A swing made in larch taken from a piece of Venice

In 1955, Katharine Hepburn left Venice with a red goblet made in blown glass in her suitcase. Like many tourists before her, and just as many after, she couldn’t resist taking a souvenir made in the material for which Venice is known all around the world. In 2018 goblets like the one bought by Katharine are still very much in fashion, but since, in the meantime, we have become refined readers with at least one master degree in our curriculum, if we are going to choose a souvenir, it should be substantial.

So, not a simple Venetian blown glass item, but a more international “Pieces of Venice”. A name which may lead a foreigner to imagine a place where they sell pieces of Venice, and this is, in fact, exactly what it is. The name refers to a project created by Luciano Marson together with Karin Friebel and Luca Cerchier, which legally does what certain tourists are fined for in Sardinia, robbed and plundered of its sand: it literally sells pieces of Venice. Since stones from the Rialto bridge are too heavy, the choice fell on the consumed larch planks of the typical water-bus quays. Transformed into objects for children and adults which are tied to the ancient traditions and habits of the Lagoon. With references to the one depicted in the L'altalena di Pulcinella fresco by Giandomenico Tiepolo, the new Dorsoduro 3136 swing is in turn tied to a well-known venetian artistic masterpiece, with the name containing the address of its location, the Ca’ Rezzonico museum. A true “Piece of Venice”, even if, while riding it, one’s imagination could transform it into the Rococo swing in the famous painting by Jean-Honoré Fragonard. But considering that the real battle for the survival of Venice is the one against mass tourism, perhaps a piece of larch plank marked by the passage of a thousand trolley cases would be a more suitable souvenir, and, as it happens, “Pieces of Venice” can provide you with one exactly like that.