Venice, the Tourist Maze: A Cultural Critique of the World’s Most Touristed City

by Robert C. Davis, Garry R. Marvin

"The tourist Venice is Venice," Mary McCarthy once observed—a sentiment very much in line with what most of the fourteen million tourists who visit the city each year experience, but at the same time a painful reality for the 65,000 Venetians who actually live there. Venice is viewed from a new perspective in this engaging book, which offers a heady, one-city tour of tourism itself. Conducting readers from the beginnings of Venetian tourism in the late Middle Ages to its emergence as a form of mass entertainment in our time, the authors explore what happens when today's "industrial tourism" collides with an ancient and ever-more-fragile culture. Giving equal consideration to those who tour Venice and those who live there, their book affords rare insight into just what it is that the touring and the toured see, experience, and elicit from each other.

Genres: Nonfiction, Italy, Travel, History

372 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Robert C. Davis is professor emeritus of Italian Renaissance and pre-modern Mediterranean history at Ohio State University. He has studied Naples, Rome, Palermo, Venice, the Vatican, and Perugia, and mostly works on the lives of ordinary people and the values they cherished. His subjects have ranged from shipbuilders, bull fighters, and amateur boxers in Venice to the corsairs who terrorized the Mediterranean everywhere else. He has co-authored studies of Venice as the world's most touristed city and of Renaissance men and women. He has also been in a number of television documentaries, on shipbuilding, Carnival, and the Mediterranean slave trade, and is currently writing a textbook on the history of modern Europe.

Reviews

[Kathleen Fowler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although this history of Venice as a tourist destination was written by two academics and published by the University of California Press, it is anything but dry. It will appeal to anyone with a serious interest in Venice, though not to the casual tourist. It addresses social issues, environmental issues and cultural issues, all within the context of Venice being the most heavily touristed city in the world. It begins to appear that even if Venice can be saved physically (which is not at all certain), it will most likely not survive as a “real” city. Tourists already outnumber locals, and the sorts of goods and services that are essential for “normal” life are rapidly disappearing in favor of those that cater to those tourists. It is terribly sad to me that this beautiful city may one day be reduced to a sort of huge open-air museum, but if that is the only viable alternative to total annihilation, then so be it.

[Randall Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fine book for helping you see Venice from the inside out. From how it does the pickup of the daily mountains of trash to the huge cruise ships which relentlessly unleash hordes of visitors. It shows that a whopping 80% of the people you see in Venice will stay for less than a day. You learn the war between powerboats and the city; wakes caused by powerboats/vaporettos erode the foundations of the city and even cause the human powered gondolas to be rebuilt every 10 years instead of every 40 years. The left side of the gondola is 9 inches longer than the right to counteract the thrust of the gondolier. Venice on any given day, deals with more than 25,000 boat trips. It’s not unusual to have 50 boats pass under the Rialto bridge in a minute. You’ve also got 14,000 beds and the city is always at least half-booked. Tourists outnumber locals by a whopping 200 to 1. Without it’s glass industry, no one would go to Murano. If you are returning to Venice, check this book out…

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got this from an elibrary collection and would recommend it for those with a strong interest in Venice. It is an academic text but that means it covers some aspects of Venice in greater depth than historis written for the average tourist.

[Josephine · Rating 3 out of 5]

generally interesting and well researched but it is rather pessimistic

[Kathleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I assigned this book in my anthropology of tourism in Italy and the Medit. World seminar, I liked it so much. It is a brilliant analysis of Venice's historical and contemporary place on the touristic map, how it came to be associated with particular imagery (there is a wonderful chapter on the gondola, and a good bit on Murano glassware). The authors deftly interweave historical archival materials with good solid ethnographic research to yield a book that transforms one's understanding of the city and the interactions between residents, tourists, urban street-sellers etc. I happened to spend a few days in Venice while reading this book last summer and found myself viewing the city with new eyes. I hope it has a similar impact on my American students currently studying in Rome!

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

The historical survey of tourism as a force in Venetian culture is really fascinating. The discussion of contemporary issues a little scattered, but still full of interest. The prescriptive conclusions seem puny compared to the sweep of change.

[Roy Kenagy · Rating 4 out of 5]

RK PLACE A case study in the evanescence of cultural authenticity.

[Karen Krizanovich · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really really good. I can't give it a billion stars because it is quite specific and academic but I really enjoyed reading it.

[Chelsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this for IQP.