Read around Italy - Venice

Come with me on a reading journey around Italy's stunning twenty regions.

As a book blogger/book reviewer for books set in Italy, from mysteries to histories, from crime to cookbooks, from thrillers to travel guides, cosy up in an armchair and let me take you on a journey around all of Italy’s beautiful regions.

This week, I am taking you to Venice for Carnevale! A romantic destination second to none. Come with me to exclusive masquerade balls, themed dinners, and costumed parties in historic palaces.

Carnival in Venice 2026 runs from January 31 to February 17, 2026. The theme is "Olympus - The Origins of the Game," featuring traditional events like the Flight of the Angel, water parades in the Arsenale, and various masked balls.

The word "Carnevale" translates to "farewell to meat" in Latin, embodying a spirit of celebration and joy. Carnevale, or carnival, is a vibrant pre-Lenten festival in Italy, marking a time to savour indulgence and festivity before the sacred period of Lent. Rooted in a rich tapestry of ancient pagan and Christian traditions, this celebration invites communities to come together, embracing life before the solemnity of fasting. Carnevale is a dazzling display of parades, masks, and confetti, a tribute to cherished customs and the joy of shared experiences.

Many believe that Carnevale was first celebrated in Venice in 1094. Every year, around three million people come together to revel in this enchanting festival. In the City of Water, locals and visitors alike embrace the magic, donning elegant, old-world dresses and intricate masks. They attend glamorous balls illuminated by chandeliers and stroll through vibrant streets, where the spirit of celebration is alive.

Books are frequently set in Venice because its unique, atmospheric blend of labyrinthine canals, historic, decaying, and opulent architecture makes it an ideal, almost character-like backdrop for themes of mystery, romance, and deception. Known as a "city of masks,"

Venice allows for stories of intrigue and transformation, while its dreamlike, romantic, and often melancholic atmosphere captivates authors.

The Glass Maker

‘This inventive portrait of a woman and her city is mesmerising. A love story that skips through six centuries, and also a love song to the timeless craft of glassmaking. Chevalier probes the fierce rivalries and enduring loyalties of Murano’s glass dynasties, capturing the roar of the furnace, the sweat on the skin, and the glittering beauty of Venetian glass.’

by Tracey Chevalier

Venice, 1486.

Across the lagoon lies Murano. Time flows differently here – like the glass the island’s maestros spend their lives perfecting.

In secret, Orsola Rosso learns to craft glass. As a woman, she must flout convention to save her family from ruin. We follow her through hundreds of years of war and plague, tragedy and triumph, love and loss.

Skipping like a stone across the centuries, The Glassmaker is a virtuoso portrait of a woman, a family and a city that are as everlasting as glass.then there’s nothing that makes Rocco feel more at home than an investigation.

My Heart is in Venice

An uplifting, escapist, later-in-life romance

by Helga Jensen

Venice was where it all began...

Libby and Will spent a glorious honeymoon in this magical city. They didn’t have much money, but they had a whole lot of love and a bright future ahead of them.

And Venice was where it all went wrong...

Two kids and twenty-five years later, they are struggling with money problems but somehow Will manages to fulfil his promise to Libby to take her back to Venice for their anniversary. This time, they are doing it in style and a masked ball awaits. But among the beautiful buildings and romantic canals, Libby learns that her husband has a secret that breaks her heart.

The trust is broken and the marriage is over. But there are decades of love and two grown sons between them.

Can they ever find their way back to each other or have they missed their chance forever?

The Venice Sketchbook

‘Love and secrets collide in Venice during WWII in an enthralling novel of brief encounters and lasting romance’

by Rhys Bowen

Caroline Grant is struggling to accept the end of her marriage when she receives an unexpected bequest. Her beloved great-aunt Lettie leaves her a sketchbook, three keys, and a final whisper…Venice. Caroline’s quest: to scatter Juliet “Lettie” Browning’s ashes in the city she loved and to unlock the mysteries stored away for more than sixty years.

It’s 1938 when art teacher Juliet Browning arrives in romantic Venice. For her students, it’s a wealth of history, art, and beauty. For Juliet, it’s poignant memories and a chance to reconnect with Leonardo Da Rossi, the man she loves whose future is already determined by his noble family. However star-crossed, nothing can come between them. Until the threat of war closes in on Venice and they’re forced to fight, survive, and protect a secret that will bind them forever.

Key by key, Lettie’s life of impossible love, loss, and courage unfolds. It’s one that Caroline can now make right again as her own journey of self-discovery begins.

The Venetian Daughter

Nazi-occupied Italy, 1943. The house looks deserted but Evelina can hear a child whimpering. In the hatch at the bottom of the laundry chute, she finds Mario, his brown eyes wide as dinner plates. His parents have been taken and now Evelina is the only one who can keep him safe

by Ella Carey

When the Nazis storm into Venice, Evelina receives a terrified note from her best friend, a devoted Jewish schoolteacher: Help me. Evelina rushes to the rescue, but is devastated to find that her friend has been taken. Now Evelina is responsible for Mario, and she must find a way to get him out of the city.

The Nazis are rounding up Jewish children, so Evelina hides the six-year-old boy in her beautiful house on the Grand Canal. She sneaks him food and reads to him at night, stroking his brown curls until he falls asleep. Evelina knows there is one person who might be able to help her: a handsome American reporter named Jack Sabo, and Evelina begs for his help.

She is relieved when Jack finds a boat that can take Mario to safety. But with spies on every corner, moving the little boy will be terribly dangerous. Using every ounce of courage Evelina has, she must carry Mario across the city, holding her head high and talking her way out of trouble if she gets caught. She tries to keep Jack’s kind voice and his sparkling blue eyes in her mind as she makes the journey.

But just as Evelina thinks the danger is over at last, jackboots pound up the stairs and a fist hammers on the door. Evelina fears that someone close has betrayed her. In an instant, the hopeful future that she and Jack planned shatters. Can Evelina and Jack get Mario to safety before it’s too late?

Death at La Fenice

A ripping mystery, as beguiling and secretly sinister as Venice herself. Sparkling and irresistible.

by Donna Leon

The twisted maze of Venice's canals has always been shrouded in mystery. Even the celebrated opera house, La Fenice, has seen its share of death ... but none so horrific and violent as that of world-famous conductor, Maestro Helmut Wellauer, who was poisoned during a performance of La Traviata. Even Commissario of Police, Guido Brunetti, used to the labyrinthine corruptions of the city, is shocked at the number of enemies Wellauer has made on his way to the top - but just how many have motive enough for murder? The beauty of Venice is crumbling. But evil is one thing that will never erode with age.

A Thousand Days in Venice

‘Filled with the foods and flavours of Italy and peppered with recipes and culinary observations. But the main course here is about a woman who falls in love with both a man and a city, and finally finds the home she didn't know she was missing’

by Marlena De Blasi

When Fernando spots her in a Venice cafe and knows immediately that she is The One, Marlena de Blasi is caught off guard. A divorced American woman travelling through Italy, she thought she was satisfied with her life. Yet within a few months, she quits her job as a chef, sells her house, kisses her two grown-up kids goodbye, and moves to Venice. Once there, she finds herself sitting in sugar-scented pasticcerie, strolling through sixteenth-century palazzi, renovating an apartment overlooking the seductive Adriatic Sea, and preparing to wed a virtual stranger in an ancient stone church.

I hope you enjoy my choice of books! See you in the next region soon