Location<\/h2>\n
Venice consists of 118 man-made islands nestled in an enclosed, shallow, bay of 200 square miles of salt water between Italy and Yugoslavia.\u00a0 The shallow waters of the Venetian lagoon protected it from attack and its location on the Adriatic<\/strong> allowed access and trading links by sea to the East which enabled the Venetian maritime trade empire to grow. Today the islands are accessed by a long two-mile road, but originally the islands were unreachable from the land or the sea.<\/p>\n The Venetian lagoon was populated by settlers from the mainland who fled to escape Atilla the Hun at the end of the Roman empire.\u00a0 The first settlements were on the islands, legends tell how the settlers were shown how to reach the islands by fishermen who knew the canals.\u00a0 The islands are made of sand and mud, not solid ground; so, the first settlers built wooden houses on stilts.<\/p>\n Ancient Fisherman\u2019s hut on the islands<\/p>\n The first settlers in the lagoon built on what little land or stable base they could find.\u00a0 Venice is a city built entirely on water, an engineering miracle and a testament to the ingenuity and the skill of its builders.\u00a0\u00a0 Essentially a city on stilts, the first foundations were created by driving wooden stakes into the mud and then laying planks across the stakes, which were stabilised and then fortified with bricks and eventually slabs of stone.\u00a0 The technique proved effective and lasting and over time the city developed, more islands were created with canals and bridges to cross them.<\/p>\n Today it is called the \u2018sinking city\u2019<\/strong> because the same water of the lagoon that saved the early Venetians threatens to destroy the city today.\u00a0 Venice is essentially built on piles of wooden nails that are centuries old and rotting.\u00a0 Every few years each canal must be blocked, drained and the bricks removed so that the wooden piles beneath the buildings can be repaired.<\/strong>\u00a0 It is a monumental task to keep the city from sinking which isn\u2019t helped by the increased traffic on the canals, every boat that passes creates waves that erode the cement from the brickwork keeping the buildings upright.\u00a0 This is why cruise ships have been banned!<\/p>\n Torcello<\/p>\n The early Venetians were fisherman and salt workers who swapped their produce for wood, wheat and wine from the mainland.\u00a0 Trade was the very beginning of Venice and would earn them their fame.\u00a0 Salt was a precious commodity and provided the Venetians with the riches that founded the city.\u00a0 By the turn of the first millennia the people who had escaped to the lagoon had become traders and sailors, Venice would emerge as a maritime empire and a republic.<\/p>\n The first settlement<\/strong> was the island of Torcello<\/strong> 8 km to north of Venice and the other islands were built soon after. The first basilica Santa Maria Assunta<\/strong>, was built in 639 AD, it is decorated in mosaic.\u00a0 The first Christian images of Venice came from the east before it was Islamic, which developed into the Venetian Gothic we know today.<\/p>\n In the early 800s the islands were attacked from the sea and the Venetians fled further into the lagoon looking for protection.\u00a0 According to legend an old woman led them through the lagoon<\/strong>, simply saying \u2018sempre dritto\u2019 go straight.\u00a0 She pointed them to a place called Rivo Alto \u2018the high bank\u2019<\/strong> which would become the city we know today and the namesake of Venice\u2019s most famous bridge the Rialto<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Here on this higher ground the Venetians were protected from the land by the waters of the lagoon, and the shifting sand flats and shallow water made it impossible to attack from the sea.\u00a0\u00a0 As they had on the islands, they made a new home \u2013 a place to live and work.\u00a0 The islands of the Rivo Alto<\/strong> became the greatest network of canals ever created.\u00a0 Each square had its own tightly knit community and tightly packed housing.\u00a0 Each bridge was a step into another territory and feuds could spark between the communities.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/dev1.kindlebit.com\/Development\/Venice\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/IMAGE-2-scaled.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nBuilding the city<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nHistory<\/h2>\n
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