History of the Republic of Venice were little compensation. This was the last war of the Republic with Turkey. The decline of Venice in the 18th century was also due not only to Genoa, Venice's old rival, but also to Livorno, a new port on the Tyrrhenian Sea created by the grand dukes of Tuscany and chosen as staging-post for British trade in the Mediterranean. Still more injurious were the Papal town of Ancona and Habsburg Trieste, a free port since 1719, in the Adriatic Sea, which no longer constituted a "Venetian Gulf". An eminent Venetian politician of the time declared, "Apart from the residue which
Gulf of Valencia Gulf of Valencia The Gulf of Valencia (, ), is a gulf or inlet of the western Mediterranean Sea, on the eastern coast of Spain. Its limits are the Cap de la Nau headland in the south, while the northern limit is diffuse: for some it is the Cape of Vinaròs; and for others it is the Ebre Delta. When the Cape of Vinaròs is used the Gulf of Valencia's coast is entirely within the Valencian Community. When the Ebre Delta is used its northern coast is within southern Catalonia. The tiny Columbretes islets are located in the gulf. The