This wek Go Read looks at No Vulgar Hotel: The Desire and Pursuit of Veniceand the Rough Guide Directions: Prague
No Vulgar Hotel: The Desire and Pursuit of Venice
Judith Martin
WW Norton, £9.99 in UK
A dreadful disease can afflict tourists in Italy. It
has no cure or vaccine, and embassies are not doing enough to let
people know about it. Venetophilia is a terrible condition, the
symptoms of which are an irrational longing to spend time in a
waterlogged village that is falling apart at its soggy seams while
attempting to re-create a romantic notion of Venetian life picked
up by reading too much Henry James.
Judith Martin has written a lucid, arch and witty account of what it means to fall in love with this city and of the best ways to try to pass yourself off as a local. (If you find yourself doing this, consider your case terminal.)
The text is punctuated with paintings and drawings of an idealised Venetian life; luckily, the captions cut to the bone, leaving the reader in no doubt that, although a devoted mistress to Venice, Martin is aware of her lover's every failing. After all, "when did high maintenance ever dissuade a lover from falling for a beauty?"
Rough Guide Directions: Prague
£6.99 in UK
Venice faces considerable competition from beauties
in central and eastern Europe, and Prague is near the top of the
pageant pack. These books are split into Ideas sections, with
itineraries, depending on what you want to focus on, be it sipping
coffee in Habsburg-era cafes, chasing the ghosts of Franz Kafka
around the city's winding streets, unearthing the traces of decades
of communism or getting down to the serious business of beer.
Prague might have a reputation as a stag and hen destination, but
that shouldn't stop us visiting this haunting place, with 600 years
of history almost untouched by war or natural disaster.