This paper analyses the economic strategies pursued by noble men from Venice and its Mainland between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries. The reconfiguration of the European economy tended to remove the Italian peninsula to the margins of the “old world” inviting its elites to evaluate their economic activities. Diversification was a main concern. Although already present in the Venetian “golden age” (fourteenth–fifteenth centuries), diversification became a real “adaptation policy” in the face of changing international trends during the modern period. Investments in agriculture, finance and industry, as well as in traditional long-distance trade, demonstrated that the Venetian patricians had a good understanding of the new international equilibrium. By applying innovative processes and products, these efforts responded to the new patterns of both European and Eastern Mediterranean markets. The theme of Venetian “decadence” seems to have run out of steam. However, the wide range of economic strategies made by the patricians of the Venetian Republic again calls for new research to better support such statements.