Venice Day Tour from Tuscany and Umbria

Venice: Although the lagoon islands were inhabited since prehistoric times, the first real settlements and the first real urbanization occurred in the V Century AD, as a result of the barbarian invasion that led to the collapse of the Roman Empire. In fact, the inland population, just to get away and escape the depredations of the invasion of the Huns of Attila and of the Lombards, took refuge on the islands of the lagoon (Riva Alta – Rialto) and gave birth to the first urban context of the city of Venice. It became an independent republic, ruled by the Doge (head of government), and for its strategic position and close relations with the East and Constantinople, in the following centuries, the city passed from being a forgotten town of the province, to the secure ruler of the seas and commercial routes. Thanks, in fact, to a dynamic and enterprising merchant class, a fleet of highly advanced military, to trade relations between the Middle and Far East, Venice secured the domain both directly and indirectly throughout the Eastern Mediterranean, and especially the full control of the trade routes with the East. With Amalfi, Pisa and Genoa, it is one of the four maritime republics which hold the control of commerce, both with the East and Northern Europe. From the XII – XVI Centuries the city experienced its golden era of extraordinary commercial and military power, capable of winning a crusade virtually alone. The determining factor, and the beginning of the decline of Venice was definitely the discovery of America, ironically by the Genoese Christopher Columbus (Genoa was the true maritime rival). The opening of new trade routes over the Atlantic limit weakened the naval supremacy of the Venetian Republic, who in the XVII and XVIII Centuries, although a refined European cultural centre with considerable influence on the arts, it entered in to a deep crisis which later brought it, after more than one thousand years of independence, to lose its autonomy in 1797 , in favour of Napoleon Bonaparte. Passing under the control of the Habsburgs of Austria, with the plebiscite of 1866 it entered to become part of the Kingdom of Italy. During the First World War, under the threat of an Austrian re-conquest, the city was heavily defended by the Italian army, with the battle of Piave, in which the American writer, Ernest Hemingway, participated. One of the most famous Venetians is Marco Polo, author of The Million, written by him in the Middle Ages after a trip to the Far East. Remember that Venice is home to the Biennale (International Exhibition of Art) and to the Venice Film Festival.

Do note miss! Saint Mark’s square, Cathedral, Rialto bridge, bridge of Sighs, Ducal Palace, Grand Canal, Arsenal, Lido.