I find it hard to resist buying gondola stuff when I see it. So that my collection doesn’t get out of control, I now only buy really small things. This mini metal gondola stands less than two inches tall. It’s made by Lucciano Buggio, and you can get your own at his shop in Dorsoduro. I love how he repurposes trash and bits of metal into various things. (I also have some earrings he made from metal bits.) Scroll through my past “Gondola Stuff” posts to see a mini gondola he fashioned from a bracket.
“Don’t stay too long, then. You don’t want to get addicted.”
I looked at him, caught by the word, as if he knew somehow about the mornings sitting against the Dogana, drifting, the beauty of the place a kind of opiate.
Lines from Alibi by Joseph Kanon, one character speaking to another. Have you felt this way about Venice?
I took this photo many years ago when acrobats performed in the Piazzetta. Dreamy, right?
Thanks goes to Piero for sharing this image from 1945. American troops travel down the Grand Canal at the close of WWII. Rather unusual vehicles, and they look so incongruous next to the elegant and iconic gondolas.
The Grand Canal has seen many boats over the centuries. Let’s hope it never needs to ferry troops again.
By pure coincidence, I’m currently reading Alibi by Joseph Kanon, which is set in Venice just after the war ends. The characters probably saw a scene just like this.
Vince shared this photo of the DUKW 6×6 Amphibious Utility Vehicle. Thanks, Vince! Shallow enough to float down the shallow Grand Canal!
Casanova: fantasie in attesa del terzo centenario (1725 – 2025)
All’Ateneo Veneto (Sala Lettura) in occasione dei trecento anni dalla nascita di Giacomo Casanova, mettete già in agenda l’evento che abbiamo preparato martedì 16 aprile alle ore 17.30
Dialogo tra lo storico del cinema Carlo Montanaro (La Fabbrica del Vedere) e lo scrittore Giovanni Montanaro, intorno al film muto Casanova (1927) diretto da Aleksandr Volkoff.
Il film “Casanova” sarà poi proiettato in versione integrale al Cinema Rossini di Venezia (Circuito Cinema Venezia), giovedì 18 aprile alle ore 19.00 con l’introduzione di Carlo Montanaro.
As you can see, to celebrate the upcoming 300 year anniversary of Casanova’s birth, the events are already beginning! If you are in Venice this coming week, you can attend two events: a discussion of the 1927 silent film Casanova as well as this new film screening of Casanova: La Vita Galante del Leggendario Avventuriero.
Tuesday, April 16, 2024, at 17:30, at Ateneo Veneto, for the discussion between film historian Carlo Montanaro and writer Giovanni Montanaro.
Thursday, April 18, 2024, at 19:00, at Cinema Rossini, for the screening of the new film, with an introduction by Carlo Montanaro.
Please go and then tell me all about it! I hope to see the new film when it’s available in California. (And Thanks to Piero for telling me about it!)
JoAnn discussed with Mr. Freedman Sara Copia Sulam, a Jewish scholar living in Venice’s Ghetto during the 17th century, who brought together Jews and Christians for conversazione. JoAnn reached out to me because she knew I had written a chapter about Sara in my own book A Beautiful Woman in Venice. Though Sara’s work is not well known, more and more people are discovering her and giving her her due for her accomplishments. Check out the interview and then check out the book where Freedman writes more extensively about Sara. Brava!
As previously noted, I’ve added new chapters to my book A Beautiful Woman in Venice, with one such chapter exploring the life and work of painter Giulia Lama. She was known for her deep tenebrism and chiaroscuro, techniques popular at that time to highlight twisting of the body and deep shadows juxtaposed with lights.
It turns out that I’m not the only one reveling in Lama’s work! Save Venice, an organization that works to preserve and restore Venice’s artistic and architectural treasures, has been running a series of events to promote Venetian women artists. The latest is the show “Eye to Eye with Giulia Lama: A Woman Artist in 18th-Century Venice” running in Venice February 8 to June 8, 2024. (So sad! I won’t arrive in Venice till July this year and will miss the show!)
Image of the exhibit in the Salute church, from the Save Venice newsletter.
Save Venice writes: “From February 8, 2024 through June 8, 2024, Giulia Lama’s Four Evangelists from the church of San Marziale will be on view at the Pinacoteca Manfrediniana and the Virgin in Prayer from the church of Santa Maria Assunta on Malamocco in the nearby Sacristy of the Basilica della Salute. As these paintings are normally displayed up high in their respective churches, this exhibition allows visitors the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to view them up close following the recent transformative conservation treatments.”
If you go, please write a comment here to tell me what it’s like!
A close up from Lama’s Four Evangelists, on display in this exhibit after Save Venice restored it. (Image from the Save Venice newsletter.)
And if you wish to read more about Giulia Lama, you can get the second edition of A Beautiful Woman in Venice in paperback on Amazon (in most international links). Of if you prefer a digital copy, find it here on Smashwords, where you can access multiple formats. I donate fifty cents of every book sale back to Save Venice, so please help me make a big donation this month!
“This is quite appropriate when circumstances such as exhaustion, overwork or simply excess of sobriety are calling for a pick-me-up.
Here is a well-tested recipe to fit the bill.
Let us stress another advantage of this particular pep-up concoction is that one doesn’t have to make the sour face that usually accompanies the absorption of a remedy.
At the bottom of a glass, combine pepper and ginger. Pour the bitters on top, then brandy and ‘Vielle Cure’. Refrigerate or even put in the freezer.
Thirty minutes later, remove from the freezer and stir the juice of the orange into the chilled glass.
Drink… and wait for the effect.
It is rather speedy.”
Image taken from the article on Faroutmagazine, linked below, and where I pulled the quote above.
Dali is describing the cocktail he invented and named the Casanova. This article showed up on my inbox, and of course I had to try it out. My husband enjoys mixing new cocktails and was game, though it took a little work to gather all the ingredients: an orange, ginger, cayenne pepper, Campari bitters, brandy, and Vielle Cure brandy.
So, RJ mixed it up and we did the taste test. It had been a long and tiring day, and the drink was a pick me up (maybe that was just the excitement of trying something new!) The combo of citrus with cayenne pepper reminded me of a cleansing drink I had used some years ago, but not in a bad way. I don’t love brandy, so RJ put extra orange juice in mine, and I loved the combo of orange, ginger, and cayenne, which is why, I’m guessing, Dali called this a pick me up.
The ingredients
Before the booze
What did it have to do with Casanova? No idea. Casanova often wrote about local or specialty wines, his favorite drink was hot chocolate, and he also mentioned making hot punch on a number of occasions. But brandy with spices? In any case, his name on the drink got me to try it. Thanks, Dali!
Ready to drink!
We invited Dali himself to try the drink and I think he approved!
Sorry I haven’t written in a couple weeks. I just got back from a weeklong visit to Turkiye. I highly recommend checking out this beautiful country! We only got to see Istanbul and the Cappadocia region, but both were stunning. The Turkish people are some of the most hospitable, welcoming, and generous people I’ve ever met. I lost count of how many cups of tea we were offered and how many gifts were placed in our hands.
Turkiye, however, does not have canals swarming with gondolas and their stripe-shirted gondoliers, so why am I writing about it?
Because the basket of a hot air balloon is called a gondola, and I rode in one! (Note: it was not a free gondola ride.)
Inside the gondola. The man in orange is my friend Scott, and the man in the tan coat is soon to propose.The view of our gondola and the land below.There were a lot of balloons in the air–roughly 90 that day!
In case you wish to try this yourself, we used Atmosfer hot air balloons, which had smaller gondolas (fewer people in one trip) than other companies and that our guide told us had captains (gondoliers?) with more experience. But our added bonus that you probably won’t get to replicate: near the end of the trip, the man next to us got down on one knee (in the gondola) and proposed to his girlfriend. Flowers and champagne appeared from the air, and they spent the next 15 minutes taking photos while we drifted over fairy chimneys.
seductivevenice 