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Venice City Stay   |   READING AND TRAVEL GUIDE

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Eyewitness Guide Venice & the Veneto  •   Eyewitness Guides
GUIDEBOOK •  2008 •  PAPER  • 312 PAGES
Another in the long line of superb Eyewitness Guides, this one features color photography, dozens of excellent maps and a neighborhood-by-neighborhood synopsis of the region's attractions. It includes numerous cutaways and floor plans of local buildings as well. Handsome, convenient and up-to-date, this is the guide to carry. (ITL200, $23.00)
  Eyewitness Guide Venice & the Veneto
The World of Venice  •  Jan Morris
HISTORY •  1995 •  PAPER  • 315 PAGES • FAVORITE
Morris displays her talent for research, telling anecdote and well-wrought prose in this spirited portrait of a beloved city, its history and inhabitants. If you are going to read one book on Venice, we recommend this favorite. Originally published in 1974 and revised for this edition, it's a tour de force. (ITL12, $16.00)
  The World of Venice
Art and Life in Renaissance Venice  •  Patricia Brown
ART & ARCHITECTURE •  1997 •  PAPER  • 176 PAGES
With a strong focus on art, the author evokes the guilds, nobility and spirit of the Renaissance in her discussion of painting, sculpture and architecture. With 120 full-color illustrations. A volume in the Prentice Hall Perspectives series. Also in this same series is "Renaissance Florence." Second edition. (ITL57, $24.95)
  Art and Life in Renaissance Venice
Venice Map  •   Borch Maps
MAP
A colorful, detailed, laminated map of Venice at a scale of 1:6,500. Perfect for finding your way around the famously labyrinthine streets and canals. Plastic-coated. (ITL26, $7.95)
  Venice Map
 

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Veneto Friuli Venezia Giulia Map  •   Touring Club Italiano    •  A detailed, shaded relief map of the Veneto at a scale of 1:200,000. Accurate, colorful, and imported from Italy. (ITL22, $12.95)
 
 
Blue Guide Venice  •  Alta MacAdam   • GUIDEBOOK  •  This comprehensive guide to the art, architecture, museums, history and culture of Venice includes 30 illustrations, maps and site diagrams. (ITL457, $29.95)
 
 
Fodor's Venice's 25 Best  •   Citypack   • GUIDEBOOK  •  This shirt-pocket guide includes an excellent map of the city center and essential information on Venice's highlights, including restaurant recommendations and sightseeing. (ITL106, $11.95)
 
 
The Architectural History of Venice  •  Deborah Howard   • GUIDEBOOK  •  This revised edition of Howard's concise, fact-filled guide to Venetian churches, palaces and guildhalls from the Byzantine era to the present includes 70 black-and-white and 100 color illustrations. (ITL797, $25.00)
 
 
Venice for Pleasure  •  J.G. Links   • GUIDEBOOK • COMING IN DECEMBER  •  The 40th anniversary edition of this favorite walking guide to the history, art and byways of Venice. (ITL104, $27.95)
 
 
Venice from the Ground Up  •  James H. S. McGregor   • GUIDEBOOK  •  A walking tour, history and celebration, this masterly, personal guide to Venice includes a short account of McGregor's favorite sites, 10 maps and suggested walks (and boat rides). (ITL792, $18.95)
 
 
A History of Venice  •  John Julius Norwich   • HISTORY  •  The great historian Norwich marshals myriad personalities, battles, sieges, and facts into a vivid portrait of the Venetian Republic spanning the 1000 years up to its 1797 defeat at the hands of Napoleon. (ITL177, $25.00)
 
 
A Traveller's History of Venice  •  Peter Menzel   • HISTORY  •  A lively, brief history of Venice. (ITL625, $14.95)
 
 
Italy, A Short History  •  Harry Hearder   • HISTORY  •  Elegantly written, generous and informative, this compact book takes in the sweep of Italian history from the Roman Republic through the Renaissance, World War II and up to the present. (ITL56, $26.99)
 
 
The City of Falling Angels  •  John Berendt   • HISTORY  •  Berendt's masterful mix of damp aspirations, intrigue and eccentric personalities conveys a certain essence of what it's like to live in modern Venice. (ITL644, $15.00)
 
 
Venice Observed  •  Mary McCarthy   • CULTURAL PORTRAIT  •  Originally published over 30 years ago, this collection of eight essays is a literate, evocative celebration of the city, its character, and its history. (ITL27, $13.00)
 
 
Venice, Lion City  •  Garry Wills   • HISTORY  •  A magisterial history of Venice at the height of its power as a maritime republic in the 15th and 16th centuries. Wills shows the power and influence of the city through its magnificent Renaissance art and architecture. (ITL324, $20.00)
 
 
Palladio and Palladianism  •  Robert Tavernor   • ART & ARCHITECTURE  •  A well illustrated guide to the work of Andrea Palladio, the 16th century Venetian architect, and his followers. (ITL25, $16.95)
 
 
Venice, The City and Its Architecture  •  Richard Goy   • ART & ARCHITECTURE  •  In this oversize, illustrated book, architect and historian Richard Goy discusses the diverse buildings of Venice, including fisherman's cottages, Christian basilicas, Palladio's masterpieces, and Longhena's Santa Maria de Salute. With 400 photographs, in color and black-and-white. (ITL251, $39.95)
 
 
Venice, The Grand Canal  •  Daniele Resini   • ART & ARCHITECTURE  •  This ingenious book unfolds accordion-style to reveal a 42-foot panorama of the palaces, churches and museums fronting Venice's glorious Grand Canal. (ITL663, $50.00)
 
 
Italian Days  •  Barbara Grizzuti Harrison   • TRAVEL NARRATIVE • FAVORITE  •  Grizzuti Harrison writes with warmth and depth of her journey from Milan south to Calabria in this sprightly account of Italy and the Italians. (ITL02, $15.00)
 
 
The Lives of the Artists, Vol 1  •  Giorgio Vasari  •  Julia Conway and Peter Bondanella   • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR  •  Written in the mid-16th century, Vasari starts with Giotto as painting's prophet and ends with Michelangelo as its messiah in these short, influential biographies. (ITL17, $14.00)
 
 
Venetian Life  •  William Dean Howells   • TRAVEL NARRATIVE  •  A leisurely account of housekeeping, touring and socializing in 19th-century Venice by the American consul, first published in 1866. (ITL327, $16.95)
 
 
Dead Lagoon, An Aurelio Zen Mystery  •  Michael Dibdin   • MYSTERY  •  Dibdin -- a master of ambiguous settings, shady dealings and fast-paced prose -- returns to Venice in this sixth book in the thoroughly enjoyable Aurelio Zen series. (ITL577, $13.95)
 
 
Death at La Fenice  •  Donna Leon   • MYSTERY  •  The first of the tremendously good Guido Brunetti mysteries, all set in the author's beloved Venice, in which a famous conductor is found dead at the celebrated theater of the title. (ITL555, $13.95)
 
 
In the Company of the Courtesan  •  Sarah Dunant   • LITERATURE  •  Dunant paints a vivid, earthy portrait of Renaissance Venice in this absorbing novel of intrigue, ambition and love -- cleverly narrated by the wily dwarf Bucino Teodoldo, loyal companion of the courtesan. (ITL650, $13.95)
 
 
The Garden of the Finzi-Continis  •  Giorgio Bassini  •  William Weaver   • LITERATURE  •  This powerful book, set in Ferrara, deals with unrequited love and classist society in the time of Mussolini. (ITL205, $13.00)
 
 
The Girl of His Dreams  •  Donna Leon   • LITERATURE  •  Thickly plotted and as imbued as ever with the atmosphere of Venice, this 17th Commissario Guido Brunetti mystery opens with the funeral of the detective's mother -- and includes going undercover to investigate a secretive religious sect and the suspicious death of a gypsy girl. (ITL940, $24.00)
 
 


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