To the delight of visitors-and sometimes the dismay of residents-Venice is a city that appears to have resisted modernization. Its canals, gondolas, and picturesque buildings seem little changed since the Renaissance. This engrossing and strikingly illustrated book presents a wide-ranging cultural history of the city from 1797 until 1997, and shows how it has in fact changed and adapted and how perceptions of it have shaped its reality.

The book charts Venice's architectural and urban changes, the conservation efforts to protect the city and lagoon against the sea, and the social restructuring of the city, from Napoleon's conquest through the upheavals of the World Wars to the battles against depopulation and the threats posed by the sea, industrial pollution, and mass tourism. Above all, it explores the myths that surround the city-created by writers, artists, architects, musicians, and filmmakers who have come to visit, and by the Venetians themselves-alongside the realities of living and working in a fragile city.