The City
Writing and photographs from Venice
Venice is more than the Rialto, the Piazza San Marco and gondolas on the Grand Canal. As a long-term visitor and writer setting stories in the city, David knows it better than most. Here he will bring alive the private, local Venice of his books, the real-life calli and campi, the outer islands, the other side of an extraordinary community deep in history and culture, a world in miniature waiting to be explored.
-
How Was Venice Drawn from Above in 1500?
Nobody could fly in 1500, yet that year a woodcut appeared showing Venice as a bird would see it: every canal, bridge, campanile and moored ship laid out across the lagoon. It is one of the great objects of Renaissance printmaking. The best part is that you can now explore it online in more detail…
-
How to get around in Venice
A while back I was sitting next to an Australian chap on the flight to Venice. We started to chat and I asked him what he was planning to see and do and how he planned to get around. His one must-do thing appeared to be a gondola ride and he’d never heard of the…
-
On poison and ancient terrors
We like to do things differently at Venice Noir. Yes, there are plenty of sessions discussing crime and thriller fiction with some top authors. But we also want to delve beneath the surface and investigate some of the things that set the world of dark fiction ticking in the first place. I’m lucky enough to…
-
Bartolomeo Colleoni: The Mercenary Venice Couldn’t Quite Honour
Venice is full of statues. But none quite as terrifying as that of a military chap on a horse outside the imposing basilica of Santi Giovanni e Paolo in Castello. His story is quite something, a tale of conquest, treachery, a distinctly sneaky sleight of hand on the part of the Venetian Republic… oh, and…
-
The Ateneo Veneto: a fitting home for a noir festival
The Ateneo Veneto is Venice Noir’s spiritual home, a little-known spot that opened its doors to us when we were just a tiny band of book lovers with big ideas. Let me introduce you to this wondrous place. It began, in the mid-1400s, as a merger of two lay confraternities, the Scuola di San Girolamo…
-
When you don’t want to eat Italian
A confession. Much as I love the local food, there are times I look at the classic Venetian menu — baccalà, spaghetti alle vongole, pizza — and think… it’s time for a change. There is a bit of a lack of variety in the standard restaurant cuisine not just of Venice but Italy at large.…
-
The Three ‘Moors’ of Cannaregio: A Walk Around Campo dei Mori
Venice doesn’t just tell its astonishing history through books and paintings and music. It’s there in the streets too, if you just stop to look. Let’s take a walk around a quiet part of Cannaregio and I’ll show you an example many often miss. The ‘Moorish’ statues Head to Campo dei Mori and you may…
-
Lama d’Ombra: The Glass Blade That Will Crown Venice Noir 2026
We conclude Venice Noir with our award to a writer we feel has made a significant contribution to the field of crime and thriller writing. Last year our first prize went, deservedly, to Ian Rankin who you can see testing the sharpness of it below… Yes, it was a stunning piece of glass sculpture made…
-
Some of the greatest paintings in Venice you just can’t see
I’m a creature of habit so as usual the other morning I wandered down to the Accademia gallery, flashed my friend’s card (€50 a year for unlimited access — given a single visit costs €20 on its own, that’s a bargain) and asked in a hopeful voice, ‘Any chance I can see Ursula?’ The answer…
-
The Monk They Tried to Kill, and the Tourists Who Walk Past Him
Cross the Ponte Santa Fosca on any given afternoon and you’ll fight your way through a crowd as big as any in Venice, and walk past a bronze figure in the campo beyond no one seems to notice. A shame. Fra Paolo Sarpi, whose statue this is, was one of the more intriguing people this…