The Liquid Continent - A Mediterranean Trilogy

Volume II: Venice
By Nicholas Woodsworth

On his circumnavigation of the Liquid Continent Nicholas Woodsworth is interrupted by his wife. ‘I’d love to see Venice in the spring,’ she said. ‘We could meet there and then you could carry on to Istanbul when I go back to teaching. You wouldn’t miss an inch of the coast - you’d just be doing part of it the other way round.’ Compelling argument combined with irresistible temptation propels him to the Lagoon.

Venice’s great wealth and sophisticated culture were products of a commercial empire that stretched from the Adriatic to the ports of the Levant, and her long history is studded with dramas of war, crusade and intrigue. Taking maritime dominance as the foundation of Venice’s existence, Nicholas Woodsworth abandons museums and tourist hordes to engage in the city’s ongoing love-affair with the sea. He investigates the heart of Venice’s marine activity, the Arsenale; prowls the corridors of the city’s mysterious State Archives; sails on a world-class Venetian racing yacht; takes part in a celebrated rowing race and meets the city’s top gondola-builder. Signing-on as a canal-boat delivery man, he discovers in the backwaters of Venice a magnificent but intimate city rarely seen by outsiders.

This is the second destination of Woodsworth's Mediterranean Trilogy after Alexandria and before setting of to Istanbul.

Nicholas Woodsworth was born in Ottawa, Canada in 1953 and grew up in Africa and south-east Asia. He was Africa Correspondent for the Financial Times in the late 1980s, and served as the Weekend FT’s staff travel writer from 1990 to 2003. He lives with his wife, Jany, in Aix-en-Provence