L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, AUGUST 23, 2018 www.italoamericano.org 12 L'Italo-Americano LA VITA ITALIANA TRADITIONS HISTORY CULTURE ELIZABETH SALTHOUSE " When I went to Venice, I dis covered that my dream had become – incredibly but quite sim- ply – my address." Thus wrote French novelist Marcel Proust, recounting his trip to the lagoon city following in the foot- steps of English writer John Ruskin. He's neither the first nor last to have fallen in love with Venice. And Venetians and visi- tors continue to be struck anew as demonstrated beautifully in a new book, First Spritz is Free – Confessions of Venice Addicts, edited by Kathleen Gonzalez. Each chapter is by a V ene- tophile, whether by birth, mar- riage, accident or design and each offers a different viewpoint. So we meet an artist drawn by destiny, a wannabe-gondolier learning to row, a child born in the city, one returning for the summer holidays and one arriv- ing on a Vespa, a musician who yearns to return and many, many more, all addicted to Venice. What is it that keeps them entranced? The book's editor, Kathleen Gonzalez, knows first hand the effect that Venice can have. After all, she herself fell in love with the city nearly twenty years ago. And it only took a few steps for the city to work her magic. Heading up a school trip to the lagoon city, the teacher entered it via the busy bus station in Piazzale Roma. They set off across 2 bridges to pick up the vaporetto waterbus and that was all it took to fall in love. I saw the raspberry and burnt orange Hotel Principe. Inside m y ches t and belly things r ear r anged them s elves . My heart climbed up into my throat, and I couldn't look at the others in my group. I hadn't just entered Venice. It had entered my blood and my consciousness. I thought, "I have to live here some day." I thought, "This is the most amazing place I've ever seen." I thought no more thoughts because I was inundated with longing and awe instead. Within weeks, Kathleen was back for a summer holiday with- out her students, and within a year she'd returned for the entire summer, passing her time with a group of gondoliers who took her under their wing. Venice had w orked her charm w ith sparkling, emerald canals, his- toric palaces and breathtaking vistas; Kathleen was addicted. A few years later, an Ecuado- rian by the name of Manuel Car- rión came to a very similar con- clusion. Drawn at first by the Venetian art Biennale, he stayed believing destiny had brought him to V enice to fulfill the meaning of his life. He worked in hospitality to support himself, as many do, but Manuel's path was very firmly fixed on becom- ing a respected artist and estab- lishing a community of like- minded folk in the city of art. And he's well on the way to achieving both following in the footsteps of many others includ- ing Claude Monet, JMW Turner and John Singer Sargent, all drawn here to paint, not to men- tion the home-grown talents of Titian, Tintoretto and Canaletto. There can't be many better places for an artist to set up home. Not everyone is a visitor or an outsider, however. Approximately 55,000 Vene- tians live in the historic center. Their numbers are down from 150,000 two centuries ago but this core of residents holds a deep love for their home, not least the writer, slow food expert and Venetian Iris Loredana. Iris and her grandmother are passion- ate to show people that there's much, much more to Venice than just St Mark's, beautiful though it is. So they write about the hid- den, private side of Venice. From courtyard gardens to secret orchards, medicinal botany to vegetable patches. Most lie behind anonymous, vertiginous, red brick walls, totally unknown to passers-by or their guide- books, and astonishingly gardens cover almost half the surface area of the city. Often the only clue you'll have to being near a secret sanctuary is a waft of heavy vanilla, Jasmine or lemon balm as you pass by. And most of the time you're probably no more than just a few feet away from an old vineyard, an ageing convent garden or, as Iris puts it, the sec- ond Venice, known only to resi- dents. If you're lucky she'll take you there through her writing or in person. And if we're lucky Venice, her history and her gar- dens will survive in the safe hands of addicted Venetians like Iris and her grandmother Lina. Fellow Venetophile Monica Cesarato vividly recounts her first memory of arriving from the nearby countryside, perched on the footplate of her father's Vespa, aged just three. Techni- cally, having been born on the nearby mainland, Monica is a campagnola or country girl. But Venetian culture and cuisine is in her blood and as she puts it her- self, "I always felt like I belong there, like I am meant to be there." Marisa Convento also left the Veneto mainland for a lagoon life, following her heart for a lifetime with her vero amore Maurizio. She's now an expert on Venetian bead making and bead stringing and unquestion- ably a Venetian heart and soul. So whilst different passions brought Monica and Marisa to the city, it's a passion for Venezia itself that now drives both of them as advocates for this most precious of treasures. But don't despair; you don't have to live in the city to be an addicted Venetophile as Greg Mohr's chapter testifies. In fact, he's never lived in the city, but he admits to being "without question, the most ridiculously obsessed human being in the English-speaking world when it comes to gondolas." His addic- tion is so severe that Greg trav- elled to Venice especially to train with the head coach of the Grup- po Sportivo Voga Veneta rowing club in Mestre and he has been a working gondolier back in New- port Beach, California since 1993. Now known by his moniker Gondola Greg, he likes nothing better than to row his gondola. And when he's not row- ing his gondola, or training to race one, he's repairing one or painting a picture of one. He may not be a Venetian by birth, but he's certainly a Venetian by bap- tism after his three unplanned dips in the lagoon. And one day he hopes to return to his watery home, not just for another rowing lesson, but this time to live. Dita incrociate! Year after year the city acts as a magnet drawing residents clos- er and pulling visitors in. Mil- lions come for a short time, thou- sands stay for a while and hundreds put down roots. For some, it will be their home for a little as they pass through on their life's journey. But for oth- ers, like Kathleen, Monica, Greg, Marisa or Manuel, Venice's magic permeates their blood. It courses through their veins. And their hearts begin to beat to the slow, persistent pace of Venice. It could be the history that entices them in, or maybe the food. For some, it's her cen- turies-old traditions like gondolas or glass making that hold them captive. For others still, like writer Luca Marchiori, bank worker Piero Bellini, cloak designer Monica Daniele, expert guide Luisella Romeo or home- grown girl Iris, Venice is written into their very DNA, backed by generations of lagoon-living ancestors. But the thing that unites all 35 Venetophiles in The First Spritz is Free is an obses- sion, a craving, an infatuation, an addiction for the mystical city of Venice. If you've ever dreamt of visiting Venice, have family roots there or are just curious to know more this is the book for you. But be careful, it may lead to addiction! "When I went to Venice, I discovered that my dream had become - incredibly but quite simply - my address" (Marcel Proust) The First Spritz is free – Confessions of Venice Addicts

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