venice

We've already heard Lord Norwich's warnings about the perilous future of his beloved Venice (watch this video). But throughout human history, what have been the planet's greatest cities - and how did they come to be? Lord Norwich's latest book, The Great Cities in History (see more info here) attempts to explain that over 300 pages of exquisite photography and expert opinion on 70 of man's greatest settlements.

Next Saturday Venice will be holding its own funeral. As far as publicity stunts go, it's quite an unequivocal message that the city is on the brink. Only this time the threat is not from the rising tides and the island city's subsiding foundations; the danger comes in the form of the rapidly shrinking population – it seems that the Venetians are migrating to the mainland faster than you can say 'just one cornetto'.

According to one group of locals – members of the online community venessia.com - the population has now fallen below the threshold of 60,000 people (down from about 150,000 in 1960) and the city's inhabitants are being driven out of their ancestral homes by property, food and transport prices far higher than those on the mainland. The main reason for the soaring cost of living is the relentless flow of tourists to the small city. As a result the local Venetians are being priced out of their historical island city.

404 years ago a group of Catholic rebels were caught trying to blow up Parliament. Their failure, subsequent torture and gruesome deaths, have become the focus for one of the year's highlights, when millions of Brits will venture outside to light bonfires, burn effigies and set off around 30,000 tons of gunpowder in firework displays great and small.

Yet while most of those marvelling at rockets, firecrackers and Catherine Wheels will know about Guy Fawkes and his ill-advised plotters, not many will know fireworks go back thousands of years before, in ancient China.

Legendary history writer John Julius Norwich knows Venice better than most, if not all. Having recently edited The Great Cities in History (Thames & Hudson; see more info here), an epic ramble through the pioneering places in human history, he has also penned A History of Venice: The Rise to Empire and Venice: A Traveller's Companion - and was, until recently, on the board of the Venice in Peril Fund. No surprises, then, that Venice occupies its own page in Great Cities, at the pinnacle of renaissance culture.

Heritage Key has just returned from a blustery, biting morning trip to legendary writer John Julius Norwich's house, beside the pretty canals of London's Little Venice. It was a great interview, and one which we'll be following up with articles, videos and photos right here - see below for tips on how to keep up with our content! 

A brisk wind whips up dervishes of crooked caramel and crimson leaves; whistling cold signals the city's slide from autumn to winter. Yet a firm handshake and sincere smile minutes later leaves HK as warm as ever, as we enter Lord Norwich's magnolia mini-mansion, set back from the busy city streets.

Scientists from the University of Padua have, for the first time, been able to decipher the streets and buildings of a lost Roman town called Altinum, just north of Venice. They did this by flying over the site near the modern-day village of Altino, which is today no more than a few cornfields to the naked eye. They then took aerial photos with cameras using near-infrared and other light wavelengths. The result is an image of the Altinum that lies half a metre or more below ground level, and clearly shows streets, a basilica, an amphitheatre and a canal. Historians believe the site is unique, in that it is the only Roman city in northern Italy not to have been built upon in subsequent centuries.