Acqua alta is a big nuisance

Acqua alta is a big nuisance

The title may seem a little flippant. And it’s true that I live on the top floor of an apartment block in S. Elena, a part of the city that has never been flooded, not even in 1966, so I’m certainly not affected in any direct way; for this latest flood I even got two...
Hitchcock on the Riva

Hitchcock on the Riva

There seems to be little sympathy for the South-American tourist who was robbed in broad daylight by a Venetian resident, as reported in La Nuova Venezia: The sequence of events was caught with great clarity by a professional photographer, Maurizio Torresan, and...
Not a great start…

Not a great start…

So the great experiment of “numero chiuso” (limited access) was put into practice for the opening of Venice’s Carnival yesterday evening. It’s what people have been demanding for years now – and not just for Carnival. It doesn’t...

Orientalism lives… Update on the Osteria da Luca.

It turns out that the manager of the restaurant who overcharged the Japanese students is an Egyptian, Kazi Babar. Although he runs the restaurant the premises are sub-let to him by a Chinese, Zeng Chegyi, who, in turn, is renting it from a Venetian, Professor Franco...
Lasciate ogni speranza…

Lasciate ogni speranza…

The case of the Venetian restaurant that charged a group of Japanese students 1143 euros for four steaks, a plate of mixed-grill fish, two glasses of wine and a bottle of mineral water has made it onto the front page of most of the world’s newspapers. A glance at...

Interview with Kathy Gonzalez

Very grateful to Kathy Gonzalez, Casanova scholar and lover of Venice, for posting this interview with me on her website, where I talk about various aspects of Venetian life, both real and imagined… Venice, My Muse: An Interview with...