Venice: Pure City

In this sumptuous vision of VENICE, Peter Ackroyd turns his unparalleled skill at evoking place from London and the River Thames, to Italy and the city of myth, mystery and beauty. Everything is here: the merchants on the Rialto and the Jews in the ghetto; the mosaics of St Mark's and the glass blowers of Murano; the carnival masks and the sad colonies of lepers; the doges and the destitute. This book, like a magic gondola, transports its readers to that sensual, surprising realm. Reading Ackroyd's VENICE is, in itself, a glorious journey and the perfect holiday.