Thanks to the GameInformer article, we now know that Assassin's Creed 2 will be set in Venice around the year 1476. I found a great article that explains a lot about what life was like in Italy during that time. Sounds like there will be LOTS to do for a potential assassin:
Source: The Historical Setting of Assassin's Creed 2
"Being an assassin would have been a viable career option in 15th century Tuscany. Powerful families of merchants like the Medici clan in Florence battled others for supremacy in commercial and political life. Italy was divided into relatively small city states, so these families enjoyed a disproportionate amount of power compared to traditional authorities.
Lorenzo de Medici, who evidently plays an important role in Assassin's Creed 2, was a young member of the Medici family who became the ruler of Florence at the age of only 20 years old, when his father died in 1469. Lorenzo was no businessman like his banker father, but he was adept at politics. He ruled the republic of Florence through bribery, corruption and strategic marriages. Other families tried to capitalize on Lorenzo's relative inexperience and youth, eventually leading to an assassination attempt which failed in 1478. In return, the wounded Lorenzo had the entire rival Pazzi family put to death. That's just how princes were expected to roll in the 15th century"
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