Well, I've been saving up a bunch of posts and have been reading more. Here we go...
Venice has a special allure for many people, including myself. The combination of canals, Italian/“oriental” architecture, Italian food and Italian language make for a sumptuous city. If you’ve ever wanted to go a bit deeper than the typical tourist, there are some great books the check out. Two that I recently read are The City of Falling Angels, by John Berendt (of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil fame) and Venetian Archeology. While these are very different books, they work well together.
Berendt’s book is a personal profile of the city written while he was staying there for an extended period. While the book uses the recent destruction of La Fenice and its rebirth from the ashes as its centerpiece, Berendt casts a wider net. We also learn about some of the neighborhoods, history, internecine politics and family strife. At times though, I wished for more detail, rather than the grazing style he uses.
Venetian Archeology traces the engineering and archeological history of its eponymous city. This volume helps us to understand not only the various ornamental and structural elements of the buildings, but how how the buildings themselves were built up on the hundreds of islands that make up the archipelago. Again, there were times that I wished for more detail or more pictorial examples, but the book is still good enough to recommend for at least library loan.
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