For centuries, Venice was the bazaar of Europe: a city of immense wealth where goods were imported from all around the Mediterranean and beyond and then distributed throughout the continent. Its heterogeneous population was ruled by a shrewd and insular merchant caste whose main ambition was to protect the freedom of the Republic and its economic strength. Join art historian Giulia Bernardini in an exploration of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Venetian works of art and architecture that served to reinforce the civic and social cohesion so vital to maintaining Venice's identity as La Serenissima (The Most Serene Republic).

Cost: Free