Customer Reviews

Grand Canal

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book really shows off the beauty of the Grand Canal with all of it's palaces and other buildings. One really gets the feeling of what life was like back during the height of the Serenissima. The interior shots are stunning. And the information given for each building is fascinating. Even the non-descript houses and buildings get page time... A great book.

Venice, the floating or the sinking city depending on perception, more than any other city in the world is a bastion of mystery, intrigue, and incomparable richness in history, architecture, and art. Beloved and written about by some of our greatest minds (Shakespeare, Henry James, Thomas Mann, Harold Brodkey, John Berendt to name but a few) Venice is a city that captures the spirit and heart with the first approach - and that approach includes the vistas from the Grand Canal that serves as the main thoroughfare of the city.

Umberto Franzoi's introductory comments for this journey are warmly informative and seductive, blending history with architecture with the special façades that line the banks and invite the visits to the interiors not open to the public eye. In photographs by Mark Smith of brilliant color each element on both banks of the Canal is addressed, noting the history of the reasons for the special architectural details, the families that either built or now live in each palace and grand home, the gondola dockings, the watermarks that time has etched on the faces.

But then we are graciously taken inside these magnificent buildings with sumptuous photographs of interiors, passageways, court gardens, the art and frescoes - all the details that before this fine book have only been the stuff of dreams (or the occasional movie sets as in 'Wings of the Dove'). These are treasure troves of art and antiques and mystery and beauty.

For everyone who either longs to return or plans for a visit to Serenissima, this book is a must. Highly recommended. Grady Harp, November 05

For anyone who has ever traveled down the Grand Canal on the Vapporetto #1 or #82 this will bring back a world of memories. It is beautifully photographed and is very informative. You can go back throuth your photos of Venice and identify and caption may of them. It even helped in locating non existing places like the Palazzo that collapsed in the film Casino Royal (It was superimposed over a recess in the buildings near the Ca DaMosto)
It is a great reference before and after a trip to Venice, and the photographs of the buildings are better than any you could take on your own. I would have given this book a rating of 5 stars but the text was written by an Italian who could have been a little more fluent in English.

I bought this book prior to my recent trip to Venice hoping it would serve as both pre-trip introductory overview and post-trip memory jogger. The pre-trip idea didn't work out so well (you can never really prepare for the experience of actually being someplace in person), but the post-trip memories of scenic vaporetto rides that it brings back are priceless.

I concur with the other reviewers on the quality of the photos and accompanying descriptions. I particularly like that most of the photos slightly overlap from page-to-page so that you can get a sense of the relationships between them as you follow along. Pages 154-155 give a good view of one side of the Ponte Rialto.

However, I'm not sure I understand some of the other reviewers' comments which suggest that this book contains interior photos. It does not - it has only exterior photos of the Grand Canal facades of the buildings.

As for my "not quite complete" comment, something that truly amazed me during a post-trip flip-through was the lack of coverage of Piazza San Marco (St. Mark's square) and vicinity. There is NO straight-on photo looking down St. Mark's square from the water, past the columns, to the Torre dell'Orologio (clock tower). Page 207 is a shot from the left, angling toward the square, which shows the San Teodoro (St. Theodore) column and a small portion of the basilica and Doge's palace. Pages 208-209 are a straight-on shot of the Doge's palace which barely includes the San Marco (Venetian lion) column at the left edge. The photographer completely skipped the piazza itself!

An even more appalling omission: there is NO photo of the Ponte dei Sospiri (Bridge of Sighs)! The photos stop on page 209 at the right edge of the Palazzo Ducale (Doge's Palace) - there isn't even mention of the existence of the bridge! I find it inexcusable that such a well-known landmark was omitted from a book with such otherwise excellent coverage - hence my 4- rather than 5-star rating.