Top Books With Links to Venice

One of the essential items in any frequent traveller’s backpack is likely to be a good book. After all, in between long flights, waiting in airport lounges and being driven to the hotel, there is plenty of time to become engrossed in a good story. It is also customary for certain travellers to choose their travel reads based on the destination they are headed to – that is to say, picking stories or yarns which are set in the country or city they are preparing to visit.

The inspirational "Water City"

In this regard, tourists visiting the "Water City" and wanting to kill time with a good book during their journey (or the transfer from Venice airport to Venice) have plenty of options to choose from. With its romantic architecture, the uniqueness of the canals and the entirely pedestrian street traffic, this Italian city is unlike any other in the world. This might go some way towards explaining why so many famous authors have chosen to set their plots there.

Examples of well-known books with plots set fully or partly in the city are numerous. Henry James’s first novel, The Aspern Papers, for instance, was set in the city of canals, as was Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley, the first volume in her hugely successful series following the adventures of con artist Thomas Ripley. And then, of course, there is German author Thomas Mann’s Death In Venice. Any of these titles will kill a few hours when sitting on a plane or speeding along the highway or the lagoon on a transfer from Venice airport to Venice.

Younger readers needn’t be left out of the reading fun, either. Cornelia Funke, author of the popular Inkheart trilogy, has set her book The Thief Lord in this Italian city, so youngsters travelling with their parents can become engrossed in the adventures of brothers Prosper and Boniface in the ‘water city’.

There is, of course, no rule stating that a travel book must necessarily be a work of fiction. For readers who prefer to invest in other types of literature, the trip from Venice airport to Venice may be a good time to brush up on Italian with a phrase book, peruse a guidebook to get situated, or get caught up on the city’s history or geography. Tourists in this situation may even take the opportunity to compare and contrast what they are reading about with what they can see when they look out of the window of their shuttle.

Lukas Johannes is a driver for Shuttle Direct. If you’re looking for a transfer from Venice airport to Venice, Shuttle Direct provide pre-booked shuttles to major destinations all over Europe. Wherever you travel, Shuttle Direct can make sure that you don’t miss your car on your holiday abroad.