Why Campo Santa Margherita? Interview: Ezio Micelli

On Saturday 15th of May I interwied Ezio Micelli, the new town-planning assessor of Venice. During this meeting I had the chance to get to know my city better. Since I’ve moved to Milan, I’m spending not so much time in Venice and I’m losing all its workings and logics; and I’m happy that Mr Micelli helped me to focus and understand them.

As we know Campo Santa Margherita has got an huge social and funtional role. But why it? Well, Mr Micelli explained me that the new Venetian centre is Piazzale Roma, no more the old town. Almost everybody, who has been to Venice, knows it: it’s the big square full of parking near the railway station, it’s one of the few places where there’re cars in the city: P.le Roma is the most important coupling to reach the terraferma through the Ponte della Libertà.

 

 

I didn’t expect that a big park could be the city centre; however, that’s it! Lately, it has been developed a lot. First, many headquarters of public institutions have moved to round this area; second, the Calatrava’s Bridge (the 4th on the Canal Grande) has been built and it links P.le Roma to Santa Lucia Railway Station. The bridge has got a very important funtion because, before its building, to reach P.le Roma from the railway people had to lengthen the route and nowadays the cover to go through is shorter.

Third, another mean of transport has been built: the People Mover. It’s a train, it goes from P.le Roma to Tronchetto and vice versa. Like the Calatrava bridge, it also shorten the distances so that now it takes just 3 minutes.

Thanks to this changes, P.le Roma has been transformed from a peripheral area to the new centre. It’s interesting to focus our attention to this aspect: Venice is becoming more and more touristic and its centre has moved from the centre that attracts tourists (Piazza San Marco) to a very important coupling. P.le Roma isn’t just the link to the terraferma, it’s the link to the world, in the way the city lives in its reality.

However, P.le Roma couldn’t be a social area where people meet. So, where do the people go? To the closer area: Campo Santa Margherita that it’s just 5 minute walks far.

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Maggio Veneziano: Vetrina del Volontariato e della Solidarietà(1)

During May, the municipality of Venice (Direzione Politiche Sociali Partecipative e dell’Accoglienza) organizes a lot of initiatives in the campi and calli.

Also in this occasion, Campo Santa Margherita shows its social rule; on Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th it gives hospitality to many Voluntary Associations. They are organized in stalls selling every kind of things and the earnings will be used to social aims.

Here below the program:

XVI FIERA DELL’ASSOCIAZIONISMO E DEL VOLONTARIATO DI VENEZIA Campo S. Margherita

Sabato 8 e Domenica 9 Maggio ore 12-20 e 10-20

Mercatino delle Associazioni, favole e teatro dei burattini, animazione e giochi in campo.

Sabato 8: ore 12 Apertura Mercatino delle Associazioni; ore 16. A.A.A. Famiglie solidali cercansi; ore 16.30 favole animate per bambini e laboratorio “Giochiamo agli artigiani”.

Domenica 9: ore 10 Apertura Mercatino; ore 12 “La ricchezza delle differenze, uno Spritz per dialogare”; ore 16 spettacolo di burattini.

Vetrina del Volontariato e della Solidarietà

http://www.comune.venezia.it/flex/cm/pages/ServeBLOB.php/L/IT/IDPagina/36069

locandina maggio veneziano

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Mayor, what do you think about it?

Through my blog you’re discovering how Campo Santa Margherita is used and what it means for the Venetians. During the last weekend, I’ve had the chance to interview the new Venetian Mayor, Giorgio Orsoni.

“As everybody knows, Campo Santa Margherita has got a very important social function, young people always meet there on Saturday, but there are many law and order problems“, said Orsoni. As we already know, the campo is a meeting point but when I’ve talked about it, I haven’t focused on all the conseguences of this tradition. People meet there, chat while they’re drinking something but they bluster and soil. For those who live there, it’s a big problem, because kids keep making noise till late in the night; moreover, they maybe get drunk, feel bad and leave the area dirty.

The Mayor is working on it in order to find a solution, to conciliate citizens to the “fun stuff”. Suggestions?

http://giorgioorsoni.com/

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“Do the shopping” centre

As I’ve already said, Campo Santa Margherita rapresents the real city. No turism, just Venice, its citizens and their habits that could be strange for the the rest of the world.  I’m going to describe them in my blog, but now I focus on the way Venetians do the shopping.  The particular aspect is where: in Venice there are almost only food shops, very few supermarkets and a big fish, fruit and vegateble market in Rialto; there isn’t a big shopping centre where people can go and do the whole shopping. Moreover, because of the city structure and the bridges, people use to carry the shopping in a trolley.

And in this contest Campo Santa Margherita has got a big role, funcional, economic ana social: there are a fish, fruit and vegetable stalls, a baker, a butcher, a shop selling everything except food, a newsstand. The square becomes a trade centre where people can find everything they need. Therefore, it’s usefull for the citizens, especially for those who live nearby, and for the area economy; infact, people go and do the shopping, have a seat for a coffee in a bar, eat an ice-cream and have a chat with friends or someone who meets there. So, the Campo joins the dimension of a big market with the social one.

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No Brunetta Days

The last weekend of March, Venetians had to vote for the new mayor; one of the candidates was Renato Brunetta, the public administration Minister. I don’t want to deal with political theme, just to describe how the citizens used my blog’s object in order to express themselves. On the 24 March 2010 “Stand Up Venezia” group organized a meeting in Campo Santa Margherita to protest against Brunetta. The initiative was opened to everybody and people could write on a dashboard their thoughts about the candidate.

This project underlines that the campo is the real Venice representation: it isn’t used just for fun or commercial reasons, but also for social demonstrations.

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Meeting point

Campo Santa Margherita is (with Campo San Giacometto near Rialto) the most alive area in the city. On Saturday night, young Venetians use to hang out here. The supply of what to do is quite restrict: there are lots of special bars and pubs but anything more. Just to mention some of them, the most famous are: Orange bar, which is by accident all orange; Margaret Duchamp; Imagina Cafè; Bar Rosso, that’s the oldest one. The good company is the fun! However, Campo Santa Margherita isn’t just for Venetians: also lots of students and tourists go there to enjoy.

It’s interesting to analyse how the social rule of Campo Santa Margherita has been exploited in a economic way: in the last years, lots of “piazza al taglio” and “kekab” opened in the area around the campo and they are earning a lot thanks to the kids that take something to eat during the night.

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Traditional games

I’m going to start my analysis on how Venetian people use Campo Santa Margherita from the youngest category: children.

In the afternoon after school, kids are used to play all together outside in the “campi”, that means in the squares. The rule: no video games, just some simple objects…and technological games have a substitute: traditional games. The most common games are campanon, “elastico”, “nascondino” and finally of course sports like football, volleyball, roller-skating.

“Campanon” is a typical Venetian game. What do you need? A chalk ; a pebble. You draw some boxes on the ground, you have to hit the boxes in the centre with the pebble and jump in. Of course, the boxes could have any shape!

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