The Liquid Continent - Volume II - Venice

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  • Author: Nicholas Woodsworth
  • Publisher: Haus Publishers Ltd
  • Catalogue: 163403
  • Size: 17x13cm
This wonderful book is part of Nicholas Woodsworth’s “Liquid Continent” trilogy, combining travel narrative, history and a reflection on the essence of life in the Mediterranean.

Here, in Volume II, he comes to Venice; of all the great powers of the Mediterranean past, Venice was the most commercially ambitious. Her great wealth and sophisticated culture were products of a commercial empire that stretched from the Adriatic to the ports of the Levant, and her long history is studded with sea dramas of war, crusade and intrigue.

Seeing maritime dominance as the foundation of Venice’s existence, the author abandons museums and tourist hordes to engage in the city’s ongoing love-affair with the sea. He investigates the heart of Venice’s marine activity, the Arsenale; prowls the corridors of the city’s mysterious State Archives; takes part in a celebrated rowing race; meets the city’s top gondola-builder. Signing on as a canal-boat delivery man, he discovers in the backwaters of Venice a magnificent but intimate city rarely seen by outsiders.