“Venice – an inexhaustible carnival, a hazy parade of masks and well-hidden secrets. You will not have time to leave the platform of Santa Lucia station, because you will be enveloped by a peculiar smell of molto vecchi (very old) algae which has the effect of witchcraft. Venice is a city you immediately and forever fall in love with. A few years later, I was fortunate enough to visit Venice during the winter and came to find the deserted San Marco square covered in fresh white snow. I remember turning and dancing and capturing on my warm face the slowly descending snowflakes like spiral pirouettes in the dark night sky.
During the summer, Venice looked and tinted completely differently. Endless crowds of tourists rush to saturate their exhausted eyes with mechanical adoration of the gracious beauty of the melancholy treasures of this peninsula. If someone asked about my preference, summer or winter in this Magical Republic, my answer would be: “Venice, any time of the year!”
An excerpt from the book ‘Moon Arch’ by Anna Bondareva.
Venezia, new piano album by Anna Bondareva. Release date 23rd of November.