Travel guides in disguise | Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant

The Birth of Venus by Botticelli at the Uffizi Gallery, Florence

This is a continuation of our series Travel guides in disguise - alternative guides for those who want a bit more than that very effective yawn - The Lonely Planet. Something that doubles up as airport reading as well as a guide. 

You'd never believe this but I struggled to find a novel based in Florence. Before you stamp your feet, I did check out E M Forster's  A Room with a View and the many Micheal Didbin mysteries, all of which give me a "Oh, how lovely!" perspective. There are hoards of books involving serial killers and temperamental detectives but I wanted something that would give me an insight into the Medicis and renaissance Florence much like The Agony and The Ecstasy- see below. 

I finally settled on Sarah Dunant's The Birth of Venus, a renaissance coming of age novel of a young girl far too emaciated and gifted for her time. 

In a sense it is a very Italian novel; full of the drama of the time and her own fertile mind. The prologue is like the opening shot of a movie and sweeps you off your feet as a nun is found having lied about her illness and bearing a snake tatoo that winds over her body and ends in places no nun should ever peek. A new morning wakes and you see young Alessandra Checci as the precocious daughter of a wily trader who is swiftly moving up the ranks of Florentine society. Dressing Florence's elite has it's upside and part of it transfers onto the daughters, whose value in the marriage market place has considerably increased. That renaissance Florence's attitudes to marriage would strike a cord in most Indian cities today is a distressing fact that we can ignore for another day. In accordance with his rising stature the trader decides to bring in a bewildered painter to glorify their family chapel. And so Dunant paints the perfect landscape for a meeting of star crossed lovers. But before you write this plot out as a predictable love story, wait, because this is not all about them but about a young girl's choices during a time of one Florence's greatest tests. 

On one hand there is Girolamo Savonarola, the prior who brought Florence to its knees and waged war on its beauty and on the other hand there is Charles VIII who is marching through Tuscany and battling not just fiery Sienese but also a rumor of having six toes. Caught between the two, Alessandra- a budding artist in her own right, is forced to follow the path of least resistance which turns out to me something else quite entirely. Through her we see the futility of being a gifted woman in an age where the female sex is seen through the eyes of Eve, that witch who got Adam kicked out of Eden. In lieu of preparing for the next party,  she would lick at the wind for one whisper of the work of Botticelli or one glimpse of the workshops of Ghirlandaio all a stones-throw from her house yet locked to her. What I liked about the novel was the humor and the depth of the relationships that the girl has with her slave as well as her handsome brother. 

Dunant is definitely a master of her matter as she deftly invokes the period to life with an artists palette. Paintings come alive as she discusses drapery techniques and lights in flowing material.  It is her story not theirs and in that sense it is a true woman's novel. But  how does serve as a guide to Florence? While it is not The Agony and the Ecstasy, it is still  a good supplement and chronicles a key moment in the city's antiquity and an insight into the man that almost destroyed Florence and everything it represents today. 

Mandatory reading for a trip to Florence

The Agony & the Ecstasy by Irving Stone is more than just a biography of Michelangelo. It is a journey into the heart of Italian art and a glimpse into the history of Pope's egos. Perfect to start reading on the plane ride there and plan to finish it within the first couple of days of your stay. By then you have enough time to have the story coursing through your veins and feel completely overwhelmed as you stand in front of The Deposition (The Florence Pieta), knowing everything he went through to create it. And if you are like me, you will run to Rome and visit the Sistine chapel and his Pieta at St Peter's Basilica and reach for a large handkerchief. Yes, am a sop but I cry in style! 

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Travel guides in disguise | Red Mandarin Dress by Qiu Xiaolong

Photo/The Hobbit

The Road goes ever on and on

Down from the door where it began.

Now far ahead the Road has gone,

And I must follow, if I can,

Pursuing it with eager feet,

Until it joins some larger way

Where many paths and errands meet.

And whither then? I cannot say.

-Bilbo Baggins, The Fellowship of the Ring

When I started traveling I used to pick up the appropriate Lonely Planet a day before my journey, quickly surf the Condenast website and I was on my way. I still use the Condenast Traveller to guide me on hotels but other guidebooks have fallen off the wayside as I started to focus on memoirs and novels. For instance in Venice,  I walked the steps of Commissario (Detective) Guido Brunetti as he chased murderers down the Rialto in Death at La Fenice by Donna Leon and was privy to the most lyrical prose as I used Valeri’s A Sentimental Guide to Venice, even more special since I managed to find an 1955 edition printed in Italy in a small bookshop that set me back a thumping 25 Euros. No surprise then that I keep this one close to my heart and NEVER lend it. In this series I will talk about some of the books that have been invaluable guides to me as I navigate foreign roads that go ever on and on…

My guide to Shanghai

Red Mandarin Dress by Qiu Xiaolong

I picked this book up at the Shanghai Museum in People’s square when I felt that the my Lonely Planet was falling short in introducing me to the magnificent city. Inspector Chen is Inspector Dalgliesh’s (see The Lighthouse) brother from another mother in that he is an erudite workaholic who spews poetry at the drop of a magnifying glass and draws no line between his personal and professional life. No surprises there. When he finally decides to take a sabbatical to write a dissertation on a strange concept called Thirsty Illness (because that's how these detectives relax), he is cajoled by the powers-that-be to drop everything and chase down a perplexing murder that is ruffling many a communist feather. The book is part of an acclaimed series featuring the insightful inspector and his sincere sidekick as they try deal with a society struggling to reconcile its newfound power with its old turbulent past. He often refers to his plight as, "One country, two systems.” Here you will get a primer on the Cultural Revolution that is everywhere and yet hidden behind crimson curtains, a glimpse into the eccentric food habits of eating twitching shrimp dipped in broth, a fantastic walking tour through the old city and the bund and the introduction to the man commonly known as ‘Mr Big Bucks’; All while you chase down the killer of a beautiful woman who wore a red mandarin dress. Mystifying sexual innuendos aside, it is a deftly woven novel that uses all the elements of criminal profiling that delves deep into the psychoses of this country's enigmatic social structure. Despite being driven to buy myself a cheongsam, I doubt I will ever be able to look at one or a monkey in the same way again.

Please write to us in the comments box below and tell us about your favorite travel reads. 


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