Venice Rialto bridge

History
Universally acknowledged as one of the world's jewels, the city of Venice comprises a mainland area as well as 118 small islands within a lagoon on the Adriatic sea in north-eastern Italy. Outstanding Gothic, Romanesque, and Byzantine buildings attest to the city's glorious past as the unchallenged broker of east-west commerce, lasting over the centuries until the Portuguese discovery of an all-water route to the Far East around Africa.

Numerical curiositys of old town
lo sapevate che a Venezia ci sono...

• 354     bridges
• 177     rivulets and canals
• 153     churchs
• 127     places (campi)
• 38     parish churchs

• march 25, 421a.D.     Legendary foundation of Venice
• 697     Election of the first doge (duke): Paoluccio Anafesto
• 828     The presumed relics of St Mark the Evangelist, who will become the city's patron saint, are taken from Alexandria in Egypt to Venice
• 1104     Beginning of the building of the Arsenale, the huge shipyards where the State will have both its merchant and war ships built
• 1202-1204     Venetian participation in the 4th crusade which marks the undisputed maritime supremacy of the Republic over the Eastern Mediterranean
• 1271     Marco Polo arrives at Peking, the capital of Kublai Khan, the Great Khan then reigning
• 1297     Restriction of the Maggior Consiglio, during Pietro Gradenigo's dukedom: Venice, a former commune (city state), turns into a hereditary oligarchy
• 1381     The Chioggia war: end of the contrast between Genoa and Venice, the two Repubbliche marinare (republics based on sea supremacy). By the Turin Treaty Venice comes out the winner
• 1470     The printing industry is born in Venice thanks to the Manutius family
• 1509     Venice defeated at Agnadello by the French, led by Louis XII
• 1575     Beginning of the plague which will reap about 50,000 victims out of an urban population amounting to about 175,000 inhabitants: on this occasion the Redentore Church, designed by Palladio, is built
• 1588     The foundation stone of the new Rialto Bridge, designed by Jacopo da Ponte, is laid
• 1615-17     The Gradisca war between Venice and Austria
• 1630     The Salute Basilica, designed by Baldassarre Longhena, is built to fulfil a vow made during that year's plague
• 1669     Francesco Morosini, future doge, makes peace with the Turk after yielding the island of Candia
• 1746     Sailing in Piazza San Marco flooded by acqua alta (very high tide)
• 1789     Ludovico Manin, the last doge, is elected
• 1797     Last session of the Gran Consiglio
• October 17, 1797     The Campoformio Treaty: Venice is ceded to Austria
• 1829     Venice becomes a free port
• 1846     The first train crosses the lagoon over the railway bridge
• 1866     Venice is set free and rejoins Italy
• 22 April 1895     Inauguration of the first Biennale of Contemporary Art
• 25 April 1933     Inauguration of the bridge for vehicles across the lagoon
• November 4, 1966     Venice is flooded by an exceptional high tide