• Nightingale Muzak

    Songbirds were an important part of the shopping experience in Venice in the 1600s and 1700s.

  • A History of Venice podcast

    Why is there no History of Venice podcast? That can’t be right!

  • 404 Doctor Not Found

    The iconic cloaked and beaked plague doctor is often associated with Venice, but there is no documentation that the figure ever existed in Venice.

  • Slavery in Venice

    Slavery existed in Venice throughout the history of the republic, and the Venetian profited from the lucrative trade.

  • The Regata Storica and Politics

    The annual Regata Storica is normally devoid of political messages, but not this year.

  • Clara — the star of the Carnival

    Clara the Rhino was an unusual participant of the Carnival in Venice of 1751, but not the less popular for it.

  • An Englishman in Venice

    On the Grand Tour in the 1640s, the English gentleman John Evelyn spent almost a year in Venice and Padua.

  • Street-food in the 1700s

    Engravings of people working in the alleyways of Venice in the 1700s can tell us quite a bit about what people ate.

  • Why do the residents leave Venice?

    A three-day agricultural fair in Venice expels the locals from all the public spaces for three weeks.

  • An earl, a girl and a gondola

    On March 18, 1618, the Collegio received Sir Henry Wotton (1568–1639), the ambassador of the King of Great Britain to the Republic of Venice, who had a rather odd request.