Venice, in the sights the umbrellas used by gondoliers to shelter from the sun: “Sciatteria”
It’s hot, the sun beats down on your head and in moments of sluggishness, when there are no tourists to transport, even gondoliers need to keep their heads in the shade. So from the benches, between streets and canals, in the most evocative corners of Venice, colorful umbrellas emerge, some faded green from long exposure to the rays, others phosphorescentstill others with white and blue stripes to remind the beaches of the Jesolo coast.
The proliferation
Removable child, of course. But summer is about to begin, it promises to be long and sultry and there are those who find this disorderly proliferation of parasols unsuitable for a Unesco heritage city. For example Alessandro Tamborini, a Venetian citizen already in the past protagonist of various controversies with wide media coverage. “On the other hand, it is unfortunate to point out that those who should be chiefly responsible for protecting and respecting Venice are the first to damage its prestige and decorum – says Tamborini -. The gondoliers association, which boasts of its historicity for Venice, an untouchable caste also on the fiscal front, is the architect of a new and intolerable degradation to the city already devastated by abusive stalls and hordes of peasant and rude tourists. In fact, even the old Venetians are not used to placing multicolored umbrellas for streets, bridges or fields ».
“Deprecable”
His judgment on this custom is categorical and leaves no doubt. “A deplorable and unprecedented sloppiness imposed on the city without even the forethought of buying from equals – continues Tamborini -, perhaps in a color appropriate to the city and with a coat of arms or the “Leon”: all unequal, ten euro junk ». The president of the gondoliers association, Andrea Balbi, is not upset: «I don’t want any kind of controversy. We already plan to standardize the umbrellas and even the benchesine, the project is there. We are working. And in any case, the umbrellas are open for a couple of hours, the hottest ones ».
“Serve time”
Aldo Reato, former president of the gondoliers, now a municipal member of the Brugnaro list, also minimizes: “The project to standardize umbrellas and benches started as councilor for seven years ago but Venice is not a very simple city, everything takes time. I thank Professor Tamborini for the report, he encourages me to continue in my work. And when the project is completed we will invite him under an umbrella to celebrate the event ».
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June 17, 2022 (change June 17, 2022 | 20:00)
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