Genoa, between 1276 and 1283, protected her harbours by a gigantic mole, and in 1295 brought the streams of the Ligurian Alps into the city by an aqueduct worthy of old Rome.

Venice had to win her very footing from the sea and sand.

So firmly did she drive her piles, so vigilantly watch their preservation, that palaces and cathedrals of marble might be safely reared upon the bosom of the deep.

Meanwhile, stone bridges began to span the rivers of Italy; the streets and squares of towns were everywhere paved with flags.

Before the first years of the fourteenth century the Italian cities presented a spectacle of solid and substantial comfort, very startling to northerners who travelled from the unpaved lanes of London and the muddy labyrinths of Paris.
Sismondi remarks with just pride that these great works were Republican.
They were set on foot for the public use, and were constructed at the expense of the commonwealths.