Books About Venice Italy

Read Books About Venice

Getting everywhere by boat, gelato stops, pizza, and maze-like alleyways are just a few reasons kids will love Venice. But before you venture out into the ancient city, it’s good to prepare kids with a few resources so they can get as much out of the visit as possible. These are some of my favorite resources for kids that will prepare them for all the things to do in Venice.

Books about Venice for Young Readers

• Mimi & Piggy’s Adventure in Venice: A cute little book about two little animals who get separated in Venice.
• Vendela in Venice: This is a great book to help kids get acquainted with the iconic art and architecture of Venice
• This is Venice: A beautiful book for children all about the landmarks of Venice. You can also find This is Rome, and This is Paris.
• Bravo Zan Angelo: This is a fun book all about Carnival, costumes, and mask-making!

Book about Venice for Middle Readers

• The Thief Lord: An exciting story about two brothers who run away to Venice.
• Stravaganza, City of Masks: While not actually set in Venice, this series of books is set in fictitious Italian cities, but you definitely get a feel for Venice in City of Masks.
• Daughter of Venice: This story of a girl living in Venice in the 1500s is an eye-opening look into ancient Venice.
• The City of Falling Angels: The tale of a few remarkable people the author encountered while residing in Venice, Italy, in the months after a fire destroyed the famed La Fenice opera theatre in 1996.

Other famous writers such as William Shakespeare in his famous play “The Merchant of Venice”, Joseph Brodsky in his book Watermark which referred to Venice as a “seductive and enigmatic city”, the The Wings of the Dove by Henry James, and A History of Venice by John Julius Norwich, all have helped in capturing the beauty and grandeur of Venice. Reading up on these books can help us get an understanding of why mass tourism is drawn to this Italian city each year!

Guidebooks About Venice

• Kids Go Europe: Treasure Hunt Venice : I love this little pocket-sized, spiral book that kids can take around Venice, discovering all the treasures for themselves.
• Venice for Kids : A great guidebook for older kids with fun illustrations, maps and interesting information about things to do in Venice.
• Venice Cityscape: Not really a guidebook, but a cute visual of the city. I love these little accordion books and try to collect them wherever we go.
• Venice for Kids (Kindle): This is a different Venice for kids, available on the go as a Kindle version.

Books about Marco Polo

Venice is famously the home of Marco Polo, the 15th-century explorer who traveled to China. Visiting Venice is a great reason to study Marco Polo and his travels.These are some of our favorite books about Marco Polo:

• Marco Polo Was Here: This is a great guidebook for kids, detailing the city of Venice and where Marco Polo visited. It gives the guidebook some context and history, which I like.
• Marco Polo for Kids: His Marvelous Journey to China, 21 Activities: A great activity book detailing Marco Polo’s journey to China.
• Who Was Marco Polo?: My kids love the Who Was series. They are short and easy to read and contain tons of interesting and fun facts!

Books About Venice for Grown-Ups

• Lonely Planet Venice & the Veneto: I like the Lonely Planet books. They are always in-depth and informative.
• Rick Steve’s Pocket Venice: I always love Rick Steve’s guidebooks. He’s honest and personable. This pocket-book has a great fold-out map too!
• Time Out Venice: I like this guidebook because it has restaurants listed.

Other books include the story of the World War, Death in Venice and Other Tales by Thomas Mann is also a classic for old readers and is a 1971 film.