It's cold, it's winter, it's dreary. You'd rather be at the Venice Carnival, dreaming in a gondola or just sitting in a very special Venetian cafe ... Venice has to be the world's most heart-stoppingly beautiful and haunting city. For visitors and inhabitants over the centuries it's always been a place rich in history, romance, mystery and intrigue. For writers, artists, filmmakers and others it has been a powerful source of inspiration for their work city-pick Venice brings together over sixty of the very best writers on Venice, whose novels, memoirs, journalism, blogs, diaries and letters wonderfully evoke the past and present of La Serenissima as never before. From arriving in Venice by sea with Jan Morris and crossing the ominous Bridge of Sighs with Casanova - to getting under the skin of the Biennale with Geoff Dyer and learning about Venice the hard way with Bidisha - from taking a sultry summer gondola ride with Thomas Mann and climbing up to San Marco's horses with Sally Vickers' Miss Garnett - to hearing all about the city from Venetian residents Tiziano Scarpa and novelist and palazzo owner Michelle Lovric, and much, much more. Together with a fascinating introduction to the wealth and range of Venetian writing by Jeff Cotton, creator of the Fictional Cities website.
