Venice stands on the frontiers of the east and west, halfway between the setting and the rising sun. Goethe calls her "the marketplace of the Morning and the Evening lands." Certainly no city on earth gives a more immediate impression of symmetry and unity or seems more patently born to greatness.

So remarks Jan Morris, with graceful literary distinction, on the qualities that have made Venice a unique place among the world's great destinations. She has known it intimately for over six decades. She knows its history, its carvings, its idiosyncrasies, its weather, and all the Doges of the past. She returns even now, never tiring of this "dappled city, tremulous and flickering."

She first wrote Venice in praise of it fifty years ago and has revised the book three times. To open this premiere audiobook recording, Jan Morris reads a personal introduction that perfectly distills a lifetime's fascination with La Serenissima.