Francesca Callegari

As a former Ca' Foscari graduate in Latin Philosophy and Historical Linguistics, I started my career as a Logistics Manager for a local classical music ensemble. For three years I oversaw the development of the Museum of the Music here in Venice, a wide project linked to a network of local museums and institutions. Over the years, I have witnessed a trend as far as Venetian tourism is concerned: in general, tourists have become –and to some extent understandably–more and more greedy, often uninformed and detached from any real knowledge of the city and its dynamics, limited by ever-the-same sightseeing tours and amazed by the fact that Venice still has a resident population.

New technologies – Internet, in particular – have bridged old traditional manufacturing activities into the new millennium, providing them with a new visibility through the eyes of the World Wide Web.

Venice is not an amusement park; it is a lot more than just gondolas, St. Mark’s Square and masks: Venice is unique as much as its art and history spread over every corner of its historical center, its many surrounding islands and mainland.

VivoVenetia is an exciting forward-looking project based on a new operating reality: it is a project that aims to give Venice a new shine, void of preconceptions. It wishes to promote a sustainable and more responsible way of welcoming tourists through a number of experiences that contribute to closing the gap between locals and their temporary guests. VivoVenetia is giving me the opportunity to experience this newly perceived reality, not only as a resident and spectator but also as an active contributor to this new vision of one of the oldest and most beautiful cities in the world.

My duties include the creation of a network among local artisans (craftsmen and women)connected to local creative and entrepreneurial activities, with the purpose of putting them in contact with each other and promotingcommunication with the local institutions, in order to foster their uniqueness and authenticity. VivoVenetia’s team is highly challenging in this regard: a bunch of young, motivated and proactive peers who work in a stimulating and cooperative way. In my opinion, VivoVenetia is not just a project, but a philosophy shared by all the players that are part of the network;it is a family that I feel I belong to and who is being embraced by more and more people each and every day.