Venetian playwrights followed the old Italian theatre tradition of Commedia dell’arte. Ruzante (1502–1542), Carlo Goldoni (1707–1793), and Carlo Gozzi (1720–1806) used the Venetian dialect extensively in their comedies. The Venezia Mestre railway station is on the mainland, on the border between the boroughs of Mestre and Marghera. Cruise ships access the port of Venice through the Giudecca Canal. Each house has a unique number in the district, from one to several thousand, generally numbered from one corner of the area to another, but not usually in a readily understandable manner.
By the standards of the time, Venice’s stewardship of its mainland territories was relatively enlightened and the citizens of such towns as Bergamo, Brescia, and Verona rallied to the defence of Venetian sovereignty when it was threatened by invaders. The need to protect the city’s historic environment and fragile canals, in the face of a possible loss of jobs produced by cruise tourism, has seen the Italian Transport Ministry attempt to introduce a ban on large cruise ships visiting the city. A 2013 ban would have allowed only cruise ships smaller than 40,000-gross tons to enter the Giudecca Canal and St Mark’s basin. In January 2015, a regional court scrapped the ban, but some global cruise lines indicated that they would continue to respect it until a long-term solution for the protection of Venice is found. Venice is an important destination for tourists who want to see its celebrated art and architecture.
The average distance people usually ride in a single trip with public transit is 7 kilometres (4.3 mi), while 12% travel for over 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) in a single direction. Lido and Pellestrina are two islands forming a barrier between the southern Venetian Lagoon and the Adriatic Sea. On those islands, road traffic, including bus service, is allowed. Vaporetti link zig nation digital network them with other islands and with the peninsula of Cavallino-Treporti. The Venice People Mover is an elevated shuttle train public transit system connecting Tronchetto island with its car parking facility with Piazzale Roma where visitors arrive in the city by bus, taxi, or automobile. The train makes a stop at the Marittima cruise terminal at the Port of Venice.
On 13 November 2019, Venice was flooded when waters peaked at 1.87 m , the highest tide since 1966 (1.94 m). More than 80% of the city was covered by water, which damaged cultural heritage sites, including more than 50 churches, leading to tourists cancelling their visits. The planned flood barrier would have prevented this incident according to various sources, including Marco Piana, the head of conservation at St Mark’s Basilica. The mayor promised that work on the flood barrier would continue, and the Prime Minister announced that the government would be accelerating the project. Between autumn and early spring, the city is often threatened by flood tides pushing in from the Adriatic. Six hundred years ago, Venetians protected themselves from land-based attacks by diverting all the major rivers flowing into the lagoon and thus preventing sediment from filling the area around the city.
He removed the gates of the Ghetto and ended the restrictions on when and where Jews could live and travel in the city. The newly invented German printing press spread rapidly throughout Europe in the 15th century, and Venice was quick to adopt it. By 1482, Venice was the printing capital of the world; the leading printer was Aldus Manutius, who invented paperback books that could be carried in a saddlebag. His Aldine Editions included translations of nearly all the known Greek manuscripts of the era.
The Venice mayor, Luigi Brugnaro, promised on Wednesday that the flood barrier would be completed. In April 2001, the city signed an agreement with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’s office of cultural promotion and cooperation, to coordinate efforts at promoting Italian culture abroad. In 2013, Venice announced that it wants to end the sister city relationship with St. Petersburg in opposition to laws Russia had passed against homosexuals and those who support gay rights. Venice also inspired the poetry of Ezra Pound, who wrote his first literary work in the city. Pound died in 1972, and his remains are buried in Venice’s cemetery island of San Michele. Venice has long been a source of inspiration for authors, playwrights, and poets, and at the forefront of the technological development of printing and publishing.
Some modern historians claim Paolo Lucio Anafesto was actually the Exarch Paul, and Paul’s successor, Marcello Tegalliano, was Paul’s magister militum (or “general”), literally “master of soldiers”. At about this time, the people of the lagoon elected their own independent leader for the first time, although the relationship of this to the uprisings is not clear. Ursus was the first of 117 “doges” (doge is the Venetian dialectal equivalent of the Latin dux (“leader”); the corresponding word in English is duke, in standard Italian duca. (See also “duce”.) Whatever his original views, Ursus supported Emperor Leo III’s successful military expedition to recover Ravenna, sending both men and ships. In recognition of this, Venice was “granted numerous privileges and concessions” and Ursus, who had personally taken the field, was confirmed by Leo as dux. And given the added title of hypatus (from the Greek for “consul”).
More than in the rest of Italy, it kept much of the typical form of the Gothic palazzi, which had evolved to suit Venetian conditions. In turn the transition to Baroque architecture was also fairly gentle. This gives the crowded buildings on the Grand Canal and elsewhere an essential harmony, even where buildings from very different periods sit together. For example, round-topped arches are far more common in Renaissance buildings than elsewhere. Shakespeare set Othello and The Merchant of Venice in the city, as did Thomas Mann his novel, Death in Venice . The French writer Philippe Sollers spent most of his life in Venice and published A Dictionary For Lovers of Venice in 2004.
Winged lions—visible throughout Venice—are the emblem of St Mark. As the community continued to develop, and as Byzantine power waned, its own autonomy grew, leading to eventual independence. Although the city is facing some challenges , Venice remains a very popular tourist destination, a major cultural centre, and has been ranked many times the most beautiful city in the world. It has been described by The Times as one of Europe’s most romantic cities and by The New York Times as “undoubtedly the most beautiful city built by man”.