Weathered | Valentina Cirasola | Author and Designer

Ah, Venice, the only city in the world where pigeons walk, lions fly, sexy men are made of stones and gondoliers are the richest taxi drivers in the whole world!

When I am in Venice, photographing conventional sites, even as beautiful as they are, is not my goal. Sure, I have done those tourist photos too, but I am more intrigued to find weathered details usually people leave behind, because they don’t appeal to their eyes. I like to find details which tell a story.

Most buildings in Venice beautify the sky with characteristic weathered ‘comignoli’ (chimneys). They are tall and look like small homes with a gable roof on top of buildings. Many wealthy Californians have embellished their “Tuscan style” homes with copies of Italian style ‘comignoli’ and ‘faccioni’ (cherub’s faces), sometimes stuck on garden walls as planters.

(Click on each photo to view it larger).

(Above: chimney called comignolo)

I could have spent endless hours more than I did talking to the older man, owner of the restoration laboratory. He spent his entire life among stunning and weathered objects, furniture, fabrics, grisailles and historic pieces. It was so fascinating listening to his stories !!!

(Above: Restoration store)

I am amazed of how well the weathered wood poles and stilts deeply planted in water, hold Venice up and how well lintel beams hold together the walls of many weathered homes.

(Above: Santa Maria della Salute in the background)

(Above: Casa Goldoni decorative lintel)

(Above: Venice characteristic street lamp)

Perfectly weathered pewter and bronze street lamps are still standing not decayed, as are the marble stone statues, precious mosaics on buildings‘ facades and marble carved capitals with acanthus leaves still showing the intricate details on top of columns.

(Above: Marble acanthus leaves capitel)

(Above: Store pewter door handle)

One might imagine finding weathered home gardens, where courtship and lover quarrels might have happened one time, but they are hard to find today.

The local Venetians are leaving town for a better living. Venice has no longer stores of primary needs for the locals, such as bread shops, meat shops, vegetable shops, dairy shops, fish market, drug stores, clothing stores, book stores, the seamstress shops, hat shops, shoe maker shops, the clinic, a local doctor office and all the shops which regulate and take care of the needs of a human life.

Venice has become a stumping ground for tourists with a little interest in history, art and theatre art. Their needs are to go to the bathroom, buy a gelato, a cheap tourist meal, a few meaningless trinkets made in China, get a photo with the pigeons in St. Marco square and return to the ship or wherever they came from. The town today is made of B&Bs, restaurants with tourist menus (what kind of crap is that?), cheap souvenirs, super expensive gondola rides, counterfeit fashion items sold in the streets by illegal immigrants and nothing else.
Venice belongs first to the Venetians, to Italy and then to the world. That Venice charm I had known is forever lost. Ciao,
Valentina
https://valentinaexpressions.com/trips-to-puglia-2

As a writer and cultural promoter of Puglia, her native land, Valentina’s intention is to let readers feel and experience a new ”wheel of emotions”. She wants to encourage them to visit areas of Italy not beaten by massive tourism. Through stories of local customs, art, architecture, fashion, food-wines, shopping, she wants them to create their special adventures and live it up in Puglia! Check out her books on
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