Yes and no. Although the people of Venice, Genoa, and Pisa were certainly skilled and innovative navigators, mediterranean ships used for war and trade were not stratospherically different from those used by their Ancient Roman predecessors. So were their technologies; significant innovations like Galileo's telescope, for example, were developed when the Maritime Republics were already declining. Most significant naval innovation really took place in Northern Europe in later centuries.

The success of the Italian Maritime Republics has more to do with a combination of institutionalism and environmental determinism: The Merchant Republics were convenient harbors in the dead center of the Mediterranean on an economically prosperous peninsula which maintained Roman-era rights, liberties, and even some institutions, fostering.

I wrote this post about early Venetian Conflict Management and this other post about the Venetian navy you might be interested in.