It was once one of Europe’s richest trading powers, with its ships and merchants found across the Mediterranean. Venice's glory days have long since passed, but it is now rekindling its heritage and weighing a return to independence from Italy.

 

It may seem fanciful, but a burgeoning independence movement is confidently predicting that it will achieve nationhood before two of Europe’s other restive regions, Scotland and Catalonia.

It certainly has the historical pedigree – Venice was an independent republic for more than 1,000 years. .