While in Venice last month, my friend brought me to his boat club, the place where they store the boats for members. It’s for members only, but the kind receptionist allowed me to come in briefly and see the boats. You can see that they are traditional Venetian rowing boats. At the back of the warehouse is a winch to lower the boats into the water. Everything is so gleaming and gorgeous!
The boats are like pieces of art, and also pieces of history.
Notice the different ferri. I love the variety of designs!
Another ferro design.
They keep the oars, or remi, along the wall.
In this last image, you can see a number of different boat styles. Can you name them all? Please leave a comment!
Albert Gardin has been hard at work memorizing Casanova’s translation of Homer’s Iliad into Venetian dialect. What a gift!
Many people think of Casanova as a flirt and lover only, but he was actually very involved in a life of letters, belonging to literary academies, running a theater for a time, translating, and writing numerous books. Gardin has published C’s Iliade and now will be presenting it orally. I can’t be there in August, but if you go, please tell me all about it!
Albert and I in Venice a couple years ago. He also recited part of the Iliade for the Casanova in Place symposium in 2019.
On my trip to Venice last month, I visited the Museo di Palazzo Grimani after the Inge Morath photo show had officially closed. But I’m so glad her photos were still on the walls! I was mesmerized and delighted.
Here is. some background on Morath’s career as a photographer, inspired and initiated in Venice.
Morath spoke German, English, French, Spanish, Romanian, Russian, and Mandarin. She traveled the world as a photographer, studying a country’s culture and traditions in order to more deeply connect with the place. She was quite intrepid, working as a photographer in a field that at that time, the 1950s, was still dominated by men.
Here are a few of her images that were at the exhibit. These are taken from the show’s website, with the link in the top line above. Morath’s photos make me feel like I’m peeking into a private past.
This photo is so evocative! What is the story with the shoes? It reminds me of a photo I took about 10 years ago of a jacket, slacks, and shoes sitting atop a pozzo.
Morath was masterful at capturing moments in daily lives, like these girls walking across a campo.
Here’s a photo of Morath herself. (from Wikipedia)
If you want to learn more about Museo di Palazzo Grimani, here’s a wonderful interview between tour guide Monica Cesarato and museum director Valeria Finocchi. The museum is a bit off the beaten path and is generally not crowded at all. (When I was there, I think I saw 5 other visitors in an hour and a half.) If you want to see more of Morath’s work, you can find lots of images by doing an internet search. I took many more, but they have glare from the glass and didn’t turn out well.
The last couple summers I’ve stayed in the Venice across from this unique shop, where Luciano sells used books and CDs. He also makes jewelry and art from metal scraps, champagne bottle baskets, and other castoff bits. He’s an original, as is his art.
Here’s the view of Luciano’s shop from my window.
Well, one morning I came out and two young women were taking a picture of the ground. I stopped to look at what they were looking at. It was a woman’s face drawn on the stone.
Guardalina
Later I saw Luciano and pointed to the woman. “Look what is here!” I said. “Yes,” he replied, “her name is Guardalina. She watches the street, the people, the shop, everything.” “Where did she come from?” I asked. “I drew her!” he replied proudly.
A couple Thursdays ago I enjoyed watching the local salsa schools shake their stuff at the sagra. For an hour and a half, one group after another danced with super high energy and skill. What fun, and not the usual tourist attraction!
Lots of flying hairography!The men brought it!Even the younger kids shared their moves
I recently visited Maria Gabriella Emiliani at the antique shop she and her parents run in the Ghetto of Venice. It’s called Antichità al Ghetto and has been described as an “Aladdin’s Cave” full of treasure. (Listen to this recent podcast by Monica Cesarato where she interviews Maria Gabriella.)
Personally, my favorite things in the shop (besides Maria Gabriella herself!) are the miniature gondolas and the ex votos–those metal icons shaped like hearts or other body parts that people leave by a saints’ image to thank them for healthy interventions. You can see arms, legs, eyes, lungs, and even pregnant bellies.
But this time, Maria Gabriella showed me their collection of interesting fish-related antiques, which she will be featuring in the month of July. They have fish from Italy, Spain, China, Germany, and other countries, and many have special purposes, such as holding spices or perfume or acting as salt cellars. Of course, some are ornamental or jewelry. Enjoy these photos of some of the school of fish who live at Antichità al Ghetto, and hopefully you can bring one home with you!
P.S. Maria Gabriella wrote a beautiful and lyrical chapter for Venice Rising: Aqua Granda, Pandemic, Rebirth, where she tells about the high waters rising in to engulf. Contact me if you’re in the US to get your copy or buy it on Amazon. ALL proceeds from book sales go back into organizations that preserve Venetian culture and ecology.
I met artist Sira a couple years ago, through a friend, and visited her shop in Venice. Her designs are so eye-catching and fun, it’s easy to spend lots of time wanting to see everything she’s created. Two years ago, I commissioned her to paint a picture of my friends’ cat, and I liked it so much that I then had Sira paint miniatures of my two cats.
That’s my cats Paka and Sukari in matchbox-sized portraits.
I stopped by again this summer to say hello and see what new things Sira has created. She was just finishing a miniature of a Venetian home, tucking it into a frame so I could take this photo.
Sira with her latest house miniature.
Sira will in fact take commissions–so you could send her a photo of your Venetian flat or favorite place and she’ll immortalize it to hang on your wall. Even if you don’t live in Venice, you could ask her to paint the apartment you rented or hotel you stayed in or favorite corner where you watch the canal. Just send your photos to her a month or so before you plan to be in Venice, and then you can pick up the finished work when you visit her shop. She’s located on Calle Lunga San Barnaba, and you can reach her shop by walking from Campo San Barnaba to the church of San Sebastiano in Dorsoduro.
That’s me taking a picture of her shop door so you can see what it looks like!
Some of the latest animals who have crawled into cups and glasses. Which is your favorite? I’m favoring the sloth.
Here’s how to find more about Sira’s work: her Facebook page, her Instagram. Tell her Kathy from California says hi!
Yes, you heard it right! A puffin has been spotted in Venice.
I got to meet the puffin!
Novelist Michelle Lovric is writing a new book about Venice. A puffin has crept into it. She tells me that the novel takes off where The Book of Human Skin ends, welcoming back a key character and introducing new ones. Like Human Skin, the story is expressed in a polyphony of voices, though this time not all of them are human. For the new book, Michelle has been looking into love, empire, animal consciousness … and millinery.
It’s taken a while, as she’s been working hard on an environmental issue in London, where a party boat the size of a small cruise ship wants to ply the Thames into the early hours. Campaigners against the so-clalled Oceandiva have adapted the famous flags devised by NoGrandiNavi in Venice.
seductivevenice 