andreadirobilant

Passion in Venice

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April 21, 2022 – VIP Event
Conversation with Andrea di Robilant
Six o’clock in the afternoon
Interview by Thomas Bradford, former CBS News executive in New York
Carolina Yacht Club – 50 E Bay St, Charleston, SC 29401

Writer Andrea di Robilant is the speaking guest traveling from Rome to Charleston for our members. Before his lecture in Charleston, we’ll see him in the upcoming CNN series Searching For Italy by Stanley Tucci. Tucci features him in the episode about Veneto, and di Robilant has a deep bond to the area. His family counts 7 Doges, the prestigious title of chief magistrate and leader of the Republic of Venice between 726 and 1797.
Andrea is the author of acclaimed book Autumn in Venice: Ernest Hemingway and His Last Muse. The book explores the little-known love affair between a 50 year-old Hemingway and an 18 year-old Italian countess, Adriana Ivancich.
They met at Harry’s Bar, naturally, where they started a seven-year relationship, exchanging poignant love letters that went unpublished for decades. Two years into his marriage with Mary, wife number four, Hemingway fell hard for the young Italian beauty, 30 years his junior. The book by Andrea di Robilant, goes deep into this emotionally disturbing period of Hemingway’s life. The result is a love story on two levels — one involving an alluring city, the other Hemingway’s regrettably immature propensity for seeking extramarital bliss.

Photo of Ernest Hemingway and Adriana from the HEMINGWAY COLLECTION at the JFK LIBRARY, Boston, MA

adriana-ernest

making-a-home-in-a-tuscan-village

Making a home in a Tuscan village

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March 18, 2022 – Lecture and live sketches by artist Forrest Spears with a focus on the Lunigiana area.
The Lunigiana is the far northern tip of Tuscany and its landscape is dominated by the upper (northern) section of Italy’s backbone, the Appenines. It’s not a touristic spot at all and there are over 160 castles to discover tucked into its landscape.
Born in Denver, Colorado, Forrest Spears lived all over the US, from Portland to Boston, and points in between. He moved to Italy in 1987 to work as a fashion designer and he spent 15 years designing shoes. Today, he calls home the property Il Poggiolo in Codiponte after a complex renovation.

Missione Venezia

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February 17, 2022 – A whole event dedicated to Venice. The guest speaker from Italy is Melissa Conn, Director of the Venice office of Save Venice, the American non- profit organization dedicated to preserving the artistic heritage of Venice.
It’s an incredible opportunity to learn about Venice from a different point of view. As Melissa Conn says “In some ways, Venice is one of the wonders of the world. The fact that man created such an incredibly beautiful city, the impossible city built out of the water, makes Venice unlike any place else, and it should be preserved.”
Saving Venice, she says, should matter to all of us, whether we’re Italian or American, whether we’ve been to Venice or not, for all that Venice gives us.
A long-time resident of Venice with thirty-three years of experience in the field of Venetian art history and conservation, Ms. Conn oversees Save Venice restoration projects in Venice, and lectures in Italy and the United States on the preservation of Venetian art.
Join us on Thursday, February 17 at the McBee House 133 Smith Street, Charleston, SC 29401.