Venice has a superior militia and also a very good army. I tried to unify Italy right from the start but that got me excommunated with the pope. after a while i was reconsilated again and had been the pope's favourite ever since, never made aggression with a Catholic nation (though they did to me), build churches and joined crusades. after Italian unification i want west into Byzantium, after conquering them i waited for the mongol invasion the lauched a large scale invasion into Asia.