In 452 A.D the Huns reassembled along the North
Eastern Alps, and prepared for a full-scale land
invasion of the Italian Peninsula. As Attila and
the Huns crossed over the Alps and moved down into Italy, they terrorized the inhabitants of the Western Roman Empire. The city of Aquileia at the tip of the Adriatic was wiped off the face of the earth. The fugitives from that pitiful city fled into
the lagoons of the Adriatic and founded the new city of Venice. Much of the Po Valley--Milan,
Verona, and Padua--was devastated and depopulated. The Huns had successfully eradicated all of northern Italy.