Buongiorno Venezia

this week’s issue of Buongiorno Venezia talks of:

• Bugs in the system: infestation cases rise 500% - resulting from bad hygiene in Venice’s and Mestre’s bars and restaurants
• Bridge over troubled (muddy) water: Calatrava 
• Fruits and veggies return, doubts linger in Treviso
• The bell tolls for S. Stefano’s belfry?
• The Hilton’s stats
• Summer rocks: from Elton John to Pearl Jam
• Eleven million dollars for Bellotto

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Franco Filippi is more than a publisher, author and bookseller. He is a “piece” of living Venetian history. In a past issue of Buongiorno Venezia we had mentioned his latest book “Anche Questa è Venezia” , and we hear it has become a case study: no direct advertising, just word-of-mouth. In Italian. Slowly but steadily, with the second reprint the book has already sold  7.000 copies to single buyers (which is much for a niche book in Italian),  and - the Author says - its content has been often been copied by other writers and journalists, without the source even being mentioned. E-mails, letters (”even handwritten” Franco smiles) are coming in hundreds.

This is not a paid review: it’s a post to answer inquiries from our readers. How to order the book? they ask. Visit him in his bookshop - you’ll learn something - or write to him: in Italian. If you can’t speak the language, start learn it! Or you’ll miss the book.

The bookshop: Libreria Filippi - Castello, Caselleria 5284, 30122 Venice. Phone and fax +39 0415236916.
The book: Filippi Franco, “Anche questa è Venezia.
Cronaca di una passeggiata ed altre cose che so di lei.”
cm.14×9, pp 448 ill. - Euro 15.00 euro

in this week’s issue of Buongiorno Venezia we talked of:

• Fires in Treviso fuel worries of contamination (see also previous post about this topic, and veniceword.com )
• Silenter night: quiet fireworks for the Redeemer
• Pigeons: no free lunch in Venice
• Traviata struck: no “prima” at La Fenice
• Modern dynasty under siege in Venice
• A prodigious violinist from Russia with love (see veniceword.com )

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about trust, again. in our newsletter you’ll read how a fire destroyed a huge part of the De Longhi factory 30 kilometers from Venice, yesterday. There’s a danger — there’s no danger — there’s no toxic substance — the substances exceed the limit, a little. the usual news ballet.
i want to believe there’s no risk of dioxin contamination. i believe it. but i wonder who still believes what authorities declare. many residents in the area between Treviso and Venice chose not to return home for the day and slept in the surroundings. the editor included. today i’m having a great time working at my pc near the Jesolo beach. not a bad idea, all in all. After all… tomorrow is another day, when the cloud will be gone with the wind. but today is today.

I’ve been asked to re-launch these little news on our blog. with pleasure.

UNIVOC (the Italian Union of Voluntary Workers for the Blind) organises a dinner “in the dark”. The event will take place on 8 May inside the Taverna Ciardi restaurant in Calle dell’Aseo near the Rialto bridge, all lights will be switched off, and service will be provided by men and women who are blind. For that evening,
the people at the tables will experience what sightless individuals encounter every day. It is expected that this innovative initiative will be more instructive and thought-provoking for everyone present than any verbal explanation could ever be.

let me add that, besides experiencing the difficulties of living “in the dark”, the people at the tables may also experience the importance of trusting each other, beyond misunderstandings. life is based on trust, though we often live in suspect.

there is a problem with delivering the Buongiorno Venezia newsletter to hotmail users. it does not seem we are on their blacklist, as the newsletter message is accepted, but for unknown reasons it is not delivered. we do not get any error message or warning back, but many subscribers who use hotmail are asking us why we suspended the service. we did not, and are working on the problem. may anyone know how to solve it, please write to us, thanks.
by now there seems to be no other solution than using a different email account

i wonder if you have the same feeling. often the sunday mail shows more nonsense than ever. and i wonder if it’s just a chance or it’s because of entertainment, big food and wine of saturday night, all over the world. particularly in veneto.

nonsense or not, this deserves a glance. i’ve been forwarded a note by Loris Palmerini, who declares that “the Italian Republic has no legal consistence. we may say, it does not exist”. Reason: the 1946 referendum (when italian citizens were called to choose between becoming a new republic or continuing being ruled by the king) was illegal, because millions could not vote. In fact in 1946 - Palmerini says - also Istria (Capodistria, Pola), Dalmatia (Spalato, Zara) and the Adriatic islands (of formerYugoslavia) were territory of the italian state, occupied by Titus’ troops: they passed to Yugoslavia only in 1947 with the Paris treaty. Though the italian residents living there had the right to vote, no voting site was held in those regions in 1946. More: also the ones who had escaped the local genocide and flew to Italy had no possibility to vote (hundreds of thousands, who according to Palmerini were likely to be in favor of the monarchy). “There was chaos and the civil war going on” Palmerini admits. “But millions of people could not vote: also Trieste, Bolzano and the whole Friuli; was this referendum legal?”. Consider the final results of the referendum: 12.717.923 voted for the republic, 10.719.284 for the monarchy.

The thought of rewriting history is fascinating. and shocking. right now, i have no idea if Palmerini is right: his comments may be seen with suspicion as he signs as the “president of the Tribunal of the Veneto People”, he says that the republic is illegal and a sort of a “coup d’etat”. he’s not the first one to promote these ideas.

if you read such message on a sleepy sunday morning and are an italian resident, the first thought that pops your mind is “good, so i do not owe any taxes to anyone”. the second thought is: it’s interesting, but i would not prefer to be ruled by the son of our last king. Vittorio Emanuele di Savoia has been involved (and also arrested last year) in two episodes which are not noble at all. So: i stick to the Republic!!! Viva la Repubblica, viva l’Italia. and let’s choose the lesser evil.

as you’ll read in our next issue of Buongiorno Venezia, the Italian Minister for the Environment Pecoraro Scanio is not in favour of the MOSE project for the safeguard of Venice against high tides…. And as we reported in past issues of our newsletter, the Mayor Cacciari is trying to stop the project: but - people comment all over venice - he should have protested with more energy many years ago… is now too late?
Residents know that the acqua alta is the natural way for the lagoon to clean up itself. The puzzle is how to keep it under given limits.

Read more about the MOSE system here:

http://www.veniceword.com/mosesystem.htm
http://www.veniceword.com/news/8/mose.html

at VeniceWord.com we often receive letters of tourists who had a great time in venice and wish to thank someone personally. the last one came in some minutes ago, by Rene seeking the gondolier “Allejjandro” (the correct spelling is Alessandro).

we’re passing on your messages, and in addition we can use this blog if you wish to thank this person in public. just add your comments to this post.

he’s foolish, he’s amusing. he plays the inexperienced (and dangerous) magician, and the audience love it. Mago Casanova is a character launched by a popular Italian tv programme on Canale 5, and today he came back to venice after his first visit as a “special reporter” with his troupe, investigating if the Venice municipality had kept its promises to restore some bridges in peril. “The cracks we had filmed in our previous reportage have been fixed, i’m satisfied: it’s like magic, thanks to our show “Striscia la Notizia” he said with a smile. We exchanged business cards. Mine disappeared in his hands, in a well done trick.