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Love from Venice

A Golden Summer on the Grand Canal

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About this listen

A charming, funny and glamorous memoir and love-story, about a summer in 1957 in Venice, working for an aristocratic Italian family.

In the summer of 1957, anxious to impress an admirer who had moved to Paris, while rebelling against her family, Gill Johnson, aged twenty-five, gave up her comfortable job at the National Gallery in London and travelled to Venice to take up a job teaching English to an aristocratic Italian family.

Love from Venice is her vivid evocation of that summer, the last hurrah of the European Grand Tour, when the international jet set lit upon the city for their fun. Johnson describes (including through original letters written to her love in Paris) her life flitting from palazzo to Lido to palazzo, and how her feelings for him grow, while she becomes absorbed into the social whirl of the super-rich.

It is a moving and witty memoir of a young woman coming to terms with her own feelings and destiny, and learning about different aspects of love from the people she meets, all set in high-season Venice in a halcyon time. By the end, Johnson discovers if the scabrous excesses of fabulous wealth can divert the course of true love.

©2024 Gill Johnson (P)2024 Hodder & Stoughton Limited Europe Italy Travel Writing & Commentary Western Europe Funny Witty
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Lovely nostalgic story full of interesting real-life anecdotes. Very much recommend this book to all Venice lovers out there.

Beautiful memories of 20th century Venice

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An interesting life story told beautifully I enjoyed the aspect of experiencing the life of aristocracy from the inside

Great read

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Beautifully written, this is a charming tale of a kinder and gentler world. I thoroughly recommend it.

Gently brilliant

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As a lover of Venice and Italy, this is a fascinating glimpse into a world most of us will never have the opportunity to experience in person.

Another world

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An absolutely charming Memoir and quite beautifully read by Rose Akroyd.
I do hope their will be a new book about Gill Johnson's life after her Venice adventure.

An Enchanting Memoir

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