The Maritime Republic of Venice at Its Height, 1200–1400 | Calm Bedtime History

The galleys are coming home. It is April of 1204, and the lagoon is thick with smoke from cook-fires on the Lido. Doge Enrico Dandolo's fleet has been gone two years. Now the hulls ride low in the water, laden with bronze horses and broken columns from the Hippodrome, with sacks of coins and relics wrapped in silk. The men who walk down the gangplanks will tell stories of a city set on fire, but tonight in Venice there is only the splash of oars and the calling of names across the dark water.