Venice or Venezia is 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. In 2018 around 55,000 people lived in the historical city of Venice. 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 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, 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. The Republic was annexed by the Austrian Empire, until it became part of the Kingdom of Italy in 1866.
I have visited Venice several times, but our 3-days visit in 2011 gave us time to really see and experience Venice. This was in connection with a cruise in the Adriatic. We bought 2-day tickets for the Vaporettos (water buses), and explored the islands and cruised the Canal Grande. We were lucky to fins a reasonably cheap Pensione located centrally between Rialto Bridge and San Marco so my mother avoided walking far to get back to rest.