A man on a horse on the Riva degli Schiavoni . . .

Who's that man on the horse, dad? - somtimes we happen to hear this question, while on the Riva degli Schiavoni, uttered by a young visitor of Venice. Nine out of ten, parents are unable to answer such a question. And it's not exactly their fault. Most of Venetians, actually, would be unable to tell who the man on the horse is...
This simply because Venice is terribly in love with the glory of its old Repubblica Serenissima so whatever came later on, Venetians tend to label it as 'dopo la caduta della Repubblica' (after the fall of the Republic).

Victor Emmanuel II

The man on the horse, in fact, is a King. King Victor Emmanuel II, The Gentleman King (Re Galantuomo), so they used to call him in the old days, possibly because he had no great impressive qualities and we had to find at least an epiteth for him (so it would eventually be for his son, Humbert I, who was the Re Buono, the Good King).

Nonetheless, one should recall that he was the first King of (unified) Italy, although his number is 'II' since he kept  the old Piedmontese system of king-numbering (logic, apparently, is not our strong quality).
He fought three Wars of Independence against Austria - no wonder, then, if in Austria history books tend to call them The Italian Wars of Rebellion.
The day after his accession to the throne - his father Charles Albert having abdicated and left for Oporto in Portugal after losing the war against Austria - he firmly confronted Fieldmarshal Radetzky stating that Piedmont would have never given up the Statuto Albertino, the recently approved Cosntitution of the country (one of the first examples in Europe) and the old Austrian general had to accept it.

The grave of Victor Emmanuel at the Pantheon
in Rome

He was sexually  extremely active, one would say in our days. He had loads of children out of his marriage and when his wife died he ennobled his lifelong lover, la bella Rosina, creating her Countess of Mirafiori (an estate that her descendents would eventually sell to Giovanni Agnelli Senior, the founder of FIAT).
Rumours had it that he was not a 'real' Savoy (and his lookings, so different from those of his father, seemed to be an evidence of that) but simply the son of a butcher who, while still a baby, had been secretely taken as a substitute for the real son of Charles Albert who allegedly would have died burnt alive during a fire...

Queen Victoria, in her own diary, recalls dancing with him at Buckingham Palace - he was rude, smelt very badly, and had no awareness of anything similar to good manners. And still, the English sovereign attributed to him a certain strange sense of distinguishedness - you could not stumble on him (if one can stumble on kings, of course) without noticing him!

Next time you look at that statue, remember there is a very good book by English historian Denis Mac Smith on the subject: Italy and its Monarchy !

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 . . .

The real story behind the Hilton Hotel

We always see it towering the Giudecca Canal. The cruise-ships passengers have the impression they can possibly touch the top of its roof. It is simply part of our Venetian landscape, something we have always given for granted.

The Molino Stucky was built in the second half of the 19th century by a man who was but partially Venetian - Giovanni Stucky, son of a Swiss émigré who had settled in Venice during Daniele Manin's uprising against the Austrian occupation.

Giovanni had started his career running a mill in the Mainland, near Treviso. His business went well, very well. He added several mills to the first one till he became the first flour producer in the Veneto. And then, animated by a spirit of risk and a vision for the future, he bought an area on the verge of La Giudecca - in those days a very poor suburb of Venice - and built there a 'monster' in the fashion of Northen architecture - the Molino Stucky (Stucky Mill).

The Molino - as it's narrated by Lavinia Cavalletti (a great grand-child of Giovanni) in her book The man who built the Molino Stucky published by LA TOLETTA Edizioni - worked 24 hours a day, 7 days per week and produced such an amount of flour that Giovanni Stucky soon became one of the first producers in Italy and by far the richest man in Venice.

From their little Palazzo near Sant'Eufemia the family moved into the grandiosity of Palazzo Grassi, the famous palace on the Grand Canal, which remained among the family properties till Giancarlo, the son of Giovanni, went bankrupt in the 30s, due to beaureaucratic problems and his aversion to the Fascist Regime.

In the Molino there was also a Pasta Factory and Giovanni expanded his business in shipping (which saved him much of the transportation costs, having the cereal seeds coming straight from Ukraine and Russia through the Adriatic), agriculture (he bought an extensive estate near Portogruaro) and many other activities, becoming one of the great Venetian industrialists together with Vittorio Cini and Giuseppe Volpi di Misurata.

The hidden observatory of Venice

One thing many people - not only tourists, actually, but even born and bread Venetians - ignore is that Venice has got its own astronomical observatory.

When we think of observing stars we normally associate this activity to huge and infinite spaces, with no lights and no people, such as deserts, for instance. The main observatories in the world are not by chance located either on some almost unreachable mountain peaks or in very scarcely inhabited areas in countries with names difficult to pronounce.

The Observatory is in the circle

On the other hand though, it's also true that Venice - the Serenissima - was the capital of a State where inventor of the telescope Galileo Galilei would teach for most of his life. Padova, where the University of the same name was and still is, was in those days part of the so called stato da Terra (Mainland) of the Most Serene Republic of Venice - therefore no wonder if we find out that in the very heart of Venice there is a proper observatory!

The structure is part of the big building just behind the Chiesa della Salute and it is still included in the Diocesan Seminar which now has turned into a Catholic University called Studium Generale Marcianum.
In fact, the observatory was originally meant to serve ordinands of the Catholic Church who would spend some of their nights looking at stars and planets - of course we all know that the Vatican and the Catholic Church have their own department of astronomical studies.

Nowadays, with some luck and knowing the right people (which is the key to everything, in Italy), one can get the permission to be admitted to one of these special astronomic sessions although I personally think that all the fun would easily be spoiled by the light pollution which affects Venice as long with many other Western cities.

I have always thought of this observatory as in some senses representing the main contradictory soul which is the core of the Catholic Church - they tend (and have tended, especially in the past) to deny the bases of Scientific knowledge but at the same time they are the first to study Science and Astronomy.
I've always perceived this as a kind of teaching. Never judge a person (or an Institution) by what he/she/it says - have first a look at what they do !