Venice Revealed: An Intimate Portrait

by Paolo Barbaro

THE CITY OF VENICE is a kind of miracle - surrounded by the sea, cut by as many canals as streets, built on fill reinforced with pilings made of huge tree trunks, it defies nature and belief. No city has been more often painted or written about; for centuries it has drawn visitors for its food and cafés, its masked balls and street life, its public squares and buildings, the beauty of its sunsets, the softness of the air, the clarity of its light.

But Venice is dying - literally sinking into the sea - and its beauty has drawn so many tourists that ordinary citizens can no longer afford to live there. Paolo Barbaro grew up in Venice and after a full working life as a civil engineer in cities scattered across the world he went home. There he fell in love all over again with a city that seemed to be slipping away. He describes the illumination of that rediscovery in this extraordinary book - a brilliant evocation and description of a city which has lost none of its power to charm, dazzle, and take one's breath away.

But the passion in Barbaro's plea for the salvation of his native city has a deeper source than nostalgia. If humankind cannot stir itself to save Venice, he asks, what hope is there for other endangered cities, places, and animals?

“Not since Rilke have we read pages about Venice with the power of these.” -- Vittorio Branca

Genres: Travel, Italy

272 pages, Hardcover

First published September 18, 2001

Reviews

[Dantanian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intimate and poetical 'guide' . Better than many.

[Capturing Venice · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve been re-reading Paolo Barbaro’s wonderful, dense, poetic, love letter to his city, Venice Rediscovered, which was written on his return to Venice, after he had spent years living and working in other Italian cities and overseas.

I first read Venice Rediscovered as a library book, and there was so much to absorb and re-read and comprehend in Barbaro’s book, that I later purchased it as an e-book, and lately I’ve ordered a hard copy version in both English and Italian. My holiday project over the Christmas/ New Year break is to tackle Barbaro’s marvellous prose in its original Italian version.

Venice Rediscovered and Venezia La Citta Ritrovata are widely available through online book stores and through iBooks/ Google Play. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves to read and who loves Venice.

[Pamala Hansford · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you love Venice this book will strip the romantic facad, but not decrease your love and admiration of the city. Because he has lived away from the city of his birth, the author is able to appreciate the individuality of the place as well as all the faults and difficulties of living in such an unusual place.

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading Barbaro's account made me fall in love w/ Venice all over again. There is something magical about walking barefoot over the pave of Venice...all of the souls who had walked before me soaking into my skin. This is a must-read for any who visit the great city.

[Patricia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some lovely passages about the "tender breath whispering to us of a less convulsive existence," mingled with few hurl-that-book-across-room bits, like the cataloging of Venetian women.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Left me hungering to experience Venice