Venice
Venice is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is situated on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The islands are located in the shallow Venetian Lagoon, an enclosed bay that lies between the mouths of the Po and the Piave rivers (more exactly between the Brenta and the Sile).
The name is derived from the ancient Veneti people who inhabited the region by the 10th century BC. The city was historically the capital of the Republic of Venice for a millennium and more, from 697 to 1797. It was a major financial and maritime power during the Middle Ages and Renaissance, and a staging area for the Crusades and the Battle of Lepanto, as well as an important center of commerce—especially silk, grain, and spice, and of art from the 13th century to the end of the 17th. The city-state of Venice is considered to have been the first real international financial center, emerging in the 9th century and reaching its greatest prominence in the 14th century. This made Venice a wealthy city throughout most of its history. After the Napoleonic Wars and the Congress of Vienna, the Republic was annexed by the Austrian Empire, until it became part of the Kingdom of Italy in 1866, following a referendum held as a result of the Third Italian War of Independence.
Venice has been known as "La Dominante", "La Serenissima", "Queen of the Adriatic", "City of Water", "City of Masks", "City of Bridges", "The Floating City", and "City of Canals". Parts of Venice are renowned for the beauty of their settings, their architecture, and artwork. Venice is known for several important artistic movements—especially during the Renaissance period—has played an important role in the history of symphonic and operatic music, and is the birthplace of Antonio Vivaldi.
Venice was famed in Kindred circles as the headquarters of the Giovanni Clan, and everyone, from Camarilla Justicars over Anarch revolutionaries to Sabbat Archbishops, was forced to respect that claim, until recently. While the Giovanni have been native to the city since the time of the Lombard kings that first established the city, it was previously a center of the Cainite Heresy and under Lasombra dominion. Only after the diablerie of Cappadocius and the Promise of 1528 was the city officially ceded to the Clan.
More recently the city is under the rule of the Ventrue Prince Seraphima following the fall of the Giovanni leadership in a magical event of remarkable scale. As of 1881 the Giovanni clan have still been realing and attempting to regroup in the United States. They have been hampered by the loss of Chicago in 1871, coincidentily at the same time as their loss of Venice.
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Maps
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Map of Venice 1867
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