Venice, overtourism and ghosts: An anthology explores the Serenissima through fantasy

Venice now seems inseparable from tourism, and increasingly from overtourism. The image of cruise ships towering like three palaces above fragile Venetian pontoons has come to represent the tourism industry of the century.

Even attempts to evoke a mysterious, misty Venice tend to bring tourists into the picture. Jacques Finné, a major guide through the world of darkness, has assembled an anthology of fantastic stories dedicated to the city.

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Observe the tourist’s behavior.

The collection plunges readers into a lagoon of oddities, orgies and psychological thrillers. One of its reference points is Dino Buzzati’s brief 1958 story “The Other Venice.” Buzzati orders the reader to “Observe the tourist’s behavior.”

The author of “K” follows a tourist through the calli, streets that trace old paths, the rii terra, filled-in canals, and the campi, or squares. The visitor becomes lost, turning left and right and experiencing a kind of dizziness. When he asks for advice, he receives an answer offered with “compassion and perhaps…”

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compassion and perhaps…