How do you envision Venice in the future? Gilda Zaffagnini, entrepreneur

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Revitalizing tourism means revitalizing the city, and culture is fundamental to #RiscrivereilFuturo of Venice. Gilda Zaffagnini, Nexa Eventi

The reflection on Venice’s rebirth continues, curated by Venezia da Vivere with Associazione Piazza San Marco. For #RiscrivereilFuturo we are pleased to present Gilda Zaffagnini, international event entrepreneur, who after living in various cities around the world has chosen Venice for life.

VDV: How do you envision Venice in the future?

I envision and hope for a Venice strong in its intrinsic values—beauty, history, culture, wealth—and a city where the inhabitants (those born there and those who have chosen to live there) are the protagonists of a rebirth in terms of work activities, creativity, and planning.

I envision the flourishing of activities useful to everyday life (for example, work related to “know-how” and daily needs) and, at the same time, activities aligned with the vocation Venice has always had, that of attracting the world. At the center of Venice’s future should be people, with the dedication and courage to bring back to light a living city that is also the foundation of a refined, tailored, and sustainable tourism offering.

VDV: What can politics and citizens do for Venice’s rebirth?

The pride of belonging to the most beautiful city in the world must be a lever for citizens to watch over Venice with respect and love. Enhancing it means embracing what the city already is—an immense treasure—and undertaking one’s activities for the common good. A functional dialogue between citizens and politics, the commitment of citizens to engage political forces, can lead to useful work to transform the context. The path should be aimed at defining a new identification of the city first and foremost—What is Venice? What has changed? How do I perceive it? What do I want for Venice?—and the consequent enhancement of a new Venetian offering to the world.

VDV: Propose a specific idea in one of these areas: environment, housing, work, security, tourism, culture.

As an organizer of events between culture and luxury, many of which are attended by people who bring prestige, elegance, and value to Venice, I propose a “cultural” commitment that goes beyond elite tourism. At the foundation of every transformation I see culture, as a sense of identity, living dialogue, and qualifying activity.

For me, revitalizing tourism means revitalizing the city, restoring its vital energy and ability to create functional relationships in a scenario that is first local, then national, and finally international. If our events are beautiful, useful, and temporary projects, I think of useful and permanent “events,” those that create stable opportunities.

I propose Venice as the seat of a major international institution, for example a scientific research center that could fit into the ongoing project by the European Union to allocate resources for pharmacological studies. In this way, the center would fit into a current timeframe, while becoming, at the same time, an innovative hub for new drug research. The center could be housed in one of Venice’s large buildings (several structures have become hotels in recent years) and the building could be converted with renovations and equipment funded by the European Union.

Scholars from various countries would come to work in the city and this would create space for housing. The presence of an important specialized center could serve as a link with other university and excellence centers that surround us (Padua, Trieste, Legnaro), it would also fit into the Venetian university tradition of industrial chemistry with the difference that it would be fine chemistry and, therefore, compatible with environmental protection.

This project (already championed by Luigi Chieco Bianchi, Professor Emeritus of Oncology at the University of Padua, with a letter to Corriere del Veneto) could set in motion virtuous mechanisms, both social and economic, with an advantageous impact on the metropolitan city and a series of relationships both among city networks, therefore internal, and with international connections, therefore external.

A major promotional campaign should be launched on this idea, it should be embraced by all the city’s cultural institutions, trade associations, the Municipality, the Metropolitan Area and the Region, our parliamentary representatives should become its advocates with the Government and Parliament.

Gilda Zaffagnini, Event & Travel Designer, Nexa s.a.s.