Brilliant history sweeps aside lagoon city's myths

By Gregory DowlingDennis Romano’s Venice: The Remarkable History of the Lagoon City begins with a series of observations about Venice made by eminent personages over the years. There are musings from the likes of Petrarch, Sansovino, Hans Christian Andersen and Alexander Herzen.Andersen, “appropriately enough”, Romano writes, calls Venice “the city of a fairy tale”, while Herzen describes it as a “magnificent absurdity” built on “the madness of genius”. Romano, instead, wants to em...