Venice - there is no other city in the world quite like it. In the 7th and 8th century people from the Veneto (mainland) fled from the barbarian tribes that were invading Italy with the fall of the Roman Empire to a series of low islands and sandbars off the coast. From this temporary refuge, the Venetians quite literally laid the foundations of their wonderous city by driving tree trunks deep into the mud and sand.

Isolated from mainland, Venice considered itself very much apart from the rest of Italy. Venice looked to the east ... (more)