The writings on this site are split into several categories, but they’re all listed here together, chronologically, newest first.
The categories are Articles, Blog posts, Venetian Stories (newsletters), Lists and translations from Curiosità Veneziane.
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Nightingale Muzak
Songbirds were an important part of the shopping experience in Venice in the 1600s and 1700s.
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Francesco Pona — The Plague in Verona, 1630
A doctor’s eyewitness account of the plague epidemic in Verona in 1630, which killed some 60% of the population of the city.
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Farewell to Twitter and Facebook
The old social media sites are by now useless for sharing information, so I will post no further articles there. Posts will still be shared on Mastodon and Bluesky.
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404 Doctor Not Found
The iconic cloaked and beaked plague doctor is often associated with Venice, but there is no documentation that the figure ever existed in Venice.
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Tombs of the doges
Where were the doges of Venice buried? A little bit all over, in churches and monasteries in Venice and beyond.
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Slavery in Venice
Slavery existed in Venice throughout the history of the republic, and the Venetian profited from the lucrative trade.
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Ink and Rat Poison
Is there a connection between writing ink and rat poison, as some images from the 1700s seem to indicate?
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The Regata Storica and Politics
The annual Regata Storica is normally devoid of political messages, but not this year.
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Botter — barrel-maker — Zompini — Arti #57
“Botter” (barrel-maker) from “Arti che vanno per via” (1785) by Gaetano Zompini, translated by René Seindal.
