Tiziano Scarpa's "Venice Is a Fish: A Sensual Guide" provides a unique, almost magical, means of exploring the canals and alleyways of Venice. Be warned, this is not another guidebook that will lead you on a shopping excursion from Piazza San Marco to the Rialto Bridge, but instead Scarpa's volume is almost a book of spells that will enchant you and subsequently haunt you. Scarpa grew up in Venice and the ghosts of his past flicker in and out of our view as he leads us through the labyrinth of stories that is Venezia. We embody the feet, legs, hearts, hands, faces, ears, mouths, noses, and eyes of those who have come before us. Their senses conjured by Scarpa summon us to a dance of time. We meet Casanova and Vivaldi, Titian and Veronese, Ruskin and Maupassant. Scarpa reminds us that for centuries each viewpoint in Venice has been recorded in verse, paint, and song. The weight of beauty as much as the high water (alte acqua) threatens to sink this illustrious city. Scarpa's splendid volume acts as a literary life raft to lift us and carry us through the Venice of memory, dreams, and decay. ( )

This is no ordinary guidebook. If you think that everything that could be written about Venice has already been written, then this book will pleasantly surprise you. Scarpa takes you through his hometown using all his senses and focuses on the mundane instead of the touristy. Perhaps he purposely shuns Venice's surface beauty to avoid Stendahl's syndrome, an affliction that Venetians are particularly subject to. The book is short, but very well written. It made me want to revisit one of my favorite cities and attempt to experience it as Scarpa did. ( )

An excellent way to revisit the city of the mind. On the surface, it looks like a smallish rip-off, but the contents are brilliantly illuminating. Both personal and universal at the same time, and a great read. ( )