My Vinece

"... I liked the way the city had attracted my attention. But, in order to discover it, I asked it to stop hiding behind its masks. I wanted it real. To allow me to discover its secrets, understand its problems and hold a direct conversation with it. And it was promised to me, and all disguises were thrown off as our conversation began..." A trip through time, myth, History, the magic of Art and life is what Barbara Athanassiadis manages to achieve with the discerning eye of an experienced traveller. It is the same eye that captured reflections of Italy in her earlier narratives, the books A Year in Tuscany and Feeling Rome. "My Venice" is the final book left to complete in her unique literary trilogy that approaches time, place and people, both in the past and in the present. Without directing our steps, the author transports us through the canals, the narrow streets and the squares of Venice, and she focuses our attention on works of Nature and Art, drawing on legends and historical omissions. The "Winged Lion" leisurely embraces the shoulders of our romantic heroine, and the "Seagull's Flight" even reaches the "Empress Sissy in Venice". The "Tiny Murano Spheres" roll down and stop before "The Fork of the Byzantine Princess" as "Torcello" flirts with the "Venetian Women in the Harem"...