So Venice is a city made up of hundreds of islands at the northern tip of the Adriatic Sea, but walking around it, you can't help but feel that the city is essentially a collection of floating buildings tied together by some canals. If ever there were a place where geography was destiny, it was Venice. Venice was literally built for ocean-going trade. As you can imagine, Venice didn't have a lot of natural resources except for fish and mustaches, so if they wanted to grow, they had to rely on trade. Let's go to the Thought Bubble. First, Venetians became experts in shipbuilding. Remember that when the Crusaders needed ships for their crazy fourth crusade, they headed to Venice, because the Venetians were famous for their ships, including merchant ships like the Gali and the Cod.