It was stated early in this nonfiction work that rather than looking at the town of Venice, Berendt would be looking at its people. While he does this, he seems to focus on the burning of the Fenice, an opera house. The event, which occured three days after his arrival in the city, causes him to stay in Venice longer - to report on the Fenice and to talk with Venetians.

The storyline regarding the Fenice is spread throughout the work. In between, Berendt has included shorter works - if you will - looking at interesting people from or living in Venice. Yet, I cannot help but make a small complaint about how Berendt went about recording the lives of these people. He dedicates ample time to the Fenice, but usually only gives a chapter to an interesting story which could easily have been made into a longer work. It seems as if he didn't have quite enough about the Fenice, nor quite enough about each of his stories, and while they are well told, I want to know more about all of it - the Fenice and the people.

That being said, the story was interesting and Berendt is a wonderful writer. I don't think this was as good as Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, but it had the same effect - with Midnight, I wanted to go to Savannah and with The City of Falling Angels, I wanted to go to Venice.