Barry Frangipane's Blog, page 3

The Artist Within

When I first met Gloria in the 1990s, she was wiping tuna fish off her hands while Simone sliced the prosciutto paper thin for my wife. Simone and Gloria had a delicatessen just a few steps from La Chiesa di Santa Maria dei Miracoli in Venice.

They were proud of their quality products, and of the pioneering work they and other Venetians were doing in a new movement called “Slow Food Made in Italy”. The Slow Food movement started in Piemonte, and in 1990 the congress in Venice created The Slow Foo...

The Bears of Paris

I’m not sure exactly when or where I saw the first bear on the streets of Paris. Certainly it was in the Les Gobelins neighborhood, and most likely at a café. In fact, there were two of them sitting at a table complete with coffee cups, visible through the large windows facing the sidewalk. It may have been 2019.

Shortly thereafter, these stuffed animals roughly four feet tall started to appear everywhere in the 13th arrondisement. The Harley bear with a leather jacket on a motorcycle, the ophtha...

Moses Comes to Venice

The first time I heard the sirens was on October 31, 2004. We had just moved into a ground floor apartment in the Santa Croce neighborhood of Venice, at 143 cm above sea level. It was a windy, rainy day and the sirens were warning us that high water would be arriving within a few hours. The forecast had predicted the water would rise to 130 cm, 13 cm (five inches) below the level where it would enter our apartment. But the science of predicting the water level is based upon rainfall, wind speed,...

Welcome to My Newsletter

Subscribe now

So, what’s this?

Many of you who have read my first book The Venice Experiment have told me that you want more. Here is what you can expect on a weekly basis:

1. We’ll talk about Venice

Learn about what goes on behind the scenes. We’ll have guests with intimate knowledge of the city, and go behind the facts and explore the emotions of Venice.

2. Ahhhh, Paris

And then there is Paris. We’ll discuss my new book on Paris (when my editor and publisher tell me I am allowed to do so). Let’s go past the touristy spots and talk about the lesser known locations, primarily on the left bank. And dive deeper into the 45 years covered in the book (can I say that yet?)

3. Occasional Outings

Sure, we all love Paris and Venice. But on occasion, we’ll have a few excursions like the Èze music festival in the south of France, or the witch town of Triora in Italy.

4. So, hit the “subscribe” button

Really. Go ahead. Click on the “Subscribe” button. And we’ll talk again soon.

Thanks for reading Barry Frangipane's Newsletter! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.