If only Settis could write this book every 15 years. Written in 2014, it provides a snapshot of Venice’s crumbling social structure at that point in time. Ten years later, the conversation about Venice has barely moved an inch. Settis has a chapter about Venice as an open-air theme park, about how the city is being sold off to the highest bidder, about the city’s depopulation. The numbers have changed – have got worse – but the story is the same. Settis issues harsh judgement on Italy’s mayors and urbanists who would add towers to historical cities in a vain grab at modernity and economic value; he highlights the extractive capitalism now rotted into the very foundations of Venice after years of short-sighted, profit-seeking leadership. He has an interesting metaphor – that of the city being transformed into a fast-food joint, with all of its citizens waiters. “Making tourism the last reason for protecting cultural heritage and the environment is forgetting the crucial part: The landscape and the heritage in question doesn’t belong to tourists, but to citizens.” Venice can be used as a model and as an example of how to bring together symbolic capital and civic capital in one, restoring the ‘right to the city’ and making it truly a city for its citizens.

Catherine Bennett