Florence was the most famous city in the Renaissance. It was the first to grow wealthy and produced many famous artists. Its people were known for their love of clothing. At first, Florence's wealth came from trading. Usually cloth, especially wool. The merchants first went over to England to get the sheep's wool and then came back and gave it to the artisans where the artisans wove it into fabrics. They also found another way to make money, banking.
The Rise of Venice
The wealthiest city-state in the Renaissance was Venice, the home of Marco Polo. The people that lived in Venice were called Venetians and they were very good sailors and shipbuilders because Venice was at the northern end of the Adriatic Sea. The city was built on many small, swampy islands. Early Venetians learned how to drive long wooden poles into the mud to support their buildings. Insteadof roads, they paved canals instead and used boats, called Gondolas, to travel around. Gondolas are long, narrow boats and are still used today in Venice. Some of Venice's wealth came from building ships. The people worked on ships called an Arsenal. Teams of workers cut the wood, shaped it into hulls, sealed the wood, and made sails and oars. Sometimes, the Venetians needed ships quickly. When the Turks tried to take a Venetian colony in the Maditerranean, the Arsenal built 100 ships in two months to prepare for battle.
