March 9th, 2011: the Venice Carnival was over. The day before was the last one, attracting 180,000 visitors from everywhere in the world. Festivities lasted until midnight. The morning of the day after, as by some magical spell, the enchanted mood disappeared and, in a sudden, the whole city became empty, idle, sleepy, probably waiting for the "Biennale" of Modern Arts, planned for the second semester of each odd year.
I was queuing in the Post Office of the "Lido di Venezia", chatting with a retired gentleman who helped me to choose the right file. As I was the only guy to wear the black Venetian felt tricorn bought at the climax of the last week, the carnival was our first topic of chat. But rapidly, as both of us were sharing the same enthusiasm for the Italian and French histories and for travels, our conversation finally focused on three cities: Venice, Genoa and Marseilles.
They share three common features! Firstly, they are big harbours of the Western Mediterranean. Secondly, for centuries, they were independent city-republics. And thirdly, all of them were the birthplaces and homes of great navigators and explorers who sailed the seas and oceans or who crossed continents at times when the contemporary explorers were limited, in the Mediterranean, to the routes between the Black Sea and the Columns of Hercules (today, the strait of Gibraltar), and in the North Sea, to the harbours of the Hanseatic League.
Travelling from the Asian Far-East to the Americas and from the shores of Africa to those of Britain, they have contributed to the development of trades and exchanges, science and geography and to the discovery of new lands. Moreover, many of these adventurers' missions were sponsored by big European kingdoms, such as Spain, France, Portugal and England.
Some fundaments of our modern knowledge are the direct consequences of their journeys. It is noticeable that long time after reunification of these cities to their respective nations, Italy and France, many of the citizens of these three major merchant harbours have been among the greatest explorers of our planet, for the account of their countries.
The main objective of these three studies is to analyse the major contributions of these voyagers to humanity: they have brought a lot both to Europe and to the existing and future countries they have visited. Each study is presented as the last section of pages that are dedicated to each one the three cities, in the [Travelog], sub-tab [EU].
Venetian Explorers Genovese Explorers Phocaean Explorers