Venetian history

“There is no reason to feel like Cinderella: all over Italy there is nothing like it, such a long life, such burning vitality”. So wrote the director Angela Vettese in 1990 about the BLM [...]

“about the fourth watch of the night he cometh unto them, walking on the sea” (Gospel of Mark c.66-70) Water surely can be viewed as a treacherous element you would be safer to keep [...]

There’s a square in Venice which words fail to describe. A square where gates for centuries were locked nighttime to help you know where you were. Both the ones living inside and the ones [...]

Although surrounded by water Venice has always feared fires. Wood is not just the bedrock of the whole city, it is also what all buildings inside are made of. Technically all constructions in [...]

In Venice, a city of tiny islands surrounded by water, where frontiers get liquid and blurred, can we talk about doors? This is something that has always fascinated me about Venice since I was a [...]

If there was one thing the previous owners had not planned, that was the ballroom. And yet the Rezzonicos spoke to their architect Giorgio Massari very clearly: the ballroom had to be there and, [...]

In a few days the climax of the Venetian Carnival will be reached. Guests from all over the world will wear their shimmering costumes, hide their face behind a mask and attend a [...]

When I was a child, I loved going to the school library and wandering around the white metal bookshelves. I loved the Einaudi editions. They had a white cover and a beautiful red line around. I [...]

Katharine Hepburn’s eyes stare with pleasure and happiness: a ruby red glass goblet stands by the window in a shop in Venice, in the beautiful campo San Barnaba. The film is “Summertime” by David [...]

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all? A symbol for self acknowledgement better than any selfie, a symbol for the deformation of reality, a means to connect to a magical [...]