This term is proving itself one of the busiest, but still I've been trying to find some time to do some reading. I started with The City of Falling Angels and so far I've read the first two chapters.
I really like the way the book was written. John Berendt makes a journalistic narrative that really reminds me of the style of Fernando Moraes, describing real facts but not in a documentary style.
The first two chapters talk about the fire that destroyed the Teatro La Fenice in 1996. The author does a really good job in expressing how fond venetians are of this theater, and the text is very impacting.
I found two points that can possibly be related to our project - Socioeconomic aspects of Venice -, more specifically related to tourism. First of all, it describes how tourists were completely lost and didn't know where to go during the emergency, which contributed to increase the chaotic atmosphere. This is interesting because it reinforces the image of Venetian tourists being always in the way, never really caring about the city's problems.
The other point which I found interesting was the remark by Girolamo Marcello (I think) about the fire, saying that, this time, Venice couldn't blame it on the tourists, nor on natural conditions, it was all their fault. Negligence and lack of professionalism by the Venetians themselves. This relates to our project in the sense that we want to study the myth of tourism being "the enemy" of Venice.
