Venice is Not Italy
Plus: What to Expect from the Amalfi Coast Deep Dive (and Tonight’s Venice Zoom Link)
Tonight’s Venice Deep Dive will reward those of you who enjoy my history-rich, sometimes salty, deeply opinionated take on travel.
On a map, Venice is in Italy. Historically, it’s a city of merchants, sex workers, and gangsters, and understanding that will transform your experience.
For about a thousand years, Venice was its own republic, an independent maritime power looking toward the Adriatic and the eastern Mediterranean rather than toward the Italian countryside. Its incredible wealth came from ships, trade, and colonies, not from fields or vineyards. Venice didn’t grow atop a Roman grid; it emerged from muddy, useless islands, settled by people fleeing for their lives.
Venetians were gangsters. They quite literally stole the remains of Saint Mark in 828, when two merchants smuggled his body out of Egypt by hiding it under slabs of pork so that Muslim customs officials wouldn’t search the cargo too closely. They were also trying to steal the relics of San Nicola (yes, Santa Claus) from Turkey, but gangster sailors from Bari got there first. Venice has its own language, customs, and cuisine, all unique.
Why does this matter?
One of the big themes of the Destination Deep Dives is orientation: how to “tune your dial” to each city instead of treating Italy as one big, interchangeable menu with endless breadsticks.
Food might be the easiest way to explain it. When most people say they love “Italian food,” they’re usually thinking of the pizza and pasta of southern Italy, whether they realize it or not. Venice is bigoli in salsa: thick, rough buckwheat noodles with onions and anchovies. It’s risotto because northern Italy has abundant rice paddies, with sauces of squid ink, or in the spring, with pancetta and peas. Venice is whipped codfish on bread, or sardines, eaten standing up at a bar with a little glass of wine.
Tonight, I will walk you through five days in Venice, unfolding the history, art, neighborhoods, and food with enough context to make your next trip feel like a second visit, not a first.
Afterward, each Deep Dive is turned into a kind of Masterclass-style video series with:
Edited video modules you can watch (and rewatch) at your own pace.
A very detailed, practically usable itinerary built from everything covered in the session. It includes restaurants, specific tours I recommend, day trips, and shopping tips.
Paid subscribers get a 50% discount Right now:
Naples and Rome are already available in that polished video + itinerary format.
Florence is with the video editor right now.
Venice will go to her next month, once tonight’s premiere is done, and I re-record it with much better lighting and a fresh blow-out.
Next month’s Deep Dive goes to the Amalfi Coast
You already know the Amalfi Coast brings out the saltiest of my opinions. But my Amalfi Deep Dive will anchor in Salerno, home to the world’s first medical school, and
Introduce you to Trota, a medieval female physician who was very famous, and take you to a medicinal garden with the most amazing views.
Take you into the building where ships were built to sail to Jerusalem, laden with crusaders and luxury goods like the Salerno Ivories.
Show you the Roman villa beneath the cathedral in Positano, which has only been open to the public since 2019.
Take you to Vietri sul Mare, where the ceramics are made, and walk through its residential alleys, where you’ll find this window where poor people would leave their children to be raised by nuns.
If you’re reading this on the free side and want to get my best stuff, this is your nudge. Right below this line is the link for tonight’s Venice Deep Dive, as well as a code to get 50% off the Naples and Rome Deep Dives.
