Italian
Even Goldoni describes the Terraglio with words of admiration “… And now even Mestre has become a small Versailles.”
The beginning from the canal of Marghera, the turn all over the country and then it runs along the Terragio up to Treviso, you won’t find it anywhere else in Italy and, outside of Italy, a vacation so long, so united, so populated like this one. There are houses that look like galleries, there are palaces of cities, of sovereigns…. (From Carlo Goldoni’s “The Lively Maid” set in a villa in Mestre).
Desire for a holiday
The frenzy for the holidays, the frantic preparations, the desire to make a good impression, the necessary purchases to receive guests in the most appropriate way, indebting oneself to not be outdone by other vacationers: all this is described in the “Holiday Trilogy”, the comedies by Carlo Goldoni in which the Venetian author highlights the vacuity and passion of the 18th-century society, with the aim of gently mocking the typical countryside vacations of the wealthy classes of Venice at the time.
Chests that empty themselves to be filled with new purchases necessary not to disappear in front of the neighbors, women who want to delay their departure in anticipation of new fashionable clothes, girls who have silk overcoats with hoods sewn to protect themselves from travel dust. On these “obsessions” about the collective agitation of young people for a departure that promises encounters and fun, loom the purse strings of the old fathers who see all this as a pointless waste.
The theme that emerges from the three Goldonian comedies is the unrestrained desire to appear, even wealthier and more high-class than one actually is, obsessed with others’ judgment and the image that one must project and maintain in order to be respected. People are willing to get into debt and save money throughout the year just to not give up on a lavish and limitless vacation. A theme that is still relevant today due to the attention to our own image and the concern about what other people think of us.
The Villas of Delight
Holiday is synonymous with vacation in the place where one spends a period of the year, especially in the Villas of delight. The term “villeggiare” began in Venice during the Renaissance to define the residence at country villas during certain periods such as summer, recalling the practice of “otium” in the countryside villas during ancient Rome. The Villa of delight was an architectural genre particularly widespread among the nobility starting from the 16th century. It was a suburban residence, with a large garden, located away from the city, where nobles would retreat during holiday periods to enjoy a state of happy and carefree leisure. The Venetian Villas are a unique architectural, cultural, and landscape element in the world.
In this interview, Luciana Ermini, journalist and historian, tells us about the noble summer holidays in the countryside depicted by Goldoni.
