Could you recommend any books on Venice and its art and architecture? I would like to do some reading in order to appreciate what I will see in Venice. I am contemplating whether to buy it in England or wait till I get there?

When I was in Venice last, I used some photocopied pages from the Michelin Green Guide. It has good descriptions on art, however, I find it a bit dry.

Personally, I really like the <u>Blue Guides</u> series for Art & architecture. I haven't used theirs for Venice, but I've used the Blue Guides on London Galleries and Museums; as well as the sister series called Visible Cities for Budapest. Blue Guides focus on art and architecture - but their guidebooks tend to be printed on nice paper and therefore on the heavy side. Here's the Blue Guides link for Venice and a PDF of their content view:

http://www.blueguides.com/index.php?...ay=book&key=11

http://www.blueguides.com/fileadmin/...e/contents.pdf

I loved the History of Venice by John Julius Norwich.

http://tinyurl.com/pmk7zs

It is a very LONG book and covers the history of the entire republic. But it is very well written and obviously goes into the ideas behind the whole culture as well as the art and architecture. You can skim all the war parts. There are a lot. But start it now! It will take a long time to read.

We have enjoyed The Architectural History of Venice by Deborah Howard.

It has made several trips to Venice with us.

Byrd

I just noticed you asked for <u>books</u>, not guidebooks suggestion. Sorry!

I enjoyed reading "The City of Falling Angels" by John Berendt.

If you are very into Italian Renaissance art, I can recommend watching the <u>Great Artists of the Italian Renaissance</u> DVD series by the Teaching Company. We purchased the DVD set for our trip and we watched the lectures that were relevant to Venice. [Many libraries carry it too, so you can always just borrow it instead of buying it.]
http://www.teach12.com/ttcx/CourseDe....aspx?cid=7140

P.S. We are fans of the lecture series done by the Teaching Company. We have serveral series (on Art), and have borrowed some history series from our library.

P.P.S. Not sure if these DVD series are available in the UK, if that's where you reside.

I also like the Blue Guides, though I haven't (yet) used them for Venice. The Rome guide is extremely thorough, though they are a little dry and don't give much in the way of general overviews of building styles or trends in various time periods.

Another possibility is a series of books actually called "Art & Architecture." I have the Rome version of this one too - their big coffee-table version (Xmas present), which is fabulous, great pictures and very detailed. I got the travel-sized Tuscany: Art & Architecture, and while the photos are great, it has to include so much that it's light on places like Florence, and much less detail than the larger-sized book, of course.

Context Tours has a great "Bookstore" - here is a link of their books on Venice Art & Architecture:
http://astore.amazon.com/conttrav-20...g=UTF8&node=39

The Stones of Venice by John Ruskin has probably never been improved upon, and there is surely not a single published writer who followed or whose books you can buy today who did not read Ruskin first, before setting pen to paper. You cannot go wrong following Ruskin's footsteps in making your sightseeing choices.

And it is a joy to read.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stones_of_Venice_(book)

And you probably also want to read, or even begin with, Ruskin's The Seven Lamps of Architecture

http://venice.umwblogs.org/exhibit/j...-architecture/

I think that “Venice” by Jan Morris is really worth reading – either before you go, or when you get back. Written in 1960, and then edited a couple of times, most recently in 1990 or thereabouts. I would buy that book in England – it’s a paperback, so you won’t feel too bad scribbling in it and making marginal notes.

I quoted shamelessly from Morris when I wrote my “Trip Report” a couple of months ago. If you take a look that that report, you will find where I commented on guide books.

“Venice” by Francesco Damosto is good – we watched the BBC TV series.

“Venice is a Fish” is good too – Titiano Scarpa, I think.

If you are in UK you are marvelously lucky that you can rent or purchase the DVD Francesco's Venice : Complete BBC Series. (It is not available in US format that I know of although it has been a few months since I tried.) It is lovely and gives you a real sense of history and unique nature of Venice. He has a related book too, but we loved the DVD. Here is link to product page on Amazon.co.uk for details http://tinyurl.com/q7tr4r

And Francesco Damosto has also done a Venetian cook book - which is as much about Venice and his family as it is about food. We took it to Venice and used it heaps. Razor clams - excellento!

Second vote for "Venice" by Jan Morris. Read it last fall and can't wait for our 3rd trip to Venice this summer so that I can follow along with some of the descriptions!