Transparent cities

"The empire is being crushed by its own weight," Kublai thinks, and in his dreams now cities light as kites appear, pierced cities like laces, cities tranparent as mosquito netting, cities like leaves' veins; cities lined like a hand's palm, filigree cities to be seen through their opaque and fictitious thickness. [73]

Calvino, Italo. Invisible Cities [Le città invisibili]. Translated by William Weaver. Harvest/Harcourt, 1974 [1972]. ISBN: 0156453800.