This is regarded as one of the best travel books every published. Jan Morris's long (336 pages) love letter to "La Serenissima" originally published in 1963. Morris first visited the city of Venice during World War II as young James Morris, and lived in it for several months after the war. It is beautifully written, and conveys wonderfully the centuries long attraction of the watery city to it's many international visitors, with sections covering the city, the people and the lagoon. I especially liked the pages dealing with local colour - the habits and proclivities of ordinary Venetians as they go about their day to day business. However, to be honest I also found parts of the book a bit of a slog, with too many pages rather focused on lists of notable people, buildings, churches, and the like. Morris updated this book several times, and supposedly acknowledged at the end that her love affair with Venice had come to an end.

My favourite quotes: "One of the bells of St Mark’s Campanile was called the Trottoria, because when it sounded the patricians used to trot to the Council Chamber on their mules". And more prosaically... "Sometimes a Venetian housewife announces conclusively that there are no cabbages in the city today: but what she means is that the greengrocer at the corner of Campo San Barnaba, with whom her family custom has been traditionally associated since the days of the early Crusades, has sold out of the vegetable this morning." And this which is so accurate as to be painful... "There are 107 churches in Venice, and nearly every tourist feels he has seen at least 200 of them:"

It is a remarkable book, and regardless of the quality of her other travel writings, this one book stands to position Morris as one of the finest travel writers ever.

First published 1963. Read on Kindle.