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“Welcome to the most beautiful bookshop in the world”
It is Luciana who gives us this visit!
If you know what it means to breathe the bohemian air by browsing the stalls along the Seine, for example, you have the perception of what the magic of a specific place is unique in the world, as in this case.
The human owner of the Acqua Alta bookshop, who for some was a marketing strategist and for others a dreamer, is Luigi Frizzo, but the real owners are cats.
I have already talked about Venice cats and about Luciana, but I haven’t told you yet that we met at school: even then she was doing her utmost to bring milk for the kittens that had been abandoned in the school yard we attended together. Also this picture is hers
So THANK YOU Luciana!
And you? Do you have any photos of the Venetian felines? Or cats and books?
I love the attitude of cats and I find that in Venice their living appropriating beauty naturally, ignoring anyone and anything with a seraphic attitude, becomes even more representative.
A sort of estrangement that recalls the moments of reading, the satisfying one, the one you wish it would never end.
The reading that has already captured you at the first sentence and that provokes the curiosity to know what is going to happen on the next page, the reading that literally transports you into the story, into its world, which also becomes yours.
What is the first book you would look for at the Acqua Alta bookshop?
Hi I'm Claudia and this is KCDC.
Luciana also gave me this picture
One of Donna Leon’s detective novels of the “Brunetti” series is called “Aqua Alta”. The cat does not seem to be worried by rising water. Sleeping on the rack of Venice calendars will keep her safe.
But you know I don’t know Donna Leon?! And to say that I love crime films!! I can’t believe I missed it! I will absolutely have to recover! THANKS Olivia!!
True! The cat is not worried in the least: it is sleeping peacefully. Great, right?
I read somewhere that Donna Leon does not want her books to come out in Italy (Italian) because she is afraid of negative, hostile reactions. Her books are rather critical of the Italian bureaucracy, government, and other institutions. Her books are printed in English by Heinemann, London. She has moved from Venice to Switzerland, does not live in Italy any more.
Oh what a pity! Sorry to read this. I believe that, objectively, defects in the Italian bureaucracy and public management cannot be denied. And above all for me freedom of speech and opinion is essential.
It saddens me to think that someone decides to leave their land, I ideally embrace her.
Actually, Donna Leon is not Italian, she is a US American who lived for many years in Venice. She was teaching school or college at some sort of US Army Base, I forgot the exact name of the location.
She started writing her Brunetti detective series about 20 years ago, when living and teaching in Italy. I suppose she taught English, not Italian. She is retired now.
I think, she moved to Switzerland mainly because her first and main publishing house is located in Switzerland: DIOGENES VERLAG. Maybe her editor told her to move to Switzerland. I do not know exactly the reasons why she left Venice.
Nevertheless, her newest book, which came out in 2021, is still located in Venice. I suppose she kept an apartment there. She could not invent the entire action, she needs to have a look at the locations, I suppose.
You could look up her biography in WIKIPEDIA.
I will do it!
Really thank you!
Donna Leon, her story, and her books have now intrigued me a lot!
I believe there is a US base in Vicenza, and in Aviano.
I am very happy when people from other countries feel good in Italy.
An apartment in Venice is a dream! In fact, breathing the atmosphere of the calli can only be an inspiration for writing but also for any other type of artistic expression.
Yes, I believe she mentioned Vicenza or Aviano in one her interviews, I forgot which. It was one of those two Army bases where she taught at a college for US military personnel.
She truly loves Venice and its inhabitants, one can tell when reading her books. She is in love with Venice. It is a lifetime love.
She also loves Italian opera. In fact, one of her crime novels plays at the opera. Some Italian opera star is murdered there, and the police commissar Brunetti has to solve the case. Very interesting!
Furthermore, the author often gives quotes of opera librettos in her books.
Oh great!
More and more interesting!
Opera is something involving, unfortunately I only had the opportunity to attend Aida and Nabucco.
Surely the investigative story set in the theater will be intriguing! Hope to read it soon.
Yes, please let me know what you think of it, when you finish reading the book.
I will do it and it will be a pleasure. Just consider that my list of books to read is miles long! I was lucky and received as a gift many books that are waiting for me now 🙂
What an interesting bookshop this is, and the cat adds to the atmosphere. I love Venice, have been there several times and find new corners and places at every visit. I also love to read Donna Leon’s crime series about Venice.
Oh I’m really happy to read that you have visited Venice and that you liked it.
I always like to use Harrison Ford’s famous phrase in Indiana Jones: “I love Venice!”
And really, as you say, I find cats add atmosphere!
Venice is my favourite city in Italy. Of course, I do not know all of them. I have been to Bolzano, Milano, Florence, Rome and have visited Sicily.
I do not know Trieste at all. I suppose it is beautiful, too.
Eh! Venice is also my absolute favorite because it is unique.
But in general in Italy there are many beautiful places with different characteristics that are worth.
Yes, Trieste is also very beautiful: the first image that comes to mind is Piazza Unità d’Italia because it is on the sea.
Here you can see the live stream
This piazza looks very good. I love water cities in general, if they lie on the banks of a river or on the shore of the sea.
I love water cities too but personally I love the sea more, I can’t explain why, maybe I created a bond with the sea when I was a child.
Where did you live as a child, Claudia?
I was born in Cilavegna, and I really am proud of this 🙂 I use to tell that I am natural born silavgnina 🙂 (silavgnina is a dialect word meaning “from Cilavegna”)
Since Cilavegna is a very small village (now I think it has about 5000 inhabitants) there is no hospital.
I was born at home, on the kitchen table, with the help of a midwife.
I was born in December 1969.
But starting from January 1970 the law no longer allowed giving birth at home, so from that date onwards all the new borns were born in larger neighboring places, where there are hospitals and therefore no longer born in Cilavegna.
How interesting, Claudia, thank you for this information. Born in a small village, on the kitchen table, it sounds like the story of a film.
You were born in 1969, I was born in 1949, so I am 20 years older than you.
I was born in the university clinic of Heidelberg, in Germany. It is a university town, where I did my studies of English and German literature and language, before becoming a teacher.
What a coincidence! Both were born in a year ending with the number nine and exactly twenty years apart.
So you too grew up in the same place where you were born.
Do you know I don’t know Heidelberg?
I tried to find and read something and I saw that university is very important! The description then reports a square surrounded by cafes!
Yes, Heidelberg has a very famous university, one of the oldest in Europe. The town is beautiful, I love it.
I imagine!
Maybe there is also a splendid library, or am I wrong?
Yes, they have a huge and splendid library.
Ever since I saw the images of the Trinity College library and was enchanted by them, I always associate my thoughts with other historical universities as in the case of Heidelberg.
I believe that the three oldest universities in Europe are Prague, Heidelberg, Paris – but I do not know in which chronological order, I would have to look it up.
Oh this is absolutely interesting! For example, I had no idea of Prague.
Paris is one of the places I fell in love with.
And I, on the contrary, do not like it at all. I find Paris dirty and full of snobs.
I love Moscow, Venice, Rio de Janeiro and New Delhi.
For real!?
Maybe I’m used to some Italian cities that are in much worse conditions, like Rome for example, or maybe I haven’t been to Paris for too long and I’m not up to date.
Snob is a bit of a French attitude in general, isn’t it?
Are people different in the south of France where you live than in Paris?
I imagined Rio de Janeiro and New Delhi to be immense and chaotic, but apparently I was wrong!
Both, Rio de Janeiro and New Delhi are big and chaotic, I certainly would not like to live there but I like the atmosphere, the people, and in Rio the beaches.
I have been to Rome only once, then never again. I was not impressed. Also the closeness of the Vatican bothers me, Catholicism in general is not to my taste.
Paris is snobbish for sure, and so are most member of the French middle and upper class. The simple people are often the nicest in France.
Rio’s beaches must be truly spectacular, and certainly people’s attitudes are much warmer than it is elsewhere.
New Delhi perhaps embodies the mysticism I imagine of India.
Rome deserves to be treated and above all kept better in my opinion.
I too have been there only once and only for an afternoon so I had the opportunity to see little.
The Vatican only in passing. Unfortunately you are right: it does not make a good impression.
I like none of Europe’s capital cities, this reflects my contempt for the European Union in general, which I despise.
I have pleasant memories of Rio de Janeiro and New Delhi, besides Moscow, of course, which I love.
In practice, I don’t even know Italy well: I have visited Venice and Milan several times, but only once and for a short time in Florence and Rome.
I have visited Paris several times but it is the only European capital I know.
If we talk about cities, on a cultural and artistic level, in fact Europe, considered as an entity, has not added anything and I believe that this can be a good thing since diversity is heritage.
Well, I have been to the following European capitals: Helsinki in Finland, Oslo in Sweden, Copenhagen in Denmark, Berlin in Germany, Riga in Latvia, Talinn in Estonia, Vilnius in Lithuania, Prague in the Czech Republic, Vienna in Austria, London in GB, Dublin in Ireland, Paris in France, Rome in Italy, Lisbon in Portugal, Athens in Greece.
The only one I found not disturbing was Athens. It was not a great love of mine, but at least I felt not alienated by it.
All the other cities I disliked, more or less strongly. As I already said, I dislike the EU in general and do not want to spend the rest of my life in it.
Wow!
You are absolutely the one who has traveled more than anyone among the people I know.
And I am disheartened to see that only Athens has left a positive impression on you.
I also hope to be able to travel and see the rest of the world that you tell beautiful and of which I can only imagine or see photos.
I have not traveled much in the Russian Federation yet. I only know Saint Petersburg and Moscow. I want to start traveling more here.
A great intent and a fantastic project, I can’t wait to know the stories of your next travels!
For the moment I am staying in Moscow because I have booked a Russian language course. I need to attend this course at school regularly. And in between I need to do my “homework”.
Then you will be ready to travel understanding and speaking the language perfectly, I am sure.
I am working towards it, Claudia.
I find it admirable to always have a goal and always be committed to making wishes come true.
This is my way of life, Claudia. I could live no other way.
I respect you very much for this Olivia.
Thank you, Claudia.
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