Francesco’s Venice
Ok…today I am writing in English. Let’s be bilingual.
I finally handed out a chapter on Friday, but yet, of course there are tons of other small things to too piling on the desk. Papers, written months ago, coming back with more editing to do; admin stuff that needs to be sorted out; archival research to prepare, etc. So on this wonderful sunny Saturday I spend a few hours in front of the computer. And when I decided to take a break for dinner and open the TV on BBC (something are hardly ever do) I found…a documentary about Venice!!! Impossible to take this city out of my life ; )
Yet I have to say, I was happily surprised. I know it might sound very naive to most British as I think Francesco’s Venice is a program played by the BBC for years now…but I didn’t know about it! I immediately texted my best venetian-in-London friend Stefania…and found out she was also watching Francesco! Today, BBC was presenting the fourth and last episode of Francesco’s series: Death (the other ones are Beauty, Sex, and Blood).
Followed a discussion with Stefania, about the slow sinking of our favorite place on earth (but not only the physical sinking, rather its sinking under the huge troupes of tourists).What shall be done? Making tourists pay an entrance fee upon arrival at Marco Polo, Ferrovia or Piazzale Roma? Well then the sentence ‘at what time does Venice close’ (apparently heard for an American tourist’s mouth) would take all its sense. And it would be even sadder. Completely close Venice to tourism? Well, that seems impossible now…that so many Venetian have quit the Island. Nop! As an old Venetian said in the documentary: ‘Purtroppo ormai abbiamo raggiunto il punto di no ritorno’
Francesco’s Venice was produced by the BBC and obviously with a certain English perspective, yet Francesco is a true Venetian….Francesco Da Mosta, according to Stefania, one of the oldest families of Venice. I order the complete season on Amazone. So let see if the other episodes are as good as ‘Death’.
In the meantime, here is a few minutes of Blood.
