Why did the Italian city-states never took part in colonialism?

Venetians already had numerous colonies across the Mediterranean, or Stato da Mar as they called it, The Domains of the Sea. These included Crete, Corfu, Cyprus, Negroponte, and other various smaller islands. The Genoans had holdings in Crimea, through which they controlled their share of trade from the east.

There are many obvious reasons. First of all, the Americas are too far away for Italians to bother at all. Even if they tried something, the Spaniards would've easily blocked the Gibraltar if they sensed that Italians are making a move in the New World.
Secondly, their shipbuidling was based on light ships like galleys, which were extremely suitable for an inner sea like the Mediterranean. Unlike the Portugese, Italians weren't skilled navigators in high seas voyages, but they were masters of the navigation inside the Mediterranean, probably the best ever. Any Venetian or Genoan venture across the Atlantic would've failed miserably.

Basically the Italians already had for centuries what other Europeans desired so much and because of which they embarked to look for India westwards in the first place - spices, silk, and other luxury goods. Trade with the East was their lifeblood, and abandoning it for some risky adventure westwards would be suicidal. Not even the Ottoman expansion could've stopped Venetian necessity to trade there, that's why they fought so bitterly with Ottomans for centuries, not because of some religious motives, but because of money.

>>2512702
Wasn't Christopher Columbus Genoan?

>>2512756
Yeah he was

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>tfw American who will never be a part of Italian culture
Why even live?

>>2512702
What a good post. Bravo!

>>2512756
But then he was hired by spain

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>>2512702
The ship that the Portuguese and Spaniards used during the Age of Discovery was just a Venetian galleon with some small improvements made to it though. And gimbal suspension that made navigation much easier was invented by Gerolamo Cardano.

>>2512775
>he doesn't know about the good kind of immigrant

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Iberians cockblocked us from the Atlantic and Ottomans cockblocked us from Africa.

>>2512354
Leaving alone the fact that colonies are very expensive long term investments and the geopolitical issues, do notice that the venetian economy was never declining strictly speaking. The Republic coffers were emptied repeatedly to support the wars against the ottomans, but the trade never really dried up to the point where the republic was poor, at least until the austrians came along and willingly raped the economy by diverting trade and nationalizing businesses to favour a more loyal port, Trieste.
And it wasn't any different for the other cities. The issues of the city states weren't economical in nature.

>>2512775
Humanity is doomed now that a*glo culture has become world hegemon.