“Militaire et mari” sings the tenor in the Figlia del Reggimento (Regiment’s Daughter) holding the scene with more “C” sharps than the history of music remembers. And, for years now, it is in that combination of roles that I find myself each time I pick up this Almanac, (Venezialtrove-almanac of the venetian presence in the world).

And I must say, it gives me great pleasure. In fact, every year I come across unexpected notes and facts that lead me down intellectual paths or on merchant meanderings that are og great interest and elegance. Having Gentili explain how much Giovanni Bellini’s Saint Francis has to say; re-tracing the Anglo-French saga of the families and illegitimate children that resulted in the magnificent Wallace Collection; discovering the typically American world (of bankers and coal, steel or grain industrialist) that gradually laid the foundations of the Frick Collection; understanding the changing rapport between the production and excange of works of art over the years; getting lost, in the true meaning of the word, in the maze of the many Venetian families, their artistic tastes, their periods of splendour or decline; being filled with curiosity about how many powerful people and kings, from Philippe II to Emperor Rudolph, from Louis Philippe to Eduard VII, have influenced and exploited the flow of artefacts produced in Venice. As a reader, I must admit that this is really very enjoayable.

Wandering around and reflecting on these many curiosities, I find evidence of the verve with wich Venice was and is still “experienced” today in many parts of the world. The city radiated art production and trade, decoming a reference point and the primary source of a massive, unique flow of colture. Colture, I repeat – because it is striking how that flow was no limited solely to the artefacts themselves, but became a rediscovery of and participation in Greek myths, Christian traditions Italian life styles, presented with renewed aesthetics and interpretation and steeped in mysterious allusions. It was a complex world- influenced by the to-ing of thousands of works of art, whether bought simply because pleasing to the eye or as valuable status symbols.

Venice should still be aware of this role today. It shold not feel impoverished by the almost predatory diaspora of its artistic heritage, as it should not feel impoverished by the generic, mass tourism it is subjected to. The city should still be pround of the fact that the very roots of this diaspora and its tourism lie in the wealth of a cultural season that is unequalled worldwide.