"Originally published in Great Britain by Chatto & Windus, London, in 2009"--T.p. verso

City from the sea -- Origins -- Water, water everywhere -- Mirror, mirror -- The city of St. Mark -- The saint comes -- Refuge -- Against nature -- Stones of Venice -- Ship of state -- "Let it be everlasting" -- The chosen people -- The prison house -- Secrets -- Chronicles -- Republic of commerce -- The merchants of Venice -- The endless drama -- Wheels within wheels -- Empire of trade -- The lion city -- Cities in collision -- A call to arms -- Timeless city -- Bells and gondolas -- Iustitia -- Against the Turks -- The living city -- The body and the building -- Learning and language -- Colour and light -- Pilgrims and tourists -- The art of life -- Hurrah for Carnival -- A divine art -- The eternal feminine -- What to eat? -- Sacred city -- Divine and infernal -- Of belief -- The shadows of history -- Decline and fall? -- Death in Venice -- City of myth -- The map unrolls -- The huddled family -- Moon and night -- While the music lasts -- A Venetian chronology

A glittering, evocative, fascinating, story-filled portrait of Venice, the ultimate city, embracing facts and romance, history and artists, carnival masks and leper colonies, wars and sieges, and scandals and seductions