The World of Venice: Revised Edition

Paperback - May, 1995 - Harvest/HBJ Book
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By: Jan Morris
ISBN: 0156983567

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Reviews by readers

Unusual Venice Guide

Jan Morris has written a wonderfully personal guide to a city she loves and has a real rapport with. I read it long before I went to Venice and then I read it again after I finally went. Either way is a great way to vicariously imagine what Venice is like or to wander again over the paths and canals that made your visit a memorable one!

For those in love with Venice or about to be

I am addicted both to travel and, increasingly, to writing about travel. Of the excessive number of books and articles I have read, this may be my favorite piece of travel writing of all.

I visited Venice for the first time at the end of a brief trip to Italy, in the company of my love interest of the time. We had left but little time for Venice, first because she had told me it was small and quickly seen, and second because so many had warned me away from the place as being too touristy, too smelly, malfunctioning.

I was thus unprepared to fall for the fabled city as I did. I'll spare readers here my poor attempt to capture how I almost immediately felt about the place; photos don't capture Venice and my amateurish prose won't either. You truly have to be there in its unique atmosphere of urban quiet, amid the constant undulation of the water lapping against its stone streets, to feel the unique feel of the city. And you must linger there long enough to discover its small, unguarded treasures, off the beaten path of the tourist guides. And you have to have a sharper sense for self-expression than I do. Fortunately, Jan Morris qualifies on all counts.

The next time I went to Venice, it was alone, after the breakup of a relationship I had thought was heading into marriage. This time I was ready; I had devoured Garry Wills's book on Venice (also quite good, by the way) and arrived ready to tunnel into the city's true heart. It was one of the most rewarding travel experiences I have ever had, my first full day there being the best. The view at dawn was stunning; the silhouettes of St. Mark's spires, domes and sculptures seemed just a few feet away when I opened a creaky window as a deep cobalt blue sky was just starting to brighten. But again, enough from me. . .

Staggering around Venice for a few days as giddy as if I'd found a new love, I went browsing in the bookstore for souvenirs on my last day before departure and found Morris's book. I had known only Morris's histories and till that time did not know of her great career as a travel writer.

Morris's Venice was the perfect find. This is a travel book for those who deeply love a place, or at least who know what it is like to deeply love a place and to want to possess all of it, to locate the hidden gems, to develop firmly held preferences as to which streets are best to walk along, and all the other pastimes that entertain the enthusiast.

Morris's book brings the scenes of Venice to life with an immediacy that is rarely encountered. Here she is on St. Mark's square: "The great Piazza of St. Mark, on a high summer day, is a rich medley of sounds: the chatter of innumerable tourists, the laughter of children, the deep bass-notes of the Basilica organ, the thin strains of the cafe orchestras, the clink of coffee cups, the rattling of maize in paper bags by sellers of bird food, the shouts of newspapermen, bells, clocks, pigeons, and all the sounds of the sea that seep into the square from the quayside around the corner. It is a heady, Alexandrian mixture."

She nails St. Mark's Basilica, too, "descended from Byzantium, by faith out of nationalism; and sometimes to its high ritual in the Basilica of St. Mark there is a tremendous sense of an eastern past, marbled, hazed and silken." Oh, yes.

The visitor to Venice eventually discovers the small out of the way places, too, like San Giorgio della Schiavoni: "It is no bigger than your garage, and its four walls positively smile with the genius of this delightful painter, the only Venetian artist with a sense of humor. Here is St. George lunging resolutely at his dragon. . here is St. Tryophonius with a very small well-behaved basilisk; and here the monks of St. Jerome's monastery. . . run in comical terror from the mildest of all possible lions."

I could go on, but I would risk some copyright infringement law, I'm sure.

Admittedly, this book is best for those who have been to Venice or who are planning a trip, but I assume that covers the vast majority of the people who link to this page. For these readers I unhesitatingly recommend this marvelous book.

Great Read

Still one of the great classics about Venice. Author Morris presents the big picture but also fills in the small details that add color, character, history and life to this incomparable city. My only criticism is that the photos are poor and too few in number. Also Recommended: John Julius Norwich's 'A History of Venice'.

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