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Blue Guide Venice
Venice is one of Europe's leading destinations, a magnet for cultural travellers. This new edition of a key Blue Guides title presents Venice's splendor and history as well as recommending where to stay and where to eat: crucial advice in a city where the best establishments are not necessarily the most obvious.
- GenresTravel
400 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1980
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About the author
Alta MacAdam
20 books1 follower Alta Macadam is a Florence-based art historian who is one of the Blue Guides' best-selling authors.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 2, 2023
This is an incredibly comprehensive guide for the city of Venice and its surroundings. Here you are bound to find, with reasonable depth and detail, information on the numerous sites of the city, both in the main historical city as well as in the surrounding islands in the lagoon.
Following the pattern of other Blue Guides, this is very neatly organized, starting with a brief historical recap of the city, and then exploring different neighborhoods and islands. Each region is then broken up into the main sights from all these different ages, with maps for the main clusters also being provided. Mrs. MacAdam breadth in knowledge is stunning, as she moves seamlessly through these different ages and buildings, providing not only historical context but also cultural: which architects designed such buildings, which artists decorated it, the meanings of these choices, the artistic movement they belonged to and the political and social context that framed the building construction and/or renovation. For especially large and rich sights, maps are provided so you can understand the different parts of the building and the works and different artists responsible for each part.
With such a comprehensive source available, I would recommend you read and highlight the most interesting parts, specially of the sights you intend to see: this will help you prioritize. It also helps you to wander around the city with context and quickly refresh on the details of each specific sight by browsing its entry.
Of the (many) very nice buildings and places I discovered through this guide, I would highlight:
I – Doge’s Palace complex, where you can understand how the Republic functioned, with its many decision bodies acting as checks and balances on each other all the while admiring some really jaw dropping paintings from Venetian masters.
II – The Scuola, class confraternities aimed at charitable works in the city. I would highlight the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, where you can admire the immense capacity of perhaps the greatest master of Venetian panting: Jacopo Tintoretto
III – Galleria della Accademia: here is a vast collection of the Venetian school of art, which developed a very distinctive style in the Renaissance, contrasting with the Florentine art that came to dominate mainland Italy. Tintoretto reigns supreme here once again.
IV – The island of Torcello, which flourished along with Venice in the lagoon in the wake of the barbarian invasions but was later abandoned due to a massive plague. Here there’s a nice example of Byzantine art in its cathedral.
V – Aside from the massive cathedral at San Marco (where you must pay for everything), the many smaller churches of Venice, such as Gloriosa dei Frari, Santa Maria della Salute, San Zaccaria, Santa Maria de Carmello and San Giorgio Maggiore.
Following the pattern of other Blue Guides, this is very neatly organized, starting with a brief historical recap of the city, and then exploring different neighborhoods and islands. Each region is then broken up into the main sights from all these different ages, with maps for the main clusters also being provided. Mrs. MacAdam breadth in knowledge is stunning, as she moves seamlessly through these different ages and buildings, providing not only historical context but also cultural: which architects designed such buildings, which artists decorated it, the meanings of these choices, the artistic movement they belonged to and the political and social context that framed the building construction and/or renovation. For especially large and rich sights, maps are provided so you can understand the different parts of the building and the works and different artists responsible for each part.
With such a comprehensive source available, I would recommend you read and highlight the most interesting parts, specially of the sights you intend to see: this will help you prioritize. It also helps you to wander around the city with context and quickly refresh on the details of each specific sight by browsing its entry.
Of the (many) very nice buildings and places I discovered through this guide, I would highlight:
I – Doge’s Palace complex, where you can understand how the Republic functioned, with its many decision bodies acting as checks and balances on each other all the while admiring some really jaw dropping paintings from Venetian masters.
II – The Scuola, class confraternities aimed at charitable works in the city. I would highlight the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, where you can admire the immense capacity of perhaps the greatest master of Venetian panting: Jacopo Tintoretto
III – Galleria della Accademia: here is a vast collection of the Venetian school of art, which developed a very distinctive style in the Renaissance, contrasting with the Florentine art that came to dominate mainland Italy. Tintoretto reigns supreme here once again.
IV – The island of Torcello, which flourished along with Venice in the lagoon in the wake of the barbarian invasions but was later abandoned due to a massive plague. Here there’s a nice example of Byzantine art in its cathedral.
V – Aside from the massive cathedral at San Marco (where you must pay for everything), the many smaller churches of Venice, such as Gloriosa dei Frari, Santa Maria della Salute, San Zaccaria, Santa Maria de Carmello and San Giorgio Maggiore.
June 20, 2008
This was great, I learned so much about venice, and it had great maps of the city. definitely worth picking up the blue guide for whatever city you are visiting.
August 5, 2019
don't go to Venice without it!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews