Because I am watching a small series about Venetian history in these days (to give an example:
Francesco's Venice
), this could be a noteworthy story:
Battle of Curzola
In these ages, Italy as one sovereign state was not existing.
Four independent „repubbliche marinare“ were dominating at least temporarily almost the whole mediterranean trade area:
Venice, Genoa, Pisa and Amalfi
Sharing that area brought many problems (anyway we are talking about competing merchants), so that armored conflicts were nearly daily routine in these times.
On September 9, 1298 The fleets of Genoa and Venice had such a confrontation, and Venice had to suffer a crucial defeat.
What makes this story noteworthy finally, is the circumstance, that
Marco Polo
(commanding a Venetian Warship) was capured in this conflict and wrote his travel report
Le divisament dou monde
during the period he was imprisoned.
Probably we never would have known anything about his travels, if this incident never had taken place.