Fact Finder - General Knowledge

While Rome is the capital of Italy, Venice remains one of the world's most unique urban achievements. Built on 118 small islands in the Venetian Lagoon, the city has no roads, only canals. To support the heavy stone buildings on soft mud, the city's founders drove millions of wooden piles deep into the ground. These piles, made primarily of larch and alder, have not rotted over centuries because they are submerged in an oxygen-deprived environment under the silt, which has effectively petrified the wood. Venice was a major maritime power during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, serving as a staging area for the Crusades and a center of commerce for silk, grain, and spice. Today, the city faces the challenge of 'Acqua Alta' (high water), periodic flooding caused by high tides and Sirocco winds. To protect the city, Italy implemented the MOSE project, a system of mobile gates at the lagoon's inlets to block the Adriatic Sea during exceptionally high tides.