estimated that cruise ship passengers spend more than 150 million euros (US$193 million) annually in the city, according to a 2015 report. Other reports, however, point out that such day-trippers spend relatively little in the few hours of their visits to the city.
Venice is regarded by some as a tourist trap, and by others as a "living museum".
Diverting cruise ships

The need to protect the city's historic environment and fragile canals, in the face of a possible loss of jobs produced by cruise tourism, has seen the Italian Transport Ministry attempt to introduce a ban on large cruise ships visiting the city. A 2013 ban would have allowed only cruise ships smaller than 40,000-gross tons to enter the
Giudecca Canal and St Mark's basin. In January 2015, a regional court scrapped the ban, but some global cruise lines indicated that they would continue to respect it until a long-term solution for the protection of Venice is found.
P&O Cruises removed Venice from its summer schedule; Holland America moved one of its ships from this area to Alaska; and Cunard reduced (in 2017 and further in 2018) the number of visits by its ships. As a result, the Venice Port Authority estimated an 11.4 per cent drop in cruise ships arriving in 2017 versus 2016, leading to a similar reduction in income for Venice.
Having failed in its 2013 bid to ban oversized cruise ships from the Giudecca Canal, the Italian inter-ministerial ''Comitatone'' overseeing Venice's lagoon released an official directive in November 2017 to keep the largest cruise ships away from the Piazza San Marco and the entrance to the Grand Canal. Ships over 55,000 tons will be required to follow a specific route through the Vittorio Emmanuele III Canal to reach
Marghera, an industrial area of the mainland, where a passenger terminal would be built.
In 2014, the United Nations warned the city that it may be placed on UNESCO's
List of World Heritage in Danger sites unless cruise ships are banned from the canals near the historic centre.
According to the officials, the plan to create an alternative route for ships would require extensive dredging of the canal and the building of a new port, which would take four years, in total, to complete. However, the activist group ''No Grandi Navi'' (No big Ships), argued that the effects of pollution caused by the ships would not be diminished by the re-routing plan.
Some locals continued to aggressively lobby for new methods that would reduce the number of cruise ship passengers; their estimate indicated that there are up to 30,000 such sightseers per day at peak periods,
while others concentrate their effort on promoting a more responsible way of visiting the city. An unofficial referendum to ban large cruise ships was held in June 2017. More than 18,000 people voted at 60 polling booths set up by activists, and 17,874 favored banning large ships from the lagoon. The population of Venice at the time was about 50,000.
The organizers of the referendum backed a plan to build a new cruise ship terminal at one of the three entrances to the
Venetian Lagoon. Passengers would be transferred to the historic area in smaller boats.
On 2 June 2019, the cruise ship ''
MSC Opera'' rammed a tourist riverboat, the ''
River Countess'', which was docked on the Giudecca Canal, injuring five people, in addition to causing property damage. The incident immediately led to renewed demands to ban large cruise ships from the Giudecca Canal, including a
Twitter
Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...
message to that effect posted by the environment minister. The city's mayor urged authorities to accelerate the steps required for cruise ships to begin using the alternate Vittorio Emanuele canal. Italy's transport minister spoke of a "solution to protect both the lagoon and tourism ... after many years of inertia" but specifics were not reported. , the 2017 plan to establish an alternative route for large ships, preventing them from coming near the historic area of the city, has not yet been approved.
Nonetheless, the Italian government released an announcement on 7 August 2019 that it would begin rerouting cruise ships larger than 1000 tonnes away from the historic city's Giudecca Canal. For the last four months of 2019, all heavy vessels would dock at the Fusina and Lombardia terminals which are still on the lagoon but away from the central islands. By 2020, one-third of all cruise ships would be rerouted, according to Danilo Toninelli, the minister for Venice. Preparation work for the Vittorio Emanuele Canal needed to begin soon for a long-term solution, according to the Cruise Lines International Association. In the long-term, space for ships would be provided at new terminals, perhaps at Chioggia or Lido San Nicolo. That plan was not imminent however, since public consultations had not yet begun. Over 1.5 million people per year arrive in Venice on cruise ships. The Italian government decided to divert large cruise ships beginning August 2021.
Other tourism mitigation efforts
Having failed in its 2013 bid to ban oversized cruise ships from the Giudecca Canal, the city switched to a new strategy in mid-2017, banning the creation of any additional hotels. Currently, there are over 24,000 hotel rooms. The ban does not affect short-term rentals in the historic centre which are causing an increase in the cost of living for the native residents of Venice.
The city had already banned any additional fast food "take-away" outlets, to retain the historic character of the city, which was another reason for freezing the number of hotel rooms. Fewer than half of the millions of annual visitors stay overnight, however.
The city also considered a ban on wheeled suitcases, but settled for banning hard plastic wheels for transporting cargo from May 2015.
In addition to accelerating erosion of the ancient city's foundations and creating some pollution in the lagoon,
cruise ships dropping an excessive number of day trippers can make St. Marks Square and other popular attractions too crowded to walk through during the peak season. Government officials see little value to the economy from the "eat and flee" tourists who stay for less than a day, which is typical of those from cruise ships.
On 28 February 2019, the Venice City Council voted in favour of a new municipal regulation requiring day-trippers visiting the historic centre, and the islands in the lagoon, to pay a new access fee. The extra revenue from the fee would be used for cleaning, maintaining security, reducing the financial burden on residents of Venice, and to "allow Venetians to live with more decorum". The new tax would be between €3 and €10 per person, depending on the expected tourist flow into the old city. The fee could be waived for certain types of travelers: including students, children under the age of 6, voluntary workers, residents of the Veneto region, and participants in sporting events. Overnight visitors, who already pay a "stay" tax and account for around 40% of Venice's yearly total of 28 million visitors, would also be exempted. The access fee was expected to come into effect in September 2019; but it was postponed, firstly, until 1 January 2020, and then, again, due to the coronavirus pandemic. The new charge of €5 started to be imposed on those tourists who are not staying overnight and came into force on 25 April 2024. It is only charged on peak visitor days, and several classes of people are exempt, including
Veneto
Veneto, officially the Region of Veneto, is one of the 20 regions of Italy, located in the Northeast Italy, north-east of the country. It is the fourth most populous region in Italy, with a population of 4,851,851 as of 2025. Venice is t ...
residents, hotel guests (including mainland boroughs of Venice), local workers, and students. Cell phone data showed more tourists came on fee-charged days in 2024, generating more money than expected, and leaving the city to decide whether to raise the fee for the next tourist season or try other approaches.
A regulation taking effect on June 1, 2024, limits tour groups to 25 people and bans loudspeakers.
Transport
In the historic centre
Venice is built on an
archipelago
An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands. An archipelago may be in an ocean, a sea, or a smaller body of water. Example archipelagos include the Aegean Islands (the o ...
of 118 islands
in a shallow,
lagoon
A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into ''coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons'') an ...
, connected by 400 bridges over 177 canals. In the 19th century, a causeway to the mainland brought the railroad to
Venice
Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...
. The adjoining
Ponte della Libertà road causeway and terminal parking facilities in Tronchetto island and Piazzale Roma were built during the 20th century. Beyond these rail and road terminals on the northern edge of the city, transportation within the city's historic centre remains, as it was in centuries past, entirely on water or on foot. Venice is Europe's largest urban
car-free area and is unique in Europe in having remained a sizable functioning city in the 21st century entirely without motorcars or trucks.
The classic Venetian boat is the ''
gondola'', (plural: ''gondole'') although it is now mostly used for tourists, or for weddings, funerals, or other ceremonies, or as ''traghetti'' (sing.: traghetto) to cross the Grand Canal in lieu of a nearby bridge. The traghetti are operated by two oarsmen.
There are approximately 400 licensed gondoliers in Venice, in their distinctive
livery, and a similar number of boats, down from 10,000 two centuries ago.
Many gondolas are lushly appointed with
crushed velvet seats and
Persian rugs. At the front of each gondola that works in the city, there is a large piece of metal called the ''fèro'' (iron). Its shape has evolved through the centuries, as documented in many well-known paintings. Its form, topped by a likeness of the Doge's hat, became gradually standardized, and was then fixed by local law. It consists of six bars pointing forward representing the
sestieri of the city, and one that points backwards representing the
Giudecca.
A lesser-known boat is the smaller, simpler, but similar,
sandolo.
Waterways
Venice's small islands were enhanced during the Middle Ages by the
dredging of soil to raise the marshy ground above the tides. The resulting canals encouraged the flourishing of a nautical culture which proved central to the economy of the city. Today those canals still provide the means for transport of goods and people within the city.
The maze of canals threading through the city requires more than 400 bridges to permit the flow of foot traffic. In 2011, the city opened the
Ponte della Costituzione, the fourth bridge across the Grand Canal, which connects the
Piazzale Roma bus-terminal area with the Venezia Santa Lucia railway station. The other bridges are the original
Ponte di Rialto, the
Ponte dell'Accademia, and the
Ponte degli Scalzi.
Public transport
Azienda del Consorzio Trasporti Veneziano (ACTV) is a public company responsible for public transportation in Venice.
Lagoon area

The main means of public transportation consists of motorised
waterbuses (''
vaporetti'') which ply regular routes along the Grand Canal and between the city's islands. Private motorised water taxis are also active. The only gondole still in common use by Venetians are the ''traghetti'', foot passenger
ferries crossing the Grand Canal at certain points where there are no convenient bridges. Other gondole are rented by tourists on an hourly basis.
The
Venice People Mover is an elevated shuttle train
public transit system connecting
Tronchetto island with its car parking facility with Piazzale Roma where visitors arrive in the city by bus, taxi, or automobile. The train makes a stop at the Marittima cruise terminal at the
Port of Venice.
Lido and Pellestrina islands
Lido and
Pellestrina are two islands forming a barrier between the southern Venetian Lagoon and the Adriatic Sea. On those islands, road traffic, including bus service, is allowed. Vaporetti link them with other islands (Venice,
Murano,
Burano
Burano is an island in the Venetian Lagoon, northern Italy, near Torcello at the northern end of the lagoon, known for its lace work and brightly coloured homes. The primary economy is tourism.
Geography
Burano is from Venice, a 45-minute tr ...
) and with the peninsula of
Cavallino-Treporti.
Mainland

The mainland of Venice is composed of 4 boroughs:
Mestre-Carpenedo,
Marghera, Chirignago-Zelarino, and Favaro Veneto. Mestre is the centre and the most populous urban area of the mainland. There are several bus routes and two
Translohr tramway lines. Several bus routes and one of the tramway lines link the mainland with ''
Piazzale Roma'', the main bus station in Venice, via
Ponte della Libertà, the road bridge connecting the mainland with the group of islands that comprise the historic centre of Venice.
The average amount of time people spend commuting with public transit in Venice, for example to and from work, on a weekday is 52 min. Only 12.2% of public transit riders ride for more than 2 hours every day. The average amount of time people wait at a stop or station for public transit is 10 min, while 17.6% of riders wait for over 20 minutes on average every day. The average distance people usually ride in a single trip with public transit is , while 12% travel for over in a single direction.
Rail

Venice is served by regional and national trains, including trains to Florence (1h53), Milan (2h13), Turin (3h10), Rome (3h33), and Naples (4h50).
There are international day trains to Zurich, Innsbruck, Munich, and Vienna, plus overnight sleeper services, to Paris and Dijon on
Thello trains, and to Munich and Vienna via
Austrian Federal Railways.
European Sleeper operates a sleeper train between
Brussels
Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...
and Venice, stopping in
Utrecht
Utrecht ( ; ; ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city of the Netherlands, as well as the capital and the most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Utrecht (province), Utrecht. The ...
.
* The
Venezia Santa Lucia railway station is a few steps away from a vaporetti stop, Ferovia, in the historic city next to the ''Piazzale Roma''. This station is the terminus of local trains and of the luxury
Venice Simplon Orient Express from London via Paris and other cities.
* The
Venezia Mestre railway station is on the mainland, on the border between the boroughs of Mestre and Marghera.
Both stations are managed by
Grandi Stazioni; they are linked by the ''Ponte della Libertà'' (Liberty Bridge) between the mainland and the city centre.
Other stations in the municipality are Venezia Porto Marghera, Venezia Carpenedo, Venezia Mestre Ospedale, and Venezia Mestre Porta Ovest.
Ports

The
Port of Venice () is the eighth-busiest commercial port in Italy and was a major hub for the cruise sector in the
Mediterranean
The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...
, as since August 2021 ships of more 25,000 tons are forbidden to pass the
Giudecca Canal. It is one of the major Italian ports and is included in the list of the leading European ports which are located on the strategic nodes of trans-European networks. In 2002, the port handled 262,337 containers. In 2006, 30,936,931 tonnes passed through the port, of which 14,541,961 was commercial traffic, and saw 1,453,513 passengers.
Aviation
Marco Polo International Airport (''Aeroporto di Venezia Marco Polo'') is named in honor of
Marco Polo
Marco Polo (; ; ; 8 January 1324) was a Republic of Venice, Venetian merchant, explorer and writer who travelled through Asia along the Silk Road between 1271 and 1295. His travels are recorded in ''The Travels of Marco Polo'' (also known a ...
. The airport is on the mainland and was rebuilt away from the coast. Public transport from the airport takes one to:
* Venice
Piazzale Roma by ATVO (provincial company) buses and by ACTV (city company) buses (route 5 ''aerobus'');
* Venice, Lido, and Murano by Allilaguna (private company) motor boats;
* Mestre, the mainland, where Venice Mestre railway station is convenient for connections to
Milan
Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...
,
Padua
Padua ( ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Veneto, northern Italy, and the capital of the province of Padua. The city lies on the banks of the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice and southeast of Vicenza, and has a population of 20 ...
,
Trieste
Trieste ( , ; ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital and largest city of the Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, as well as of the Province of Trieste, ...
,
Verona and the rest of Italy, and for
ACTV (routes 15 and 45)
and ATVO buses and other transport;
* Regional destinations, such as
Treviso and
Padua
Padua ( ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Veneto, northern Italy, and the capital of the province of Padua. The city lies on the banks of the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice and southeast of Vicenza, and has a population of 20 ...
, by ATVO and
Busitalia Sita Nord buses.
Venice-Treviso Airport, about from Venice, is used mainly by low-cost airlines. There are public buses from this airport to Venice.
Venezia-Lido "Giovanni Nicelli", a public airport suitable for smaller aircraft, is at the northeast end of
Lido di Venezia. It has a grass runway.
Sport
The most famous Venetian sport is probably ' ("Venetian-style rowing"), also commonly called ''voga veneta''. A technique invented in the Venetian Lagoon, Venetian rowing is unusual in that the rower(s), one or more, row standing, looking forward. Today, ''Voga alla Veneta'' is not only the way the gondoliers row tourists around Venice but also the way Venetians row for pleasure and sport. Many races called ''regata(e)'' happen throughout the year. The culminating event of the rowing season is the day of the "Regata Storica", which occurs on the first Sunday of September each year.
The main football club in the city is
Venezia F.C., founded in 1907, which currently plays in the
Serie A
The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...
. Their ground, the
Stadio Pier Luigi Penzo, situated in
Sant'Elena, is the second-oldest continually used stadium in Italy.
The local basketball club is
Reyer Venezia, founded in 1872 as the gymnastics club ''Società Sportiva Costantino Reyer'', and in 1907 as the basketball club. Reyer currently plays in the
Lega Basket Serie A
The Lega Basket Serie A (LBA) is a professional men's club (sport), club basketball list of basketball leagues, league that has been organised in Italy since 1920. Serie A is organised by Lega Basket, which is regulated by the Italian Basketball ...
. The men's team were the Italian champions in 1942, 1943, and 2017. Their arena is the
Palasport Giuseppe Taliercio, situated in
Mestre.
Luigi Brugnaro is both the president of the club and the mayor of the city.
Education
Venice is a major international centre for higher education. The city hosts the
Ca' Foscari University of Venice, founded in 1868; the , founded in 1926; the
Venice International University, founded in 1995 and located on the island of
San Servolo and the
EIUC-European Inter-University Centre for Human Rights and Democratisation, located on the island of
Lido di Venezia.
Other Venetian institutions of higher education are: the
''Accademia di Belle Arti'' (Academy of Fine Arts), established in 1750, whose first chairman was
Giovanni Battista Piazzetta, and the
Benedetto Marcello Conservatory of Music, which was first established in 1876 as a high school and musical society, later (1915) became ''Liceo Musicale'', and then, when its director was
Gian Francesco Malipiero, the State Conservatory of Music (1940).
Culture
Literature

Venice has long been a source of inspiration for authors, playwrights, and poets, and at the forefront of the technological development of printing and publishing.
Two of the most noted Venetian writers were
Marco Polo
Marco Polo (; ; ; 8 January 1324) was a Republic of Venice, Venetian merchant, explorer and writer who travelled through Asia along the Silk Road between 1271 and 1295. His travels are recorded in ''The Travels of Marco Polo'' (also known a ...
in the Middle Ages and, later,
Giacomo Casanova. Polo (1254–1324) was a merchant who voyaged to
the Orient. His series of books, co-written with
Rustichello da Pisa and titled ''
Il Milione'' provided important knowledge of the lands east of Europe, from the Middle East to China, Japan, and Russia.
Giacomo Casanova (1725–1798) was a prolific writer and adventurer best remembered for his autobiography, ''Histoire De Ma Vie'' (''Story of My Life''), which links his colourful lifestyle to the city of Venice.
Venetian playwrights followed the old Italian theatre tradition of ''
commedia dell'arte
Commedia dell'arte was an early form of professional theatre, originating from Theatre of Italy, Italian theatre, that was popular throughout Europe between the 16th and 18th centuries. It was formerly called Italian comedy in English and is a ...
''.
Ruzante (1502–1542),
Carlo Goldoni (1707–1793), and
Carlo Gozzi (1720–1806) used the Venetian dialect extensively in their comedies.
Venice has also inspired writers from abroad. Shakespeare set ''
Othello'' and ''
The Merchant of Venice'' in the city, as did
Thomas Mann
Paul Thomas Mann ( , ; ; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novell ...
his novel, ''
Death in Venice'' (1912). The French writer
Philippe Sollers spent most of his life in Venice and published ''A Dictionary For Lovers of Venice'' in 2004.
The city features prominently in
Henry James's ''
The Aspern Papers'' and ''
The Wings of the Dove''. It is also visited in
Evelyn Waugh's ''
Brideshead Revisited'' and
Marcel Proust's ''
In Search of Lost Time''. Perhaps the best-known children's book set in Venice is ''The Thief Lord'', written by the German author
Cornelia Funke.
Venice is described in
Goethe
Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on Western literature, literary, Polit ...
's
Italian Journey, 1786–1788. He describes the architecture, including a church by
Palladio and also attends the opera. He visits the shipbuilding yards at the
Arsenal. He is fascinated by the street life of Venice, which he describes as a kind of performance.
The poet
Ugo Foscolo (1778–1827), born in
Zante, an island that at the time belonged to the Republic of Venice, was also a
revolutionary
A revolutionary is a person who either participates in, or advocates for, a revolution. The term ''revolutionary'' can also be used as an adjective to describe something producing a major and sudden impact on society.
Definition
The term—bot ...
who wanted to see a free republic established in Venice following its fall to
Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...
.
Venice also inspired the poetry of
Ezra Pound
Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an List of poets from the United States, American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Ita ...
, who wrote his first literary work in the city. Pound died in 1972, and his remains are buried in Venice's
cemetery island of
San Michele.
Venice is also linked to the technological aspects of writing. The city was the location of one of Italy's earliest printing presses called
Aldine Press
The Aldine Press was the printing office started by Aldus Manutius in 1494 in Venice, from which were issued the celebrated Aldine editions of the classics (Latin and Greek masterpieces, plus a few more modern works). The first book that was d ...
, established by
Aldus Manutius in 1494. From this beginning Venice developed as an important typographic centre. Around fifteen percent of all printing of the fifteenth century came from Venice, and even as late as the 18th century was responsible for printing half of Italy's published books.
In literature and adapted works
The city is a particularly popular setting for essays, novels, and other works of fictional or non-fictional literature. Examples of these include:
*
Aretino's works (1492–1556)
*
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...
's ''
Merchant of Venice'' () and ''
Othello'' (1603).
*
Ben Jonson
Benjamin Jonson ( 11 June 1572 – ) was an English playwright, poet and actor. Jonson's artistry exerted a lasting influence on English poetry and stage comedy. He popularised the comedy of humours; he is best known for the satire, satirical ...
's ''
Volpone'' (1605–6).
*
Casanova's autobiographical
''History of My Life'' .
*
Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778), known by his ''Pen name, nom de plume'' Voltaire (, ; ), was a French Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment writer, philosopher (''philosophe''), satirist, and historian. Famous for his wit ...
's ''
Candide'' (1759).
*
Letitia Elizabeth Landon wrote poetry for two pictures of Venice; one for ''The Embarkation'', drawn by
Clarkson Stanfield for The Amulet, 1833, the other for ''Santa Salute'', drawn by
Charles Bentley for the Literary Souvenir, 1835.
*
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway ( ; July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer and journalist. Known for an economical, understated style that influenced later 20th-century writers, he has been romanticized fo ...
's ''
Across the River and into the Trees'' (1950).
*
Italo Calvino's ''
Invisible Cities'' (1972).
*
Anne Rice's ''
Cry to Heaven'' (1982).
*
Donna Leon's Commissario Guido Brunetti
crime fiction
Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, crime novel, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives or fiction that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professiona ...
series and cookbook, and the German television series based on the novels (1992–2019).
*
Philippe Sollers' ''
Watteau in Venice'' (1994).
*
Michael Dibdin's ''
Dead Lagoon'' (1994), one in a series of novels featuring Venice-born policeman Aurelio Zen.
*
Jacqueline Carey's ''
Kushiel's Chosen'' (2002), an
historical fantasy or
alternate history
Alternate history (also referred to as alternative history, allohistory, althist, or simply A.H.) is a subgenre of speculative fiction in which one or more historical events have occurred but are resolved differently than in actual history. As ...
of Venice – complete with masquerades, canals, and a doge – taking place in a city known as La Serenissima.
*
John Berendt's ''The City of Falling Angels'' (2005)
*
Gilbert and Sullivan's
comic opera
Comic opera, sometimes known as light opera, is a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending and often including spoken dialogue.
Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a ne ...
''
The Gondoliers'' (1889)
*
Thomas Mann
Paul Thomas Mann ( , ; ; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novell ...
's novella, ''
Death in Venice'' (1912), was the basis for Benjamin Britten's
eponymous opera (1973).
Foreign words of Venetian origin
Some English words with a Venetian etymology include
arsenal,
ciao,
ghetto,
gondola,
imbroglio,
lagoon
A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into ''coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons'') an ...
,
lazaret,
lido,
Montenegro
, image_flag = Flag of Montenegro.svg
, image_coat = Coat of arms of Montenegro.svg
, coa_size = 80
, national_motto =
, national_anthem = ()
, image_map = Europe-Mont ...
, and
regatta.
Printing
By the end of the 15th century, Venice had become the European capital of printing, having 417 printers by 1500, and being one of the first cities in Italy (after Subiaco and Rome) to have a printing press, after those established in Germany. The most important printing office was the
Aldine Press
The Aldine Press was the printing office started by Aldus Manutius in 1494 in Venice, from which were issued the celebrated Aldine editions of the classics (Latin and Greek masterpieces, plus a few more modern works). The first book that was d ...
of
Aldus Manutius; which in 1497 issued the first printed work of
Aristotle
Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...
; in 1499 printed the ''
Hypnerotomachia Poliphili'', considered the most beautiful book of the
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...
; and established modern
punctuation
Punctuation marks are marks indicating how a piece of writing, written text should be read (silently or aloud) and, consequently, understood. The oldest known examples of punctuation marks were found in the Mesha Stele from the 9th century BC, c ...
, page format, and
italic type
In typography, italic type is a cursive font based on a stylised form of calligraphic handwriting. Along with blackletter and roman type, it served as one of the major typefaces in the history of Western typography.
Owing to the influence f ...
.
Painting
Venice, especially during the
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...
, and
Baroque
The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...
periods, was a major centre of art and developed a unique style known as the
Venetian painting. In the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, Venice, along with
Florence
Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025.
Florence ...
and Rome, became one of the most important centres of art in Europe, and numerous wealthy Venetians became patrons of the arts. Venice at the time was a rich and prosperous
Maritime Republic, which controlled a vast sea and trade empire.
In the 16th century, Venetian painting was developed through influences from the Paduan School and
Antonello da Messina, who introduced the oil painting technique of the
Van Eyck Van Eyck or Van Eijk () is a Dutch language, Dutch toponymic surname. ''Eijck'', ''Eyck'', ''Eyk'' and ''Eijk'' are all archaic spellings of modern Dutch ("oak") and the surname literally translates as "from/of oak". However, in most cases, the fam ...
brothers. It is signified by a warm colour scale and a picturesque use of colour. Early masters were the Bellini and Vivarini families, followed by
Giorgione and
Titian
Tiziano Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), Latinized as Titianus, hence known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italian Renaissance painter, the most important artist of Renaissance Venetian painting. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, near Belluno.
Ti ...
, then
Tintoretto and
Veronese. In the early 16th century, there was rivalry in Venetian painting between the ''disegno'' and ''colorito'' techniques.
Canvases (the common painting surface) originated in Venice during the early Renaissance. In the 18th century, Venetian painting had a revival with
Tiepolo's decorative painting and
Canaletto's and
Guardi's panoramic views.
Venetian architecture

Venice is built on unstable mud-banks, and had a very crowded city centre by the Middle Ages. On the other hand, the city was largely safe from riot, civil feuds, and invasion much earlier than most European cities. These factors, with the canals and the great wealth of the city, made for unique building styles.
Venice has a rich and diverse
architectural style
An architectural style is a classification of buildings (and nonbuilding structures) based on a set of characteristics and features, including overall appearance, arrangement of the components, method of construction, building materials used, for ...
, the most prominent of which is the
Gothic style.
Venetian Gothic architecture is a term given to a Venetian building style combining the use of the Gothic
lancet arch with the curved
ogee arch, due to
Byzantine
The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...
and
Ottoman influences. The style originated in 14th-century Venice, with a confluence of
Byzantine
The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...
style from
Constantinople
Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...
, Islamic influences from
Spain
Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...
and Venice's eastern trading partners, and early Gothic forms from mainland Italy. Chief examples of the style are the
Doge's Palace and the
Ca' d'Oro in the city. The city also has several
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...
and
Baroque
The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...
buildings, including the
Ca' Pesaro and the
Ca' Rezzonico.
Venetian taste was conservative and
Renaissance architecture
Renaissance architecture is the European architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 16th centuries in different regions, demonstrating a conscious revival and development of certain elements of Ancient Greece, ancient Greek and ...
only really became popular in buildings from about the 1470s. More than in the rest of Italy, it kept much of the typical form of the Gothic ''palazzi'', which had evolved to suit Venetian conditions. In turn the transition to
Baroque architecture
Baroque architecture is a highly decorative and theatrical style which appeared in Italy in the late 16th century and gradually spread across Europe. It was originally introduced by the Catholic Church, particularly by the Jesuits, as a means to ...
was also fairly gentle. This gives the crowded buildings on the Grand Canal and elsewhere an essential harmony, even where buildings from very different periods sit together. For example, round-topped arches are far more common in Renaissance buildings than elsewhere.
Rococo style
It can be argued that Venice produced the best and most refined
Rococo
Rococo, less commonly Roccoco ( , ; or ), also known as Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and dramatic style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpte ...
designs. At the time, the Venetian economy was in decline. It had lost most of its maritime power, was lagging behind its rivals in political importance, and its society had become decadent, with tourism increasingly the mainstay of the economy. But Venice remained a centre of fashion.
[Miller (2005) p.82] Venetian rococo was well known as rich and luxurious, with usually very extravagant designs. Unique Venetian furniture types included the ''divani da portego'', and long rococo couches and ''pozzetti'', objects meant to be placed against the wall. Bedrooms of rich Venetians were usually sumptuous and grand, with rich damask, velvet, and silk drapery and curtains, and beautifully carved rococo beds with statues of
putti, flowers, and angels.
Venice was especially known for its
girandole mirrors, which remained among, if not the, finest in Europe. Chandeliers were usually very colourful, using
Murano glass to make them look more vibrant and stand out from others; and precious stones and materials from abroad were used, since Venice still held a vast trade empire. Lacquer was very common, and many items of furniture were covered with it, the most noted being ''lacca povera'' (poor lacquer), in which allegories and images of social life were painted. Lacquerwork and
Chinoiserie were particularly common in bureau cabinets.
Glass

Venice is known for its ornate glass-work, known as
Venetian glass, which is world-renowned for being colourful, elaborate, and skillfully made. Many of the important characteristics of these objects had been developed by the 13th century. Toward the end of that century, the centre of the Venetian glass industry moved to
Murano, an offshore island in Venice. The glass made there is known as
Murano glass.
Byzantine craftsmen played an important role in the development of Venetian glass. When
Constantinople
Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...
was sacked in the
Fourth Crusade
The Fourth Crusade (1202–1204) was a Latin Christian armed expedition called by Pope Innocent III. The stated intent of the expedition was to recapture the Muslim-controlled city of Jerusalem, by first defeating the powerful Egyptian Ayyubid S ...
in 1204, some fleeing artisans came to Venice; when the
Ottomans
Ottoman may refer to:
* Osman I, historically known in English as "Ottoman I", founder of the Ottoman Empire
* Osman II, historically known in English as "Ottoman II"
* Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empir ...
took Constantinople in 1453, still more glassworkers arrived. By the 16th century, Venetian artisans had gained even greater control over the colour and transparency of their glass, and had mastered a variety of decorative techniques. Despite efforts to keep Venetian glassmaking techniques within Venice, they became known elsewhere, and Venetian-style glassware was produced in other Italian cities and other countries of Europe.
Some of the most important brands of glass in the world today are still produced in the historical glass factories on Murano. They are: Venini, Barovier & Toso,
Pauly, Millevetri, and Seguso. Barovier & Toso is considered one of the 100
oldest companies in the world, formed in 1295.
In February 2021, the world learned that Venetian glass
trade beads had been found at three prehistoric
Inuit
Inuit (singular: Inuk) are a group of culturally and historically similar Indigenous peoples traditionally inhabiting the Arctic and Subarctic regions of North America and Russia, including Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwe ...
sites in
Alaska
Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...
, including Punyik Point. Uninhabited today, and located from the
Continental Divide in the
Brooks Range, the area was on ancient trade routes from the
Bering Sea
The Bering Sea ( , ; rus, Бе́рингово мо́ре, r=Béringovo móre, p=ˈbʲerʲɪnɡəvə ˈmorʲe) is a marginal sea of the Northern Pacific Ocean. It forms, along with the Bering Strait, the divide between the two largest landmasse ...
to the
Arctic Ocean
The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five oceanic divisions. It spans an area of approximately and is the coldest of the world's oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, ...
. From their creation in Venice, researchers believe the likely route these artifacts traveled was across
Europe
Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
, then
Eurasia
Eurasia ( , ) is a continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. According to some geographers, Physical geography, physiographically, Eurasia is a single supercontinent. The concept of Europe and Asia as distinct continents d ...
and finally over the
Bering Strait, making this discovery "the first documented instance of the presence of indubitable European materials in prehistoric sites in the western hemisphere as the result of overland transport across the Eurasian continent." After
radiocarbon dating
Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for Chronological dating, determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of carbon-14, radiocarbon, a radioactive Isotop ...
materials found near the beads, archaeologists estimated their arrival on the continent to sometime between 1440 and 1480, predating
Christopher Columbus. The dating and provenance has been challenged by other researchers who point out that such beads were not made in Venice until the mid-16th century and that an early 17th century French origin is possible.
Festivals
The
Carnival of Venice is held annually in the city, It lasts for around two weeks and ends on
Shrove Tuesday.
Venetian masks are worn.
The
Venice Biennale is one of the most important events in the arts calendar. In 1895 an ''Esposizione biennale artistica nazionale'' (biennial exhibition of Italian art) was inaugurated. In September 1942, the activities of the Biennale were interrupted by the war, but resumed in 1948.
The
Festa del Redentore is held in mid-July. It began as a feast to give thanks for the end of the plague of 1576. A bridge of barges is built connecting Giudecca to the rest of Venice, and fireworks play an important role.
The
Venice Film Festival () is the oldest film festival in the world. Founded by Count
Giuseppe Volpi di Misurata in 1932 as the ''Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica'', the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the
Lido. Screenings take place in the historic
Palazzo del Cinema on the Lungomare Marconi. It is one of the world's most prestigious film festivals and is part of the Venice Biennale.
Music

Venice has played an important role in the development of
Italian music. The medieval
Republic of Venice
The Republic of Venice, officially the Most Serene Republic of Venice and traditionally known as La Serenissima, was a sovereign state and Maritime republics, maritime republic with its capital in Venice. Founded, according to tradition, in 697 ...
was often popularly called the "Republic of Music", and an anonymous Frenchman of the 17th century is said to have remarked that "In every
enetianhome, someone is playing a musical instrument or singing. There is music everywhere."
During the 16th century, Venice became one of the most important musical centres of Europe, marked by a characteristic style of composition (the
Venetian school) and the development of the
Venetian polychoral style under composers such as
Adrian Willaert, who worked at
St Mark's Basilica. Venice was the early centre of music printing;
Ottaviano Petrucci began publishing music almost as soon as this technology was available, and his publishing enterprise helped to attract composers from all over Europe, especially from France and
Flanders
Flanders ( or ; ) is the Dutch language, Dutch-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture, la ...
. By the end of the century, Venice was known for the splendor of its music, as exemplified in the "colossal style" of
Andrea and
Giovanni Gabrieli
Giovanni Gabrieli (/1557 – 12 August 1612) was an Italian composer and organist. He was one of the most influential musicians of his time, and represents the culmination of the style of the Venetian School (music), Venetian School, at the t ...
, which used multiple choruses and instrumental groups. Venice was also the home of many noted composers during the
baroque period, such as
Antonio Vivaldi,
Tomaso Albinoni,
Ippolito Ciera,
Giovanni Picchi, and
Girolamo Dalla Casa, to name but a few.
Orchestras
Venice is the home of numerous orchestras such as, the
Orchestra della Fenice,
Rondò Veneziano, Interpreti Veneziani, and
Venice Baroque Orchestra.
Cinema, media, and popular culture

The city has been the setting or chosen location of numerous films, games, works of fine art and literature (including essays, fiction, non-fiction, and poems), music videos, television shows, and other cultural references. Notable examples of this are the films ''
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
''Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade'' is a 1989 American action adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg from a screenplay by Jeffrey Boam, based on a story by George Lucas and Menno Meyjes. It is the third installment in the Indiana Jone ...
'' and ''
Casino Royale'', the
second part of the Japanese manga series ''
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure'' and the video game ''
Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves''.
Photography
Fulvio Roiter was the pioneer in artistic photography in Venice, followed by a number of photographers whose works are often reproduced on postcards, thus reaching a widest international popular exposure.
Luca Zordan, a New York City based photographer was born in Venice.
Cuisine
Venetian cuisine is characterized by seafood, but also includes garden products from Sant'Erasmo island, rice from the mainland, game, and
polenta. Venice is not known for a particular cuisine of its own: it combines local traditions with influences stemming from age-old contacts with distant countries. These include ''
sarde in saór'' (sardines marinated to preserve them for long voyages); ''
bacalà mantecato'' (a recipe based on Norwegian
stockfish and extra-virgin olive oil); ''bisàto'' (marinated eel); ''risi e bisi'' – rice, peas and (unsmoked) bacon; ''fegato alla veneziana'', Venetian-style veal liver; ''risi e bisi'' (rice and beans); ''risòto col néro de sépe'' (risotto with cuttlefish, blackened by their own ink);
''cichéti'', refined and delicious tidbits (akin to ''tapas''); ''antipasti'' (appetizers); and ''
prosecco'', sparkling light -body white wine.
In addition, Venice is known for the golden, oval-shaped cookies called ''
baìcoli'', and for other types of sweets, such as: ''pan del pescaór'' (bread of the fisherman); cookies with almonds and pistachio nuts; cookies with fried Venetian cream, or the ''bussolài'' (
butter biscuits and
shortbread
Shortbread or shortie is a traditional Scottish biscuit usually made from one part sugar, white sugar, two parts butter and three to four parts plain flour, plain wheat flour. Shortbread does not contain leavening, such as baking powder or bakin ...
made in the shape of a ring or an "S") from the island of Burano; the ''galàni'' or ''cróstoli'' (
angel wings);
[In other areas of Italy similar sweets are known by many other names, e.g. ''cénci'' (rags) (Florence), ''frappe'' (flounces) (Rome), ''bugìe'' (lies) (Turin, Genoa, etc.), ''mandolato'' (almond turron crunch); ''chiàcchiere'' (chatter) (Milan and many other places in northern, central and southern Italy). Vid.: Pellegrino Artusi, ''La Scienza in cucina e l'Arte di mangiar bene'', 93ª ristampa, Firenze, Giunti, 1960, p. 387, #595; Ranieri da Mosto, ''Il Veneto in cucina'', Firenze, Aldo Martello-Giunti, 1974, p. 364; Luigi Veronelli (edited by), ''Il Carnacina'', 10th ed., Milano, Garzanti, 1975, p. 656, #2013; to name but a few.] the ''frìtole'' (fried spherical doughnuts); the ''fregolòtta'' (a crumbly cake with almonds); a milk pudding called ''rosàda''; and cookies called ''zaléti'', whose ingredients include yellow maize flour.
The dessert
tiramisù is generally thought to have been invented in
Treviso in the 1970s, and is popular in the
Veneto
Veneto, officially the Region of Veneto, is one of the 20 regions of Italy, located in the Northeast Italy, north-east of the country. It is the fourth most populous region in Italy, with a population of 4,851,851 as of 2025. Venice is t ...
area.
Fashion and shopping

In the 14th century, many young Venetian men began wearing tight-fitting multicoloured hose, the designs on which indicated the ''Compagnie della Calza'' ("Trouser Club") to which they belonged. The Venetian Senate passed
sumptuary laws, but these merely resulted in changes in fashion in order to circumvent the law. Dull garments were worn over colourful ones, which then were cut to show the hidden colours resulting in the spread of men's "slashed" fashions in the 15th century.
Today, Venice is a major fashion and shopping centre; not as important as
Milan
Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...
,
Florence
Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025.
Florence ...
, and Rome, but on a par with
Verona,
Turin
Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...
,
Vicenza,
Naples
Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...
, and
Genoa.
Roberta di Camerino is the only major
Italian fashion brand to be based in Venice. Founded in 1945, it is renowned for its innovative handbags made by Venetian artisans and often covered in locally woven
velvet.
International relations
Twin towns – sister cities
Venice is
twinned with:
*
Dubrovnik
Dubrovnik, historically known as Ragusa, is a city in southern Dalmatia, Croatia, by the Adriatic Sea. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations in the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean, a Port, seaport and the centre of the Dubrovni ...
, Croatia
*
Istanbul
Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...
, Turkey
*
Palembang, Indonesia
*
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...
, Russia
*
Sarajevo
Sarajevo ( ), ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'' is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 2 ...
, Bosnia and Herzegovina
*
Suzhou
Suzhou is a major prefecture-level city in southern Jiangsu province, China. As part of the Yangtze Delta megalopolis, it is a major economic center and focal point of trade and commerce.
Founded in 514 BC, Suzhou rapidly grew in size by the ...
, China
*
Tallinn
Tallinn is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Estonia, most populous city of Estonia. Situated on a Tallinn Bay, bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, it has a population of (as of 2025) and ...
, Estonia
*
Yerevan
Yerevan ( , , ; ; sometimes spelled Erevan) is the capital and largest city of Armenia, as well as one of the world's List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerev ...
, Armenia
*
Odesa
Odesa, also spelled Odessa, is the third most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern ...
, Ukraine
*
Aksaray, Turkey
In 2013, Venice announced that it wants to end the sister city relationship with St. Petersburg in opposition to laws Russia had passed against homosexuals and those who support gay rights.
Cooperation agreements
In January 2000, the City of Venice and the Central Association of Cities and Communities of Greece (KEDKE) established, in pursuance to
EC Regulation No. 2137/85, the Marco Polo System
European Economic Interest Grouping (E.E.I.G.), to promote and realise European projects within transnational cultural and tourist fields, particularly in reference to the preservation and safeguarding of artistic and architectural heritage.
In April 2001, the city signed an agreement with the office of cultural promotion and cooperation of the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and relations, diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral r ...
to coordinate efforts at promoting Italian culture abroad.
Venice also has cooperation agreements with:
*
Lübeck, Germany (1979)
*
Nuremberg
Nuremberg (, ; ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the Franconia#Towns and cities, largest city in Franconia, the List of cities in Bavaria by population, second-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Bav ...
, Germany (1999)
*
Qingdao, China (2001, Science and Technology Partnership)
*
Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki (; ), also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, Salonika, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece (with slightly over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area) and the capital cit ...
, Greece (2003)
*
Miami
Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...
, United States (2020)
Places named after Venice
The name "
Venezuela
Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...
" is a Spanish diminutive of Venice (''Veneziola'').
Many additional places around the world are named after Venice, such as:
*
Venice, Los Angeles, home of Venice Beach
*
Venice, Alberta, in Canada
*
Venice, Florida, city in Sarasota County
*
Venice, Louisiana
*
Little Venice, London
*
Venise-en-Québec, Québec
People
Others closely associated with the city include:
Music
*
Andrea Gabrieli
Andrea Gabrieli (1532/1533Bryant, Grove online – August 30, 1585) was an Italian composer and organist of the late Renaissance music, Renaissance. The uncle of the somewhat more famous Giovanni Gabrieli, he was the first internationally renowned ...
(–1586), Italian composer and organist at
St Mark's Basilica
*
Giovanni Gabrieli
Giovanni Gabrieli (/1557 – 12 August 1612) was an Italian composer and organist. He was one of the most influential musicians of his time, and represents the culmination of the style of the Venetian School (music), Venetian School, at the t ...
(1554/1557–1612), composer and organist at St Mark's Basilica
*
Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643), composer, string player, choirmaster and Catholic priest
*
Francesco Cavalli
Francesco Cavalli (born Pietro Francesco Caletti-Bruni; 14 February 1602 – 14 January 1676) was a Venetian composer, organist and singer of the early Baroque period. He succeeded his teacher Claudio Monteverdi as the dominant and leading op ...
(1602–1676),
baroque
The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...
composer
*
Barbara Strozzi (1619–1677), composer and singer
*
Tomaso Albinoni (1671–1751), baroque composer
*
Antonio Vivaldi (1678–1741), composer and violinist of the Baroque Era
*
Domenico Montagnana (1686–1750), Italian master
luthier. He made the
violin
The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...
and
cello
The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...
.
*
Pietro Guarneri (1695–1762), luthier, settled in Venice 1717, ''Peter of Venice''
*
Lorenzo Da Ponte (1749–1838), opera librettist and poet. He wrote the librettos for 28 operas by 11 composers, including
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition and proficiency from an early age ...
.
*
Domenico Dragonetti (1763–1846), double bass virtuoso and composer
*
Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari (1876–1948), Italian composer, mostly of comic opera
*
Virgilio Ranzato (1883–1937), Italian composer and violinist
*
Bruno Maderna (1920–1973), Italian-German orchestra director and music composer
*
Luigi Nono (1924–1990), leading composer of instrumental and electronic music
*
Giuseppe Sinopoli (1946–2001), conductor and composer
*
Claudio Ambrosini (born 1948), composer and conductor
*
Giovanni Gallo (), Italian choreographer of ballets within operas
Painting
*
Giovanni Bellini ( – 1516), Renaissance painter from the Bellini family of painters
*
Vittore Carpaccio ( – 1525/1526), Italian painter of the
Venetian school
*
Lorenzo Lotto ( – 1556), painter, draughtsman and illustrator, in the Venetian school
*
Sebastiano del Piombo ( – 1547),
High Renaissance painter and early
Mannerist
*
Titian
Tiziano Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), Latinized as Titianus, hence known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italian Renaissance painter, the most important artist of Renaissance Venetian painting. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, near Belluno.
Ti ...
( – 1576), leader of the Venetian school of the
Italian Renaissance
The Italian Renaissance ( ) was a period in History of Italy, Italian history between the 14th and 16th centuries. The period is known for the initial development of the broader Renaissance culture that spread across Western Europe and marked t ...
*
Tintoretto (1518–1594), the last great painter of Italian Renaissance
*
Baldassare d'Anna ( – after 1639), painter of the late-
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...
period
*
Niccolò Cassana (1659–1714), late-Baroque painter
*
Rosalba Carriera (1675–1757), Rococo painter, known for her pastel works
*
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696–1770), painter and printmaker. He painted in the
Rococo
Rococo, less commonly Roccoco ( , ; or ), also known as Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and dramatic style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpte ...
style, Venetian school.
*
Canaletto (1697–1768), painter, known for his landscapes or ''
vedute'' of Venice
*
Pietro Longhi ( – 1785), painter of contemporary
genre
Genre () is any style or form of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other fo ...
scenes of life
*
Giuseppe Santomaso (1907–1990), Italian painter
*
Emilio Vedova (1919–2006), an important modern painter of Italy
*
Ludovico de Luigi (born 1933), Venetian Surrealistic artist
Writing
*
Christine de Pizan (1364 – ), poet and court writer for King
Charles VI of France
*
Aldus Manutius (1449–1515), an important printer. He founded the
Aldine Press
The Aldine Press was the printing office started by Aldus Manutius in 1494 in Venice, from which were issued the celebrated Aldine editions of the classics (Latin and Greek masterpieces, plus a few more modern works). The first book that was d ...
.
*
Jean-Antoine de Baïf (1532–1589), French poet and member of
La Pléiade
*
Veronica Franco (1546–1591), poet and courtesan during the Renaissance
*
Paolo Sarpi (1552–1623), historian, scientist, canon lawyer, statesman, defender of the liberties of Republican Venice. His writings inspired
Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes ( ; 5 April 1588 – 4 December 1679) was an English philosopher, best known for his 1651 book ''Leviathan (Hobbes book), Leviathan'', in which he expounds an influential formulation of social contract theory. He is considered t ...
,
Edward Gibbon, and the founding fathers of the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
.
*
Leon Modena (1571–1648), author, poet and preacher, active in the
Venetian Ghetto
*
Carlo Goldoni (1707–1793), playwright and librettist, notable name in Italian theatre
*
Carlo Gozzi (1720–1806), playwright and champion of ''
commedia dell'arte
Commedia dell'arte was an early form of professional theatre, originating from Theatre of Italy, Italian theatre, that was popular throughout Europe between the 16th and 18th centuries. It was formerly called Italian comedy in English and is a ...
''
*
Elisabetta Caminèr Turra (1751–1796), writer and translator of foreign plays
*
Frederick Rolfe (1860–1913), English author of the Venetian novel ''The Desire and Pursuit of the Whole''
Doges & public servants

*
Enrico Dandolo ( – 1205),
Doge of Venice from 1192 to his death. He played a direct role in the
Sack of Constantinople during the
Fourth Crusade
The Fourth Crusade (1202–1204) was a Latin Christian armed expedition called by Pope Innocent III. The stated intent of the expedition was to recapture the Muslim-controlled city of Jerusalem, by first defeating the powerful Egyptian Ayyubid S ...
.
*
Pope Eugene IV (1383–1447), pope, 1431–1447, nephew of
Pope Gregory XII
*
Pope Paul II (1417–1471), pope, 1464–1471. He succeeded
Pope Pius II.
*
Andrea Gritti (1455–1538), Doge of the Venetian Republic from 1523 to 1538
*
Pietro Bembo
Pietro Bembo, (; 20 May 1470 – 18 January 1547) was a Venetian scholar, poet, and literary theory, literary theorist who also was a member of the Knights Hospitaller and a cardinal of the Catholic Church. As an intellectual of the Italian Re ...
(1470–1547), scholar, poet, literary theorist and
cardinal
Cardinal or The Cardinal most commonly refers to
* Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds
**''Cardinalis'', genus of three species in the family Cardinalidae
***Northern cardinal, ''Cardinalis cardinalis'', the common cardinal of ...
*
Sebastiano Venier ( – 1578), Doge of Venice from 11 June 1577 to 1578
*
Marco Antonio Bragadin (died 1571), general, flayed alive by the
Turks after a fierce resistance during the siege of
Famagusta
*
Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia (1646–1684), the first woman in the world to receive a doctorate degree
*
Jacopo Riccati (1676–1754), a Venetian mathematician. He wrote the
Riccati equation.
*
Pope Clement XIII (1693–1769), pope, 1758 to his death in 1769
*
Count Vincenzo Dandolo (1758–1819), chemist, agronomist and politician of the
Enlightenment Era
*
Daniele Manin (1804–1857), Italian patriot, statesman and leader of the ''
Risorgimento'' in Venice
*
Nurbanu Sultan (1525–1583),
Haseki sultan and the
Valide sultan of the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...
and the daughter of the first cousin of
Sebastiano Venier,
Doge of Venice.
Explorers
*
Marco Polo
Marco Polo (; ; ; 8 January 1324) was a Republic of Venice, Venetian merchant, explorer and writer who travelled through Asia along the Silk Road between 1271 and 1295. His travels are recorded in ''The Travels of Marco Polo'' (also known a ...
( – 1324), trader and
explorer
Exploration is the process of exploring, an activity which has some Expectation (epistemic), expectation of Discovery (observation), discovery. Organised exploration is largely a human activity, but exploratory activity is common to most organis ...
, one of the first Westerners to travel the
Silk Road
The Silk Road was a network of Asian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over , it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and religious interactions between the ...
to China
*
Sebastian Cabot ( – 1557),
explorer
Exploration is the process of exploring, an activity which has some Expectation (epistemic), expectation of Discovery (observation), discovery. Organised exploration is largely a human activity, but exploratory activity is common to most organis ...
*
Pietro Cesare Alberti (1608–1655), first Italian-American in New Amsterdam in 1635
*
Giacomo Casanova (1725–1798 in
Dux,
Bohemia
Bohemia ( ; ; ) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. In a narrow, geographic sense, it roughly encompasses the territories of present-day Czechia that fall within the Elbe River's drainage basin, but historic ...
), Venetian adventurer, writer and
womanizer
Architects
*
Leon Battista Alberti
Leon Battista Alberti (; 14 February 1404 – 25 April 1472) was an Italian Renaissance humanist author, artist, architect, poet, Catholic priest, priest, linguistics, linguist, philosopher, and cryptography, cryptographer; he epitomised the natu ...
(1404–1472), architect, humanist author, artist, poet, priest, linguist, philosopher and cryptographer
*
Baldassare Longhena (1598–1682), exponent of
Baroque architecture
Baroque architecture is a highly decorative and theatrical style which appeared in Italy in the late 16th century and gradually spread across Europe. It was originally introduced by the Catholic Church, particularly by the Jesuits, as a means to ...
*
Andrea Tirali ( – 1737), architect. He designed the pavement in the
Piazza San Marco
*
Giovanni Battista Meduna (1800–1886), architect, led reconstruction and restoration works of the
St Mark's Basilica and the
Gran Teatro La Fenice, among others
*
Carlo Scarpa (1906–1978), architect with a profound understanding of materials
Entertainers
*
Marietta Zanfretta (1837–1898), high-wire dancer who found success in Europe and the USA
*
Romano Scarpa (1927–2005), noted Italian creator of Disney comics
*
Francesco Borgato (born 1990), Italian recording artist and dancer
Sport

*
Ercole Olgeni (1883–1947), rower, team gold and silver medallist at the
1920 &
1924 Summer Olympics
The 1924 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the VIII Olympiad () and officially branded as Paris 1924, were an international multi-sport event held in Paris, France. The opening ceremony was held on 5 July, but some competitions had al ...
*
Erminio Dones (1887–1945), rower, team silver medallist at the 1920 Summer Olympics
*
Dominic DeNucci (1932–2021), Italian-American professional wrestler
*
Angelo Spanio (1939–1999), Italian footballer with over 280 club caps
*
Ivano Bordon (born 1951), former football goalkeeper with 449 club caps and 21
for Italy
*
Roberto Ravaglia (born 1957), racing driver and founder of
ROAL Motorsport
*
Alessandro Santin (born 1958), racing driver
*
Mauro Numa (born 1961), fencer and gold medallist at the
1984 Summer Olympics
The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and commonly known as Los Angeles 1984) were an international multi-sport event held from July 28 to August 12, 1984, in Los Angeles, California, United States. It marked the ...
*
Andrea Borella (born 1961), fencer, team gold medallist at the 1984 Summer Olympics
*
Andrea Cipressa (born 1963), fencer, team gold medallist at the 1984 Summer Olympics
*
Dorina Vaccaroni (born 1963), former foil fencer, three time medallist at the 1984,
1988 &
1992 Summer Olympics
The 1992 Summer Olympics (, ), officially the Games of the XXV Olympiad (, ) and officially branded as Barcelona '92, were an international multi-sport event held from 25 July to 9 August 1992 in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Beginning in 1994 ...
*
Daniele Scarpa (born 1964), sprint canoer, gold and silver medallist at the
1996 Summer Olympics
The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...
*
Carolina Morace (born 1964), former footballer with over 220 club caps and 150
for Italy women
*
Giuseppe Cipriani (born 1965), racing driver
*
Tommaso Rocchi (born 1977), former footballer with 664 club caps
*
Giovanni Paramithiotti, founding chairmen and owner of
Inter Milan
Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football ...
football club
See also
*
List of islands of Italy
*
List of buildings and structures in Venice
*
List of bridges in Venice
*
List of churches in Venice
*
List of car-free places
*
List of painters and architects of Venice
*
Outline of Italy
*
Su e zo per i ponti
* Window blind#Venetian, Venetian blinds
* Venetic language – the ancient spoken language of the region
* Venezia Mestre Rugby FC – a rugby team
* Venice of the East
* Venice of the North
* Venice of the South
Notes
References
Bibliography
Academic
*
* Horatio Brown, Brown, Horatio, ''Venice'', chapter 8 of ''Cambridge Modern History'' vol. I ''The Renaissance'' (1902)
* Brown, Horatio, ''Calendar of State Papers (Venetian): 1581–1591'', 1895; ''1592–1603'', 1897; ''1603–1607'', 1900; ''1607–1610'', 1904; ''1610–1613'', 1905
* Brown, Horatio, ''Studies in the history of Venice'' (London, 1907)
*
* Chambers, D.S. (1970). ''The Imperial Age of Venice, 1380–1580.'' London: Thames & Hudson.
* Contarini, Gasparo (1599). ''The Commonwealth and Gouernment of Venice.'' Lewes Lewkenor, trsl. London: "Imprinted by I. Windet for E. Mattes."
* Da Canal, Martin, "Les estoires de Venise" (13th-century chronicle), translated by Laura Morreale. Padua, Unipress 2009.
* Drechsler, Wolfgang (2002). "Venice Misappropriated." ''Trames'' 6(2), pp. 192–201.
* Garrett, Martin, "Venice: a Cultural History" (2006). Revised edition of "Venice: a Cultural and Literary Companion" (2001).
* Grubb, James S. (1986). "When Myths Lose Power: Four Decades of Venetian Historiography." ''Journal of Modern History'' 58, pp. 43–94.
* Lane, Frederic Chapin. ''Venice: Maritime Republic'' (1973) ()
* Laven, Mary, "Virgins of Venice: Enclosed Lives and Broken Vows in the Renaissance Convent (2002).
* Madden, Thomas F. ''Enrico Dandolo and the Rise of Venice'' Johns Hopkins University Press.
* Martin, John Jeffries and Dennis Romano (eds). ''Venice Reconsidered. The History and Civilization of an Italian City-State, 1297–1797.'' (2002) Johns Hopkins University Press.
* Muir, Edward (1981). ''Civic Ritual in Renaissance Venice.'' Princeton UP.
*
* Rösch, Gerhard (2000). ''Venedig. Geschichte einer Seerepublik.'' Stuttgart: Kohlhammer Verlag.
*
Popular
* Ackroyd, Peter, ''Venice: Pure City''. London, Chatto & Windus, 2009.
* Horatio Brown, Brown, Horatio, ''Life on the Lagoons'', 1884; revised ed. 1894; further eds. 1900, 1904, 1909.
* Cole, Toby. ''Venice: A Portable Reader'', Lawrence Hill, 1979. (hardcover); (softcover).
* Gayford, Martin, ''Venice: City of Pictures''. London and New York: Thames & Hudson, 2023.
* Hugh Honour, Honour, Hugh. ''The Companion Guide to Venice''. 4th ed., 1997.
* Kaminski, Marion. ''Venice: Art & Architecture''. 2005.
* Jonathan Keates, Keates, Jonathan, ''The Siege of Venice''. London: Chatto & Windus, 2005.
* Keates, Jonathan, ''La Serenissima: The Story of Venice''. London: Head of Zeus, 2022.
* Thomas F. Madden, Madden, Thomas, ''Venice: A New History''. New York: Viking, 2012. .
* Mary McCarthy (author), McCarthy, Mary, ''Venice Observed'' (1956), Harvest/HBJ, 1963 edition:
* Jan Morris, Morris, Jan (1993), ''Venice (Morris book), Venice''. 3rd revised edition. Faber & Faber, .
* John Julius Norwich, Norwich, John Julius. ed. ''Venice: A Traveller's Companion''. UK: Constable & Co. Ltd., 1990. Also published as ''A Traveller's Companion to Venice''.
* John Ruskin, Ruskin, John (1853), ''The Stones of Venice (book), The Stones of Venice''. Abridged edition Links, JG (Ed), Penguin Books, 2001. .
* Andrea di Robilant, di Robilant, Andrea (2004). ''A Venetian Affair''. HarperCollins.
* Sethre, Janet, ''The Souls of Venice'' McFarland & Company, Inc., 2003. (softcover).
External links
Città di Venezia
Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia
{{Authority control
Venice,
420s establishments
420s in the Roman Empire
5th-century establishments in Italy
Capitals of former nations
Car-free islands of Europe
Car-free zones in Europe
Cities and towns in Veneto
Historic Jewish communities
Islands of the Venetian Lagoon
Mediterranean port cities and towns in Italy
Populated coastal places in Italy
Populated places established in the 5th century
Port cities and towns of the Adriatic Sea
World Heritage Sites in Italy
Articles containing video clips