The ROSSINI Cinema, our neighbour

Those who know Wellington BooKs are aware that we are in Calle de la Mandola, a very central location in Venice, and they also know that our bookshop is just opposite a very important neighbour - the Rossini Cinema.

The entrance of the Supermarket

This cinema has been recently re-opened after almost 10 years. When the last owners left it (we all know how difficult it is to run a cinema in Venice, and everywhere, unless you are not helped by some public institutions), the Comune di Venezia stepped in and acquired the building, by then in need of serious renovation.

In a joint-venture with FINROSS Ltd. , a private company owned by two businessmen from Mestre (Mainland of Venice), the Comune has restored the place and created three new shops along with the cinema -  a supermarket, a restaurant called prosciutteria (ham specialised restaurant) and a bar called Marchini Movie.

The Marchini Movie at the opening

The Marchini is a very lovely place where you can eat and drink Venetian things in a calm and tranquil environment. The place is comparatively big (for Venice standards) and it has all been furnished with more than just a quick thought at the history of cinema in Venice - at the Marchini Movie (and the name is a good signal) you are surrounded by decorations reproducing film strips and gigantic photographs of famous actors from the 50s and 60s pictured while bathing on the Lido or possibly taking part in the Mostra del Cinema.

Photographs at the Marchini Movie

Diego, the owner of the place, will assist you with friendly words along with Stefano, Michael, Lola and Camilla, a nice staff of people who also run the small bar upstairs, in the proper venue of the cinema.

And, now that we are speaking of it, let's say two words on the cinema itself. As many cinemas (by now disappeared) in Venice, it began its life as a theatre. It was called Teatro San Beneto and was firstly built by the Grimani family.
It used to host the main operas in Venice in the eighteenth century until it was substituted by La Fenice (1792).
In 1854 it hosted La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi immediately after it had had awful reviews at La Fenice . . .