This map plots the settings and references in Miss Garnet’s Angel
To start exploring, click a red pin
Venice 2004 - Credit:
Emustonen
Venice Lagoon - Credit:
NASA
“Miss Garnet’s Angel” is set in Venice, the world-famous Northern Italian "City of Water" that stretches over 118 small islands in the Venetian Lagoon. Once an important centre for maritime power and trade, it is now renowned for its beauty, history, romance, art and music.
Its population is small (272,000) but it attracts millions of tourists. Recently, its residents have become alarmed by threats of flooding, and by the tourist-driven high cost of living that makes it hard for the permanent inhabitants to remain in their native city. Miss Garnet was clearly aware of this, leaving money to “Venice in Peril” in her will.
Marco Polo Airport, where Miss Garnet arrives on a chilly day, is eight miles from Venice. Miss Garnet chose the most romantic, but also most expensive, way to make the trip. She could have gone by bus.
The author has written a chapter on Venice and her experience of it (p. 8 of 'P.S.'at the back of the book.)
Map showing Ancient Nineveh - Credit: Hkp-avniel
Nineveh, reconstruction of Makshi Gate - Credit: Fredarch
Ancient Nineveh, (now the modern city of Mosul) where the story of Tobias and the Angel begins (P.70 of the novel), was the capital of the Assyrian Empire. Here Old Tobit lived with his family, in exile from his homeland of Israel. It was a large, important city on the River Tigris, in what is now Iraq.
Under the "new king", about whom Tobit complains, its buildings and gardens became magnificent. The picture below shows the ruins of Nineveh today.
Nineveh, walls and Shamash Gate from ramparts - Credit: Fredarch
Raghes is in what is now North West Iran, near the Caspian Sea. It has been absorbed by the modern city of Teheran.
Rey(Raghes) from Rashkan Hill - Credit: Babakgh
Ecbatana, now modern Hamadan, was an important city at the foot of a mountain, sometimes considered to have been the capital of Media before being overtaken by the Persians.
Sarah's appartment is marked 13 on the map at the back of the book. It is in the Campo Gheto Novissimo, one of three areas to which Jews were confined under the Republic of Venice. Buildings rose high because of the confined space.There's a good photo here.
Accademia Bridge - Credit: Gary Houston
The rather ugly wooden Accademia Bridge, which spans the Grand Canal near the Accademia Gallery, was built in the 1930s, replacing an 1854 steel structure. It is no. 4 on the map at the back of the book (Afterword p. 7).