The Venice Sketchbook

Most of the action in The Venice Sketchbook is set in Venice, Italy, during four separate periods: Juliet’s 1928 visit, her 1938 trip, the year she lives in Venice beginning in 1939, and Caroline’s visit in 2001.

Venice was deeply affected by both World War I and World War II. Although Venice harbor was bombed during World War I, the city itself escaped bombing during both wars. Like other parts of Europe, the city experienced rationing and German occupation.

In World War I, Italy joined the Allied Powers and acted as a naval base. As one of the victors of that war, they got a seat in the Council of the League of Nations.

In 1922, Benito Mussolini of the National Fascist Party came to power as the prime minister, marking the beginning of what is known as “Fascist Italy.” With his regime came more totalitarian rule and the promotion of economic modernization and traditional social values.

Mussolini embarked on a more aggressive foreign policy beginning in the 1930s, invading and annexing Ethiopia in a war that led to confrontation with the League of Nations. As a result, sanctions were enacted against Italy, leading to increasing economic self-sufficiency.

Mussolini’s growing desire to rebuild the Roman empire becomes a recurring thread in Juliet’s time in Venice. Particularly during her 1938 and 1939 trips, she hears about Mussolini’s goals often. Even so, as it becomes more and more clear that Germany will declare war, many Venetians seem certain that Mussolini will not join the war, particularly as Italy does not have enough resources.

Juliet also witnesses the ambivalence of many Venetian elites to Fascism. As she is welcomed into the art school and the inner circle of Contessa Fiorito, those Juliet meets continuously say that the horrors they are hearing of elsewhere, such as the treatment of Jews, will never happen in Venice. Venetian elites were primarily concerned with reviving the Venetian economy; local leaders cooperated with Fascist ideology for the most part, but only so long as it didn’t interfere with their restructuring to help Venice flourish once more.

Italy joined World War II as an ally of Germany in June 1940. Italy did not engage in much active warfare until October 1940, when Mussolini attacked Greece—a failed endeavor. German aid was required, and Germany ended up taking over Greece. Many of the older people that Juliet meets in Venice are preoccupied, as the war begins, with their sons’ safety, and Mussolini’s consistent military disasters created good reason for this concern above and beyond the normal concerns of war. When Germany attempted to invade Russia, Mussolini sent 250,000 of his troops to join; 85,000 troops never returned from that invasion.

Morale was low in the military, particularly as many conscripts did not believe in the Fascist cause. As resources dwindled, food shortages occurred frequently, and the Allies bombed Italian factories. Civilian morale became quite low. Pietro Badoglio, who took over as prime minister upon the overthrow of Mussolini in 1943, attempted an armistice with the Allies that same year; in retaliation, Germany invaded Italy. Juliet experiences Venice through each of these trials and must live in semi-obscurity, since her British nationality makes her a foreign enemy in Mussolini’s and then Hitler’s Italy.

Juliet also witnesses the changing treatment of Jewish people in Venice. Contessa Fiorito is a Polish Jew who escaped many years ago and married an Italian count, but she assures Juliet throughout the novel that Venetians would never treat Jews the way Germany did, and even if that did happen, she would be protected as a respected patron of the arts with a high position in Venetian society. The contessa is safe for a time, but when Germany invades, the soldiers set up a camp for Jews. They take the contessa, and Hanni, the girl the contessa rescued from Austria, is only saved because she hides until Juliet finds her.