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Veneto (-itˈvɛːnetopron, , ), is one of the 20 regions of Italy. Its population is about 5 million, ranking 5th in Italy. Veneto had been for more than a millennium an independent state, known as the Venetian Republic, until it was eventually annexed by Italy in 1866 after a brief Austrian and French rule. Its capital was, and still is, Venice, which ruled for centuries one of the largest and richest maritime republics and trade empires in the world. Due to this rich cultural legacy, a significant number of Venetians consider themselves to have a unique identity which they refuse to subsume within the notion of "Italian", and the regional government has gone so far as to officially define its inhabitants as "a people". This opened the way to a notable nationalist movement and to the election of a "Venetian nationalist", Luca Zaia (Liga Veneta � Lega Nord), as president of the Region.
Once the heartland of the Venetian Republic, Veneto is today among the wealthiest, most developed and industrialised regions of Italy. Having one of the country's richest historical, natural, artistic, cultural, musical and culinary heritages, it is also one of the most visited regions of Italy, with about 60 million tourists every year (2007). Besides Italian, most inhabitants also speak Venetian. Having been for a long period in history a land of mass emigration, Veneto is today one of the greatest immigrant-receiving regions in the country, with 454,453 foreigners (9.30% of the regional population) in 2008, the most recent of which are Romanian and Moroccan.
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