The city includes what locals call "Venice Island", a portion of the mainland that is accessed via bridges over the artificially created Intracoastal Waterway.

The area that is now Venice was originally the home of Paleo-Indians, with evidence of their presence dating back to 8200 BCE.

[11] As thousands of years passed, and the climate changed and some of the Pleistocene animals that the Indians hunted became extinct, the descendants of the Paleo-Indians found new ways to create stone and bone weapons to cope with their changing environment.

[3] Venice was first known as "Horse and Chaise" because of a carriage-like tree formation that marked the spot for fishermen.

[14] Francis H. "Frank" Higel, originally from France, arrived in Venice in 1883 with his wife and six sons.

[16] Higel established a post office in 1885 with the name Eyry as a service for the community's thirty residents.

In February he was appointed as postmaster but the office was shut down months later, in November 1885, with services moving back to Osprey.

[3][17][18] During the Florida land boom of the 1920s, Fred H. Albee, an orthopedic surgeon renowned for his bone-grafting operations, bought 112 acres (45 ha) from Bertha Palmer to develop Venice.

Albee sold the land to the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and retained Nolen as city planner.

Milton came less than two weeks after Hurricane Helene caused several feet of storm surge throughout the city of Venice.

The climate in this area is characterized by hot, humid summers and generally mild winters.

[36] Travel to and from Venice by air is available two airports, Venice Municipal Airport located two miles from the central business district and is primarily used by chartered and private jets as well as small personal aircraft while domestic and international flights are available at Sarasota–Bradenton International Airport approximately thirty miles from Venice's central business district.