Discover Venezia

Venice’s origins trace back to the 5th and 6th centuries AD, when people from the Veneto mainland, fleeing barbarian invasions, took refuge among the islands and shallows of the lagoon. The earliest settlements rose on wooden piles driven into the mud — a building method an entire city would eventually be built upon. In 697, the Republic elected its first doge, beginning a line of leadership that would continue, almost without interruption, for more than a thousand years.

Between the 11th and 13th centuries, Venice reached its peak as a maritime and trading power, one of the great Maritime Republics alongside Genoa, Pisa, and Amalfi. Venetian merchants controlled Mediterranean trade routes, bringing spices, silk, and gold from the East into the city — wealth that funded the palazzi, churches, and artworks that still line its canals today.

That commercial splendour translated into architectural and artistic splendour to match: St Mark’s Basilica, the Doge’s Palace, and the dense weave of calli and campi that make up the historic centre still tell the story of a city-state whose wealth and taste for beauty engaged with the East more closely than any other European power of its time.

The decline came slowly, as Mediterranean trade routes lost their importance and pressure mounted from Europe’s larger powers, until 1797, when Napoleon Bonaparte brought the Republic to an end and ceded it to Austria. After more than a thousand years of independent history, the Serenissima ceased to exist as a state — but the city it built, suspended between water and stone, remains one of the most unique urban experiences in the world.

• Venice has no roads for cars: you get around entirely on foot or by boat, along more than 150 canals crossed by over 400 bridges.
• Calle Varisco, near Santa Fosca, is one of the narrowest streets in the world: just 53 centimetres wide, too narrow for two people to pass side by side.
• The Libreria Acqua Alta keeps its books inside gondolas and old bathtubs, ready to protect them whenever the water rises into the shop.
• The city sits on more than 100 small lagoon islands, joined into a single historic centre by centuries of bridges and canals.
• During the most exceptional high-water events, the tide can rise past a metre and a half, flooding up to 60% of the city's streets — a well-monitored tidal phenomenon usually forecast hours in advance.
• The Republic's first doge was elected in 697; from there followed an almost unbroken line of 118 doges over more than a thousand years.

• St Mark's Basilica — Venice's cathedral church, a Byzantine-domed masterpiece covered in gold mosaics on Piazza San Marco.
• Doge's Palace — The Gothic seat of Venetian power for a thousand years, connected to the old prisons by the Bridge of Sighs.
• Rialto Bridge — The oldest of the four bridges spanning the Grand Canal, lined with shops since the 16th century.

• Sarde in saor — Fried sardines marinated with onion, raisins, and pine nuts, originally a way for Venetian sailors to preserve fish on long voyages.
• Bigoli in salsa — Thick fresh pasta tossed in a sauce of onions and anchovies, traditionally eaten on meat-free fasting days.
• Baccalà mantecato — Whipped salt cod beaten with oil until silky smooth, served spread on slices of grilled polenta or bread.
• Risi e bisi — Rice and fresh peas, a spring dish once served to the doge on the feast day of St Mark.
• Fritto misto di paranza — Fried Adriatic fish and seafood, served piping hot, often in a paper cone to eat on the go.