Fun Facts about Venice

• Venice has been described by the "Times Online" as being one of Europe's most romantic cities.
• Italian baroque composer Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) is Venice' most famous son.
• The city has an average of 50,000 tourists a day
• The Republic of Venice seized a number of locations on the eastern shores of the Adriatic before 1200, mostly for commercial reasons, because pirates based there were a menace to trade.
• By the late thirteenth century, Venice was the most prosperous city in all of Europe. At the peak of its power and wealth, it had 36,000 sailors operating 3,300 ships, dominating Mediterranean commerce.
• The newly-invented German printing press spread rapidly throughout Europe in the fifteenth century, and Venice was quick to adopt it. By 1482 Venice was the printing capital of the world, and the leading printer was Aldus Manutius, who invented the concept of paperback books that could be carried in a saddlebag.
• The buildings of Venice are constructed on closely spaced wood piles, which were imported from the mainland. Under water, in the absence of oxygen, wood does not decay.
• The city has been a setting for numerous films and music videos, such as the James Bond series "From Russia with Love", "Moonraker" and "Casino Royale". Furthermore you might have seen a Venice location in "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade", "The Italian Job", "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider", and Madonna's song "Like a Virgin".
• Venetian cuisine is obviously characterized by fish, but not only: the products of the gardens of the islands, the mainland rice, game, fishing in the northern Adriatic and polenta.