"Streets full of water. Please advise." This was the telegram American humorist Robert Benchley sent to his editor on arrival in Venice. The fish-shaped city has been astonishing and beguiling visitors for centuries. Bidisha memorably describes the experience of walking its alleys as being "like a mouse in a box of old books". For Aschenbach in Death in Venice, "this most improbable of cities" was the haunt of both Eros and Thanatos. Not everyone falls in love with it: Edward Lear was appalled by "these most stinking canals". In Lady Chatterley's Lover, DH Lawrence described it as the "holiday-place of all holiday-places" and today the tourist industry has largely squeezed out native Venetians. Henry James once protested that there is "nothing more to be said on the subject", and although this welcome addition to the excellent city-pick series of urban anthologies relies a bit too much on the obvious authors  including, ironically, much by James  with more than 100 extracts, this is a delightful literary guide to La Serenissima.