When author John Rawlings and his family moved to Venice for a five-month sabbatical, they quickly fell under the spell of La Serenissima (the most serene one), as the city is called. Their stay turned into a season of learning colored and inspired by the history, architecture, art, and culture that surrounded them.

Siamo Foresti—Rawlings’s account of his love affair with Venice—is a combination travel memoir, history book, and city guide that doesn’t sacrifice beauty for fact. Anecdotes about sightseeing and encounters with locals are deftly interwoven with fascinating historical and aesthetic tidbits, pulling you irresistibly into the story. Thematic chapters cover a variety of topics, including the following:

• the canal system and the ferries, gondolas, vaporetti, and other boats that ply the waterways
• the mellifluous Italian language and Rawlings’s valiant efforts to learn it
• the famed Basilica San Marco and lesser-known but striking churches
• the visible traces that the Crusades, Napoleon’s invasion, and other historic events have left on the city
• the delectable food
• the overabundance of tourists (foresti)
• the elusive public bathrooms

Armchair travelers and aficionados of history and art alike will enjoy vicariously visiting Venice via the pages of this book.