Appeals for the Fenice have been made around the world, some of them in connection with the Venice in Peril Fund, which has been helping to restore bits of the city since it was damaged in the great floods of 1966.

ECONOMIST: The great Fenice mystery

"The Whole Love" seems like a celebration of that freedom, with songs that roam happily all over the place: "Capitol City" is a country waltz with bits of Dixieland clarinet, "Sunloathe" sounds like the Beatles if they were still together in 1974, and the vaguely psychedelic folk-pop title track takes Simon and Garfunkel's 59th Street Bridge down to the Small Faces' Itchycoo Park for a summer-breezin' picnic.

CNN: Review: Wilco's 'The Whole Love'

Smashing such an object to smithereens, a technique championed by Hollywood films, would be silly because the Earth would be pelted with lots of smaller bits of debris that could prove just as destructive, particularly near a city.

ECONOMIST: Private efforts to avert disaster in space

Out-of-town shopping centres are suburban because they offer "the city without the scary bits", she says, like free parking, no Big Issue sellers and no graffiti.

BBC: NEWS | UK | Magazine | Suburbia fights back

Though it was bombed to bits during the Second World War, Intramuros is one of the most coherent areas of the city.

CNN: Make the most of Manila's chaotic charm

It's 13, 000 square feet inside this big building, which makes it about one-fiftieth scale, and it's part of the city along the lake that is being recreated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in tiny little bits.

NPR: Scale Model Aids Probe of Katrina Damage