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Varano Sand
Sculpture Company LLC
aka The Sultans 0f Sand Worldwide ~presents~ Jesolo International Sand Sculpture Festival 2012 "Venice" |
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![]() Bill Dow- USA
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![]() Casanova at Piombi
The escape from the “piombi”
(the Leads) prison is the most famous adventure of Casanova (Venice 1725
– Dux 1798) and also the most significant of the conflictual, but often ambiguous
relation between Giacomo and the Venetian power.
Casanova was captured by the State Inquisitors and brought to the Piombi (the prisons in the loft of the Ducal Palace) on 26 July 1755. His arrest was not really because of his libertine life style, the possession of prohibited books, the practice of magical arts or because, as the Venetians said, Giacomo was a real “zoetta da merlotti” (a trap for the unwary), but because of the “pernicious” influence he exercised on members of important patrician families and suspected espionage activity. After months of suffering and once the illusion of a rapid liberation thanks to his powerful protectors passed, Casanova seriously started to think about escaping. After alternating events, together with another prisoner (the Somascan friar Marino Balbi), he managed to perforate the lead covering of the Ducal Palace roof. During the night between 31 October and 1 November 1756, Giacomo and his accomplice went on the roof and then swarmed themselves down again inside the palace from a garret window and from there, thanks to a series of fortunate coincidences, reached the exit and gained freedom. Casanova described his experience in Histoire de ma fuite des prisons de la Républic de Venise qu’on appelle les Plombs (Story of my escape from the prisons of the Republic of Venice called Piombi), a fascinating and innovative work from a literary point of view, but from the historical one, for many scholars, it does not correspond to the truth and is reticent. Once obtained the pardon in 1774, after 18 years Giacomo returned to Venice and almost as “retaliation“ offer himself as “informant” to those same Inquisitors that had him arrested and forced his long exile. However you judge him, Giacomo Casanova was a clever creator of his own personal myth, a figure that has become part of collective imagination; his life (real and imaginary) gave way to literary masterpieces such as The return of Casanova, by Arthur Schnitzler of 1918 or the The recitation of Bolzano, by Sándor Márai of 1940, and famous films, among which the extraordinary |
1.) Susanne Ruseler - Holland the Doge & The Lion of Venice 2.) Ilya Filamontsev - Russia Invasion of the Goths 3.) Etual Ojeda -Spain The relics of St Mark |
4.) Karen Fralich
- Canada The Pope, Barbarossa & the Doge 5.) Brad Goll - USA Arsenale & Buccintoro 6.) John Gowdy - Italy Doctor |
7.) John Gowdy - Italy Merchants 8.) John Gowdy - Italy Pprinters 9.) Sikke-Bart Freiling - Netherlands Santa Maria Salute church |
10.) Bill Dow -
USA Casanova at Piombi 11.) Leonardo Ugolini - Italy St Marks Basilica 12.)Michela Ciapinni - Italy Rialto Bridge |
13.) David Ducharme
- Canada The plague 14.) Andrius Petkus - Lithuania Old Carnivale Damon Farmer - USA Scenic paintings |
Arena Ojeda - Spain Christine Nichol - Canada | Hazel Nichol Ducharme
- Canada Laura Gowdy Cimador
- Italy |
Lisa Longo Giorgia Lovato |
Davide Ercocano Silvia Trevisan |
Giulia Girardi Beatrice Mattiuzzo |
Elisabetiva Botter Alessio Moggian |
Giada Frattina Noemi Cini |
Directed by: Rich
Varano - USA |
Assistant to the Director: Elena Lana |