' …in Venice, more than anywhere else, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. However majestic the churches, however magnificent the palazzi, however dazzling the pictures, the ultimate masterpiece remains Venice itself. … I learned that Venice was not just the most beautiful city that I had ever seen; she had also been an independent republic for over 1,000 years - longer than the period separating us from the Norman Conquest - during much of which she had been mistress of the Mediterranean, the principal crossroads between East and West, the richest and most prosperous commercial centre of the civilized world. …the sea had protected her, not only in her first stormy beginnings but all through her history, making her the only city in Italy never to have been invaded, ravaged or destroyed - never, that is, until Napoleon, the self-styled 'Attila of the Venetian State', in a single sustained outburst of vindictive malice, put an end to the Most Serene Republic forever.'

John Julius Norwich, A History Venice, published by Penguin