Venice |
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Venice (Italian: Venezia, Venetian: Venezsia) is the capital
of region Veneto. The city stretches across numerous small islands
in the marshy Venetian Lagoon along the Adriatic Sea in northeast
Italy. The saltwater lagoon stretches along the shoreline between
the mouths of the Po (south) and the Piave (north) Rivers. The
Venetian Republic was a major sea power and a staging area for
the Crusades, as well as a very important centre of commerce
(especially the spice trade) and art in the Renaissance. According
to legend, Venice was founded March 25, 421 AD, by Roman refugees
fleeing from the Goths. From the ninth to the twelfth century
Venice developed into a city state (an Italian thalassocracy
or Repubblica Marinara, the other three being Genoa, Pisa, and
Amalfi). Its strategic position at head of the Adriatic made
Venetian naval and commercial power almost invulnerable. The
city became a flourishing center of the trade between Western
Europe and the rest of the world (especially the Byzantine Empire
and the Islamic world). |
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