Reborn in The Most Serene Republic of Venice – Rise of a Doge

Constantinople is on fire. It is April, 1204. An old Doge, blind and well past eighty, marches at the head of the last assault against the sea walls himself. When the smoke finally drifts away, the Most Serene Republic comes off with a lawful claim to three-eighths of the richest empire on earth, and that victory lights the fuse for three hundred years of Venetian domination. Vitale Barozzi wakes up exactly at the start of this era. He brings with him ten years spent reading dangerous men across dimly lit tables, a lifelong fascination with the very Republic he landed inside, and a voice in his head that's already decided this whole business is an experiment. The voice has all the warmth of a Venetian winter. Every scrap of information is given away like it pains to part with it, and every mistake he makes is marked down by polished disappointment, certain the experiment ought to do better. He's going to raise a fleet, stake his claim on Crete, and turn three galleys into a trading empire stretching from Italy to Alexandria and the Levant. Before he's done, he'll fight Genoa, talk his way into every chamber the Republic will tolerate, and learn just how far history will bend for a man who already knows most of it. Vito figures the worst has already happened. Genoa, a good chunk of Venice, and history itself are about to prove him wrong.