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Recently the discussion regarding dogs in Italian museums arose in the news as some institutions in Turin let our beloved pets accompany us during our visits. Is it a sign of a civilized country [...]

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, [...]

“How many tiles do you think they used?” My client was looking up at the golden dome of St Mark’s church in Venice. The mosaics were glittering at their best, shining with all their faceted [...]

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 [...]

In 1739 the Council of Ten, the powerful court of the Venetian Republic, received a peculiar request from a glass blower from Murano. It was well known that those ten judges would face important [...]