Venice & The Veneto by Susie Boulton and Cristopher Catling: Eyewitness Travel Book Review

The Veneto delivers:

• architecture;
• cuisine;
• entertainment; and
• scenery.

Visitors emerge bio-geographically invigorated by:

• lakes;
• mountains; and
• plains.

The Dolomites furnish:

• picturesqueness at Belluno, Feltre, Misurina, Pieve di Cadore, Valzoldano, and Vittorio; and
• skiing from Cortina d’Ampezzo resort.

Lake Garda gathers Italians and non-Italians through:

• excursions to Bardolino, Soave, and Valpolicella vineyards;
• resort towns  -- such as Garda, Malcesine, and Peschiera -- known for dinghy-racing, harborside restaurants, lakeside gardens, picturesque hotels, and steamer excursions; and
• visits to Bolca, Bosco Chiesanuova, Giazza, Grezzana, Montecchio Maggiore, Sant-Anna d’Alfaedo, Valdagno, and Verona.

The Veneto Plain has numerous castles and towers in and near:

• Asolo;
• Bassano;
• Castelfranco, Cittadella, Conegliano;
• Este;
• Marostica, Mestre, Monselice, Montagnana;
• Padova, Portogruaro;
• Rovigo;
• Thiene, Treviso; and
• Valdobriadene, Vicenza. 

The region therefore is culturally harmonious with its most famous city of bridges and canals. It joins Venice in:

• offering such attractive regional variations on peninsular Italian as la (“the”) preceding an individual’s forename and “sh” sounds replacing “tch”; and
• preserving ancient northeast Italy’s architectural, artistic, culinary, literary, and musical past.

The most serene city nevertheless kindles additional enthusiasm for:

• lifestyles of one city on 118 islands;
• mobility over 400 bridges; and
• transportation through 150 canals, of which the most famous are Canałasso  (“Grand Canal”) and Ponte dei Sospiri (“Bridge of Sighs”).

It looks super-friendly once visitors understand logical neighborhood divisions into:

• Cannaregio;
• Castello;
• Dorsoduro;
• Isole Lagunari (“Lagoon Islands”);
• San Marco; and
• San Polo e Santa Croce. 

The guide merges image-filled, information-rich facts with user-friendly navigability. It nudges accessibility and transparency priority-setting through:

• acknowledgments;
• index;
• phrase book; and
• vaporetto routes around Venice.

So Venice & The Veneto offers adventure-loving Eyewitness Travel Book Series readers culturally enriching, educationally entertaining, geo-historically enthralling journeys, thanks to:

• Arcana Studios, Donati Giudici Associati Srl, Robbie Polley, Simon Roulstone, illustrators;
• Caroline Ball, Simon Blacker, Jo Bourne, Molly Perham, Linda Williams, editors;
• Kelvin Barratt, Dawn Brend, Jon Eland, Nick Raven, Steve Rowling, designers;
• Susie Boulton, Cristopher Catling, authors;
• Jill De Cet, picture researcher;
• Dorling Kindersley, publisher;
• Simon Farbrother, David Pugh, map coordinators;
• Jane Hanson, Phil Rose, Jennifer Skelley, mapmakers;
• John Helseltine, Roger Moss, photographers;
• L. Rex Printing Co. Ltd., binder/printer; and
• Sally Roy, contributor. 

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Mount Pelmo: significant mountain of the Dolomites located in the Veneto at elevation of 10,394 feet (3,168 meters)
Belluno province, the Veneto, northeastern Italy: piero tasso, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Monte_Pelmo_da_val_Fiorentina_2.JPG

Aerial view of the Veneto's Castel Brando: Medieval castle is built on Roman Age defensive fortress atop dolomite limestone rock at an elevation of 1,210 feet (370 meters) above sea level.
Italy contributes a myriad of exquisite castles and palaces to a fairy tale tour of European castles.
area of village of Cison di Valmarino, Treviso province, the Veneto, northeastern Italy: Massimo Colomban/Hotel Castelbrando, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Castelbrando_Aerial_View.jpg

Isola di San Giorgio Maggiore (San Giorgio Maggiore Island), lying south of main island group, is part of Venice's sestiere (district) of San Marco.
Venetian Lagoon, the Veneto, northeastern Italy; Wednesday, June 29, 2005, 16:44: Zxb, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:San_giorgio_maggiore.jpg

Veneto is one of Italy's premier wine regions, with vineyards of Glera grapes for Prosecco, Italian white sparkling wine.
Guia, town of Valdobbiadene, Treviso province, the Veneto, northeastern Italy: John W. Schulze from Tejas, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Prosecco_vineyards.jpg

view of the Veneto's watery city: Venice and Venetian Lagoon from space, with false-color enhancements to bring out the details of water and vegetation
Image courtesy NASA/GSFC/MITI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team: Freely available for re-pub or re-use, via NASA Earth Observatory @ https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/3827/venice-italy

Boulton, Susie; and Catling, Cristopher. Venice & The Veneto. London, England, U.K.: Dorling Kindersley Limited Eyewitness Travel Series.