Grado is a small town with a population of circa 9000 persons in the north-eastern Italian region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, located on a peninsula of the Adriatic Sea between Venice and Trieste. Grado was an important cultural and religious town in the Middle Age but it has lost its importance, but not its beauty. It was part of the Austrian Empire from 1815, when it was acquired by Austria, until 1918, when it was returned to Italy after its victory in World War I.