A merciless indictment of the Venice of intellectuals and tourists, this pamphlet, first published in 1995, is a paradoxical declaration of love for the lagoon city, which for centuries has been a crossroads for travelers of all kinds and the scene of an infinite refraction of images and narrative. 

In pages full of literary references, Régis Debray rails against Venice - which centuries of decadence have transformed from a living city into a commonplace - symbolically comparing it to Naples, as opposite poles of nature and culture, art and life. 

The volume is completed by a new preface by the author and a text by Gianni Montieri, who, while continuing to explore this opposition, testifies that the 25 years that have passed since the first publication of ‘Contro Venezia’ have in no way made this heartfelt j'accuse any less topical.

Autore
Régis Debray is one of the most brilliant, controversial and uncompromising French intellectuals. He was a leader of the student movement in May '68 and the guerrilla in South America alongside Guevara, and since the ‘70 he has devoted himself to the study of mass media and image in the Western world. He has written over 50 works of non-fiction and fiction, many of which have been translated into Italian. In 2019, the Académie Française awarded him the Grand Prix de Litérature for the whole of his work.

Gianni Montieri is a poet, narrator and essayist. He writes for various magazines, including Doppiozero, minima&moralia, Huffpost and Il Manifesto. He is editor of the bilingual magazine The Florence Review and artistic coordinator of the Festival dei Matti. His most recent books of poetry are Ampi Margini (2022) and Le cose imperfette (2019), published by Liberaria. He was born in Naples and lives in Venice.