In this episode of Venice Talks, Monica meets Shanti Ganesha, founder of Meracu, a contemporary leather workshop in Venice.

We talk about the first moment leather felt like a language, the leap that led to opening a workshop in 2022, and how living between Venice and India shapes a design identity that feels built into every piece, not added on.

From material to method, we explore how a hide is chosen, what certified vegetable tanned leather changes over time, and why some steps cannot be rushed. We also get into the unseen side of independent craft: refusing serial production, learning to say no, and answering the question every artisan hears sooner or later, “Can you make it exactly the same?”

A conversation about hands, time, and integrity, with Venice as a living backdrop where making still means something.

1. Shanti Ganesha, founder of Meracu, on building a leather workshop in Venice (2022)
2. Between Venice and India: how heritage becomes structure, not decoration
3. Choosing a hide, reading grain and scars, and working with certified vegetable tanned leather
4. The slow step you cannot rush and the signature gesture that reveals the maker
5. Refusing serial production, learning to say no, and answering “Can you make it identical?”
6. Looking ahead: collaborations, apprentices, and a five year vision for the workshop

🎧 Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you tune in.

✨ Credits:

Hosted by Monica Cesarato

Produced by Monica Cesarato, Sentire Media

Guest: Shanti Ganesha from Meracu

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In this episode of Venice Talks, Monica sits down with Bryan Brazeau, Academic Director of the Warwick Venice Centre, to talk about what happens when a university and a city begin to think together.

We explore Venice not as a setting, but as a working intellectual environment, and Warwick not simply as an institution abroad, but as a way of approaching knowledge through place, daily life, and lived experience.

Episode key notes:

1. What Warwick and Venice genuinely have in common beneath the surface
2. Why Venice works as a living classroom rather than a historical backdrop
3. How place shapes academic thinking, research, and teaching
4. The experience of studying and teaching with the city, not around it
5. The dual identity of the Warwick Venice Centre, both local and international
6. What students carry with them after living and learning in Venice
7. A shared love for Venetian cuisine, and how food becomes another way of understanding the city
8. Why eating, cooking, and sharing meals are part of truly living Venice
9. The value of intellectual distance, and why studying elsewhere matters
10. Looking ahead: the future of the Warwick Venice Centre and place-based education

A conversation about learning, location, and culture, where ideas, flavours, and stories move slowly and stay longer.

🎧 Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you tune in.

✨ Credits:

Hosted by Monica Cesarato

Produced by Monica Cesarato, Sentire Media

Guest: Prof. Bryan Brazeau from Warwick Venice Centre

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In this episode of Venice Talks, Monica speaks with Sergio Vidal of Atelier Martina Vidal Venezia, a family atelier that has safeguarded the art of Burano lace for four generations.

They talk about patience as a creative act, about heritage that does not live in museums but in the hands of artisans, and about the quiet strength required to carry an ancient craft into the present without losing its soul.

This conversation moves through memory, responsibility, beauty, and the fragile power of thread that, stitch after stitch, still tells the story of Venice.

Listen slowly. Venice is speaking softly.

1. The Vidal family history and the roots of their lace tradition in Burano
2. What it truly means to preserve a craft that cannot be rushed
3. The balance between tradition and innovation inside the atelier
4. The role of artisans in keeping Venice culturally alive
5. Why Burano lace is far more than decoration or souvenir
6. The human and emotional side of working with a centuries old technique
7. The future of lace and why younger generations should care

If you love Venice, craftsmanship, and the stories behind the hands that make beauty possible, this episode is for you.

🎧 Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you tune in.

✨ Credits:

Hosted by Monica Cesarato

Produced by Monica Cesarato, Sentire Media

Guest: Sergio Vidal from Atelier Martina Vidal

If you love hearing the voices of Venice, subscribe and leave a review — it helps others discover these stories too.

💌 Want to share your own Venice?

Send me a short audio clip (1 minutes max) telling me what you loved most about the city — at [email protected].

Beyond the Facade: Not Just Churches

In this episode of Venice Talks, Monica Cesarato sits down with Monica Gambarotto for an informal conversation that drifts away from the usual itineraries and into a quieter Venice.

Together, they explore five churches that rarely make it onto must see lists, yet reveal something essential about the city. These are not monuments to rush through, but places shaped by neighborhoods, communities, silence, and time.

This is a walk through Venice when the crowds thin out, where churches are not just places of worship, but mirrors of everyday life, forgotten histories, and layered identities.

Listen slowly. Venice is speaking softly.

1. Why Venetian churches still matter beyond faith and tourism
2. What it means to look past façades and guidebook highlights
3. Madonna dell’Orto and the idea of the neighborhood church
4. Tintoretto, daily life, and sacred spaces that feel lived in
5. San Sebastiano and the power of a single artistic voice
6. How Veronese transforms a church into a continuous visual story
7. San Francesco della Vigna as a place of balance, silence, and authority
8. Architecture as a language of power and restraint
9. San Pietro di Castello, once Venice’s cathedral, now far from the spotlight
10. Geography, distance, and the feeling of being outside the usual Venice
11. San Giorgio dei Greci and Venice as a crossroads of cultures
12. What lesser known churches reveal about identity, imperfection, and belonging
13. How slowing down changes the way we see Venice

🎧 Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you tune in.

✨ Credits:

Hosted by Monica Cesarato

Produced by Monica Cesarato, Sentire Media

Guest: Monica Gambarotto

If you love hearing the voices of Venice, subscribe and leave a review — it helps others discover these stories too.

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In this episode of Venice Talks, Monica Cesarato sits down with Matteo Seguso, Murano glass engraver, to explore the world of engraved glass, craftsmanship, and time.

The conversation moves inside the workshop and the gesture. We talk about engraving as a language, about the discipline of the hand, and about what it means to carry a centuries-old craft into the present without turning it into nostalgia.

From Murano to the international stage, this episode reflects on tradition as a living practice, on the responsibility of making by hand today, and on why glass, when worked slowly, still has stories to tell.

1. Murano glass engraving and its role today
2. Working glass by hand: time, discipline, and precision
3. Tradition as a living, evolving practice
4. Craftsmanship versus mass production
5. The relationship between material, gesture, and identity
6. Teaching and passing on knowledge
7. The future of handmade work in a fast, digital world

🎧 Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you tune in.

✨ Credits:

Hosted by Monica Cesarato

Produced by Monica Cesarato, Sentire Media

Guest: Matteo Seguso

If you love hearing the voices of Venice, subscribe and leave a review — it helps others discover these stories too.

💌 Want to share your own Venice?

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Venice never stands still. It simply changes rhythm.

In this episode of Venice Talks, Monica Cesarato sits down with Romena Brugnerotto to walk through Venice’s 2026 cultural calendar, one month at a time. From the first signs of Carnival to the quiet glow of Christmas, this conversation follows the city as it moves through exhibitions, festivals, celebrations, and shared rituals.

No lists to memorise, no pressure to see everything. Just a clear, human overview of what will shape Venice in 2026, told through events that matter and moments that define the year.

Whether you live in Venice, return to it often, or are planning your next visit, this episode is an invitation to listen closely and choose your own season.

1. How Carnival opens the cultural year in Venice
2. The most anticipated exhibitions and art spaces of 2026
3. The Biennale across art, dance, and music
4. Summer concerts in Piazza San Marco
5. Cinema, craftsmanship, and creativity in early autumn
6. Fashion, glass, and design in the quieter months
7. Christmas in Venice and the city’s winter mood

🎧 Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you tune in.

✨ Credits:

Hosted by Monica Cesarato

Produced by Monica Cesarato, Sentire Media

Guest: Romena Brugnerotto from RomInVenice

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Venice is a museum without walls — but behind her doors, each palace tells a different story.

In this episode, Monica takes you through the city’s most fascinating museums — places where beauty, history, and imagination still breathe.

In this episode:

• 🕯️ Ca’ Rezzonico — the Museum of Eighteenth-Century Venice, where frescoes, chandeliers, and candlelight revive the world of Tiepolo and Longhi.
• 🎭 Casa di Carlo Goldoni — the intimate home of Venice’s great playwright, filled with laughter, marionettes, and the rhythm of daily life.
• 💎 Palazzo Mocenigo — a sensual journey through silk, scent, and Venetian elegance.
• 🌙 Palazzo Fortuny — Mariano Fortuny’s poetic atelier, where fabric, light, and invention meet.
• 🏛️ Palazzo Grimani — a Renaissance collector’s dream, filled with myth, marble, and classical echoes.
• 📚 Fondazione Querini Stampalia — art, architecture, and reflection in perfect balance, with Carlo Scarpa’s serene touch.
• 🦴 Museo di Storia Naturale — fossils, skeletons, and the living science behind the lagoon.
• 🎨 Ca’ Pesaro — a Baroque palace reborn as a home for modern art, where Klimt, Rodin, and Boccioni share space with the shimmer of the Grand Canal.
• 🪞 Palazzo Cini Gallery — an elegant Dorsoduro haven of Renaissance treasures, from Botticelli to Piero di Cosimo.
• 🧵 Museo del Merletto, Burano — a hymn to patience and grace, where women turned thread and air into lace.

💬 A gentle walk through palaces, studios, and stories — discovering the many ways Venice keeps her art alive.

🎧 Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you tune in.

✨ Credits:

Hosted by Monica Cesarato

Produced by Monica Cesarato, Sentire Media

If you love hearing the voices of Venice, subscribe and leave a review — it helps others discover these stories too.

💌 Want to share your own Venice?

Send me a short audio clip (2 minutes max) telling me what you loved most about the city — at [email protected].

In this episode of Venice Talks, Monica sits down with Marco Cammozzo, founder of MC Leather, to explore the fascinating world of Venetian leather craftsmanship — where ancient techniques meet sustainable innovation.

From the scent of tanned hides to the rhythm of skilled hands, Marco shares how his work blends tradition, creativity, and environmental awareness in a modern Venice that still beats with artisan spirit.

✨ Key points from the conversation:

• The story of MC Leather and its deep Venetian roots
• How craftsmanship and sustainability can truly coexist
• The transformation of raw material into timeless design
• The role of artisans in preserving Venice’s identity

✨ Credits:

Hosted by Monica Cesarato

Produced by Monica Cesarato, Sentire Media

Guest: Marco Cammozzo from Mc Leather

🎧 Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

If you love hearing the voices of Venice, subscribe and leave a review — it helps others discover these stories too.

💌 Want to share your own Venice?

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Venice wears many masks — some glittering, some dark.

In this episode of Venice Talks, Monica sits down with David Hewson, Philip Gwynne Jones, and Gregory Dowling, the brilliant minds behind the Venice Noir Festival. Together, they unravel how mystery, crime, and the haunting beauty of the lagoon intertwine to create a festival unlike any other.

From the secret alleys that whisper of centuries past to the logistical labyrinth of organising a noir event in the world’s most theatrical city, this conversation dives deep into the art of storytelling, the magic of place, and the pulse of Venice itself — elegant, elusive, eternal.

• The origins and vision behind the Venice Noir Festival
• Why Venice is the ultimate noir city — beauty and danger intertwined
• How three celebrated authors became cultural curators
• The delicate balance between tourism, art, and authenticity
• Writing Venice: how the city itself becomes a living, breathing character
• The challenges of organising a festival on the water (and under the fog!)
• The future of noir in Venice — and beyond the lagoon

✨ Credits:

Hosted by Monica Cesarato

Produced by Monica Cesarato, Sentire Media

Guest: David Hewson, Gregory Dowling and Philip Gwynne Jones

Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or your favourite platform — and do not forget to follow, rate, and share to keep the stories of Venice alive in every shadow and reflection.

🎙️ Episode Description

In this episode of Venice Talks, Monica welcomes Giada Valenti, the Venetian-born singer whose career has brought the spirit of Venice and the language of love to audiences around the world. Known for her romantic voice and elegant stage presence, Giada shares the journey that took her from the quiet canals of her childhood to the bright lights of international stages.

Together they talk about Venice as an endless source of inspiration, the universal power of music to connect people, and why romance continues to matter today more than ever.

This is a heartfelt conversation about music, passion, and carrying Venice in your soul no matter where life takes you.

✨ Show Key Notes

• Growing up in Venice and discovering music
• Giada’s path from the lagoon to international stages
• Love and romance as the heart of her artistry
• How audiences in America and Europe listen differently
• The importance of storytelling through music
• Venice as muse and constant companion
• Future dreams and projects inspired by her hometown

✨ Credits:

Hosted by Monica Cesarato

Produced by Monica Cesarato, Sentire Media

Guest: Giada Valenti, singer

📌 Listen & Subscribe

Do not miss this intimate and inspiring episode with Giada Valenti.

👉 Listen now on your favorite podcast platform, and remember to subscribe, rate, and share Venice Talks so you will always be part of the stories that keep Venice alive.