Taking down sails, tossing dock lines, finding shelter in a bay before bad weather comes, or setting foot on land and looking up at Gothic windows and Renaissance balconies... Among others, these images capture The Most Serene Republic of Venice - or Serenissima Repubblica di Venezia, as was called this extinguished country at the peak of its splendour.

These are stories of the sea, trade, naval battles, art and culture. The task of this guide is to let you relive that past and those landscapes through a modern-day journey. We will go from Italy to Cyprus, from Koper to Shkodër, to the Dalmatian islands and the Venetian hinterland.

We will try to understand what this Republic was, born in the early Middle Ages in the shallows of a lagoon and surviving until 1797, the threshold of a new era. We will explore its legacy, asking today's inhabitants what remains of the Venetian period and how it is perceived. Dozens of historians, chefs, artists, booksellers, artisans and other people of diverse profiles and nationalities will help answer our questions as we tour a vast and seemingly endless territory.

This illustrated guidebook, full of interviews, recipes and maps, is the first volume of Extinguished Countries, a series of travel books dedicated to countries that no longer exist. What you’re holding in your hands is a pocket-sized time machine.