ABSTRACT
Venice’s enviable reputation – unmatched elsewhere in the Italian peninsula – for stability and untold wealth made it an attractive destination for all manner of migrants. Both rich and poor were drawn to its thriving cosmopolitan environment, where to be a foreigner did not necessarily prejudice your chances of advancement. The ability of people from outside to make a success of their endeavours is still reected in the place names that demarcate areas of the city in which various nationalities were concentrated. Turks (la fondamenta dei Turchi), Germans (il fondaco dei Tedeschi), Slovenes (la riva degli Schiavoni), and many others all found a place to do business in La Serenissima. The Greek community was centred in the Castello district; the Albanians settled around the parish of Santa Maria Formosa. Each nationality had its own places of congregation and was able to maintain its distinct cultural practices. Immigrants from the rest of Italy also ooded to this haven on the Adriatic, where tolerance of ethnic and cultural dierences ourished and where there seemed to be enough conspicuous wealth to hope that some would trickle down even to the lowliest of illiterate peasants – the role models for the Bergamascan Zanni.
