A sample from a lecture on Patreon for patrons only for one year:

We trace the strugles of Venice, through conquest, revolution, and depression, to fashion a place for itself in the modern world, to channel or keep at bay the new floods -- of rising seas, of diseased canals, and of tourist hordes -- and most of all, to somehow square the circle of preservation and modernity.

Sign up as a patron at any level to hear this lecture: https://www.patreon.com/posts/impossible-city-121039973

Image: The Palazzo dei Camerlenghi & Rialto Bridge on the Grand Canal in the flood of Nov. 4, 1966

Intro music: Giuseppe Verdi, La Traviata, overture

Closing music: Giuseppe Verdi, La Traviata, brindisi / drinking song