Venice has no shortage of lovely laundry blowing in the breeze. Who has gone to Venice and NOT taken a picture of laundry on a line? So here are a few slo-mo videos from Burano. The first one is in real time, though, so you have a comparison to the slo mo. Which do you prefer?
And now some colorful dresses. I feel calm. Do you feel calm?
Interesting stencil combination, overlaid with spray paint graffiti. Is the elephant head perhaps added later by a different artist? Or is this Special Agent Elephant?
I have a new book to recommend to you Venetophiles: Over Bridges Across Tables: Growing Up on the Island of Murano by Lucia Barbini Falcone. I met the author at a recent event where I spoke to an Italian culture group in Berkeley. What a lovely bunch of people who welcomed me, fed me, and listened to my research. One member of the audience was Ms. Falcone, and I went home and ordered a copy of her book. She grew up on the island of Murano but moved to the United States many years ago.
This book gives us a peek into the insular community of this tiny island in the Venetian lagoon. Though the vignettes are fictionalized to protect the privacy of the real people, it feels like we are invited into the homes and businesses of Muranese. Falcone points out, for example, how news traveled through the community; if her protagonist went to the movies to meet a boy, her mother knew about it before she even got home. There are some hilarious descriptions of people meeting in the street to gossip about their neighbors:
“Oh, you mean Alba…”
“No, not Alba, but her sister-in-law.”
“Yes yes, I know who you mean. The lady who lives near Carla, the daughter of the man who has a dog named Luigi.”
And so on.
There are some wonderful descriptions, like this one of the fog rolling in: “Every light in the house emanated a warm glow, a feeling of togetherness. Outside, one could see the dizzy distant glow of the streetlights transpiring amidst a thick blanket of fog. The fog began hovering throughout, undeterred. It crept through the lagoon, invaded the street, inch by inch, and enveloped the old tile roofs. It fabricated a gray, opaque foamy wall, the type of thick fog that gave you the sensation of stepping through a slate of menacing clouds. You knew you were touching the ground, merely because you could still feel the hard cobblestones under your feet.”
Each chapter presents some aspect of Murano life: the shop keepers, the nuns who ran the kindergarten, a rare snowy day, catching the Colonna vaporetto to Venice, a family dinner with unexpected guests. There’s even a touching story about Uncle Ruggero who had been a prisoner of war in Germany during WWII. When the train brought him to Venice, a local gondolier, who had waited for months for any returning soldiers, ferried Ruggero home to his family in Murano.
The book came out in 2005 and is not generally in bookstores But you should be able to find copies on Amazon or Alibris. Enjoy, and let me know what you think.
I have a new series for you! Inspired by a tiny video at the last Biennale, which showed some laundry fluttering in slow motion, I took my own slo mo videos around Venice. I never got into the ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response) video fad, where people watch mundane tasks like washing hands or stretching putty. Also called “Oddly satisfying videos,” they help many people relax and unwind.
So, with that in mind, you might find these videos calming and pleasant. Or you may find them totally boring. I won’t judge. Here’s the first in my series, with many more to come! We’ll start not with laundry but with the Venetian flag. Please let me know what you think!
p.s. Sorry I don’t know the name of the Biennale artist who inspired me. It was from 2024, but I never made a note of it. If you know, please share the name with us!
Last summer I found this gem for 5 euros at a little mercatino along the Cannaregio Canal. The church ladies from San Giobbe had set up tables full of housewares, tablecloths, toys, jewelry, and previously-loved treasures. I would like to say that this letter opener was a unique find among the ashtrays and necklaces, but there were actually about ten of them all in a pile. But it does have a nice heft to it!
Entrance to the mercatino.
Aerial Google map screenshot of San Giobbe. Notice that the mercatino is mentioned.
Poster art spotted last summer (2025). Best thing–the juxtaposition of the giant deformed rat overlaid by the poster of the missing cat. I hope Mao made it home!