Venice: books, guidebooks, maps and plans Article

Venice: books, guides and maps

Before you leave or once you are there, a few good addresses and reads allow you to go beyond the must-sees.

Travel guides

The main French-language series each dedicate a title to Venice, regularly updated: Guide Vert Michelin (very comprehensive on heritage and history), Guide du Routard (good addresses and budget), Lonely Planet (practical and detailed maps), Petit Futé and Guides Gallimard (cultural approach, highly illustrated). Choose the most recent available edition, as prices and opening times of sites change quickly in Venice.

Maps of Venice

For a free and up-to-date map, our interactive map of Venice and our map of the lagoon cover the historic centre and the surrounding islands. Once there, tourist information points (airport, Santa Lucia railway station, Piazzale Roma, San Marco) also hand out free paper maps.

The bookshops of Venice, a visit in their own right

Some Venetian bookshops are worth a detour in their own right:

• Libreria Acqua Alta (Castello, near Campo Santa Maria Formosa) - the most famous, where second-hand books are piled into gondolas and bathtubs to protect them from high water; a wide selection of books on Venice, including in French.
• Libreria Studium (near St Mark's Square) - a good section of books in French about the city, including a children's section.
• Libreria Toletta (Dorsoduro) - specialising in art, architecture and literature, popular with students from the nearby fine arts academy.

Good to know

For very detailed IGN-style maps (useful for finding your way through the narrow streets), the city's bookshops and newsstands often offer the locally published map, more precise than some navigation apps in the maze of calli.