Venice Past and Present Author:Danilo Reato, Valeria Manferto de Fabianis (Editor), Ann Hylands Ghiringhelli (Translator) The fascination of a city like Venice, unrivaled among cities built on water, which brings you face-to-face with a fundamental, though much pondered reality: for humankind, made three-quarters of water, being in Venice is like returning to float in the familiar, comforting surroundings of the womb. And this is the simple secret of this enthralli... more »ng city for Venice plunges us into our distant origins.
Venice is a city which charms and captivates, a floating museum, a unique man-made urban environment created out of water, sand and ephemeral islands. The key to her beauty is fragility, her moods and vistas changing with the seasons and with the magical colors which have inspired great artists like Titian, Veronese and Canaletto. Venice is a city of art, de rigueur destination on the Grand Tour of enlightened travelers, romantics in pursuit of love against a backdrop of culture and history, in a city once deservedly endowed with the glorious title of La Dominante (supreme ruler).
The dramatic story of the Serenissima - played out over a thousand years - is unraveled in these pages, in scenes of past and present, in paintings, sculptures and buildings, in the fond reminiscences and tales related by a Venetian born and Bred.« less