Venice Vacations
Venice Vacations

Venice - A Short Detour Into History

While your stay at one of the Venice hotels, a short walk through Venice convinces any tourist that the place has to have a fascinating history. After all the churches, the monuments and the beautiful bridges - all old and aging very gracefully could not have come about without a great tradition and history. And so it is. Modern Venice can trace itself to about the 5th Century AD.

As the Roman Empire fell somewhere around 470 AD, Europe became very vulnerable to plundering hordes of barbarians from Central Asia. Many people from the mainland fled to a swampy area on the North coast of the Adriatic Sea. The swamps offered protection and yet did not lock them in because the sea offered a gateway. As a result, Venice developed among a group of islands and developed a strong seafaring tradition.

Venice, Italy continued to develop slowly, with its own maritime traditions and rulers till in 828 AD, two traders stole the Apostle Marks' remains from Egypt and brought them Venice. A huge church was built as the Saints' last resting place and Venice acquired a patron saint and a new character that really united its citizens. This church is known as the Basilica of San Marco and is a famous tourist landmark of the Venice tours.

Venice became an important outpost during the crusades and controlled a large part of the Mediterranean due to its strategic location. Trade with the East further added to the city's prosperity and its influence spread far and wide.

This prosperity was not without jealousy and rivalry. Venice had a series of major wars with Genoa. The city states fought four wars in the 13th and 14th centuries till wisdom struck and the foes agreed to a truce in 1381. It was around this time that Venice also began to expand landwards to get more strategic space. Around the same time as this, Portugal started its own trade with India and this also contributed to the decline of Venice's trading status

A see-saw in fortunes continued till the late 18th century when Napoleon Bonaparte conquered the city. He handed the city to the Austrians who were never accepted and in 1866, the Kingdom of Italy annexed the city.

Venice today is an important city on the worlds' tourism map. It holds a number of important carnivals and festivals - such as the Venice Film Festival which increase the inflow of tourists - both the backpackers and the ones with more traditional tastes. Venice hotels provide excellent offers to the tourists that suits every budget.

Flights to Venice - Venice Hotels - Venice vacations - Venice Tours - Venice Carnival - Venice Restaurant - Venice Travel - Venice Night - Venice History - Venice Italy Weather - Venice Shopping - City Of Venice - Costs Of Venice Vacations - Venice Churches - Venice Monuments - all inclusive vacation packages