Seeking Venice

A book of Venice, not about Venice. Because the authors have translated into words and pictures the city's cryptic message. "Seeking Venice" is a Baedeker of sensations, offering suggestions for those in search of historic roots, the truth behind works of art or the legends underlying the daily news. Words and pictures whose intent is not to reveal but to seek out a city as it makes its last attempt to escape trivialisation and homogenisation. The book is addressed above all to the solitary, clockfree traveller, prepared to be taken by the hand and accompanied on long itineraries that wind their way not only across the map of Venice but into its soul. For these routes are inspired by sudden, unexpected sights and sounds -- hidden canals, corroded brickwork or Tiepolesque lighting effects -- quite unlike anything in the city's official guidebooks. The words are by a Venetian, the images by an Oxfordian who lives in California. The spirit that inspired them is the same. "Seeking Venice" is a tribute of love towards a creation of man whose essence is evermore in contrast with the turmoil of the contemporary world.