Venice, the "city of canals", is the capital of the region of Veneto and of the province of Venice in Italy. The city stretches across numerous small islands in the marshy Venetian Lagoon along the Adriatic Sea in northeast Italy. The population estimate is around 272,000 inhabitants.
Venice and the Venetian Republic were a major sea power and a staging area for the Crusades, as well as a very important center of commerce and art in the Renaissance.
