From around 1200 onwards the mendicant orders (friars) have held a significant place in Italian culture. In Venice their most important...

From 1261 the Great Schools, similar in many respects to medieval guilds in Britain, were established as secular brotherhoods that...

When you think of Venice, water is the first image that comes to mind: it surrounds and crosses the city, and the fame of the Venetian...

Just four hundred meters divide Piazza San Marco from this other little jewel of the lagoon: the island of San Giorgio Maggiore. The...