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bboduffy's review against another edition
3.0
This was less of a travel guide and more of an ode to the great city. I learned about the history of places places, which enriched my experience, but would have gotten hopelessly lost if relying on this text to plan / navigate Venice. In that light, it was the perfect text - meandering prose to accompany the experience of aimless wandering wonderment.
I hugely enjoyed the way he used the first person plural throughout. As "we" explored the city, J.G. Links inserted his admiration of Venice, and his unique sense of humor.
I hugely enjoyed the way he used the first person plural throughout. As "we" explored the city, J.G. Links inserted his admiration of Venice, and his unique sense of humor.
caroparr's review against another edition
5.0
Links speaks directly to the reader with what Jan Morris calls "the kind of urbanity that is masked in simplicity." He makes no great claims for this travel guide, saying "Its simple object is to guide the reader to places he might otherwise miss and, having reached them, to tell him what he might wish to know and then leave him there to admire, to enjoy or, perhaps, to be disappointed." He is brisk about the Accademia ("The first nineteen rooms of the Accademia can be done in half an hour by any traveler with sound limbs and a willingness to postpone the delights of such heavyweights as Titan, Tintoretto and Veronese..."), though he himself was a noted Canaletto scholar. His description of the Piazza was our accompaniment as we sat, per his suggestion, with a Campari spritz one late afternoon and surveyed the delectations of the Doge's Palace and St. Mark's Basilica. It was a delight to have him with us.
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