Saturday, December 03, 2022

The Venetians: A New History: From Marco Polo to Casanova

 Venice is now a tourist destination. However, it only is attractive because of the grand past history. It was a city of traders that grew to loosely control a significant empire. As maritime traders, they were more interested in trade routes than actual control. There was dedication to to arts and science as well as debauchery. (It was a giant port town after all.)

I found The Venetians to read like a much too long encyclopedia article. The book covered many key figures in the history of Venice, but the cohesive narrative glue tying it together was lacking. It was hard to fit all the details together in a mental map of the history of Venice.

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