Preface
The only way to care for Venice as she deserves it is to give her a chance to
touch you often – to linger and remain and return.
Henry JamesPerhaps no city in the world holds the allure of Venice, with its endless maze of
narrow alleys and waterways. An obligatory stop on the Grand Tour, the love of
John Ruskin, Henry James, Mary McCarthy, and other celebrated writers, droves of
artists, scholars, and tourists continue to explore its calli
and campi year after year. The floating city brings sighs of
utter astonishment as sky and sea paint the landscape, changing the palette in
rhythm with breaking light. Domes, rooftops, and towers glint and glaze in the
summer, retreating mysteriously like ghostlike forms during the dark and misty
winter. All the while the water mirrors the atmosphere, yielding tantalizing
glimpses of Byzantine, Islamic, and Gothic styles.
Over the ages, Venice has been a beacon of hope for many: to the original island
settlers, it augured refuge; to Crusading adventurers, it was a pilgrim stop and
a place to book passage to the Holy Land; to laborers, it promised employment
opportunities; to pleasure seekers, it offered spectacle, gambling, and sexual
experimentation; to gentlemen on the Grand Tour, it was a finishing school to
study the Venetian constitution, view monumental art, and savor Baroque music;
to expatriates, it provided new ways of life; to scholars, it became a place to
preserve or reinterpret the past; to artists, writers, and composers, it offered
a source of inspiration and a place to seek solace and consolation. Now the
floating labyrinth is one of the most visited cities in the world, luring
tourists with its artistic patrimony, film festivals, Carnival celebrations, and
avant-garde art expositions.