Venice Talks

In this episode of Venice Talks, Monica meets Shanti Ganesha, founder of Meracu, a contemporary leather workshop in Venice.
We talk about the first moment leather felt like a language, the leap that led to opening a workshop in 2022, and how living between Venice and India shapes a design identity that feels built into every piece, not added on.
From material to method, we explore how a hide is chosen, what certified vegetable tanned leather changes over time, and why some steps cannot be rushed. We also get into the unseen side of independent craft: refusing serial production, learning to say no, and answering the question every artisan hears sooner or later, “Can you make it exactly the same?”
A conversation about hands, time, and integrity, with Venice as a living backdrop where making still means something.
Show key notes
Shanti Ganesha, founder of Meracu, on building a leather workshop in Venice (2022)
Between Venice and India: how heritage becomes structure, not decoration
Choosing a hide, reading grain and scars, and working with certified vegetable tanned leather
The slow step you cannot rush and the signature gesture that reveals the maker
Refusing serial production, learning to say no, and answering “Can you make it identical?”
Looking ahead: collaborations, apprentices, and a five year vision for the workshop

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🎧 Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you tune in.
✨ Credits:
Hosted by Monica Cesarato
Produced by Monica Cesarato, Sentire Media
Guest: Shanti Ganesha from Meracu
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Send me a short audio clip (1 minutes max) telling me what you loved most about the city — at [email protected].

In this episode of Venice Talks, Monica sits down with Bryan Brazeau, Academic Director of the Warwick Venice Centre, to talk about what happens when a university and a city begin to think together.
We explore Venice not as a setting, but as a working intellectual environment, and Warwick not simply as an institution abroad, but as a way of approaching knowledge through place, daily life, and lived experience.
Episode key notes:
What Warwick and Venice genuinely have in common beneath the surface
Why Venice works as a living classroom rather than a historical backdrop
How place shapes academic thinking, research, and teaching
The experience of studying and teaching with the city, not around it
The dual identity of the Warwick Venice Centre, both local and international
What students carry with them after living and learning in Venice
A shared love for Venetian cuisine, and how food becomes another way of understanding the city
Why eating, cooking, and sharing meals are part of truly living Venice
The value of intellectual distance, and why studying elsewhere matters
Looking ahead: the future of the Warwick Venice Centre and place-based education

A conversation about learning, location, and culture, where ideas, flavours, and stories move slowly and stay longer.
🎧 Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you tune in.
✨ Credits:
Hosted by Monica Cesarato
Produced by Monica Cesarato, Sentire Media
Guest: Prof. Bryan Brazeau from Warwick Venice Centre
If you love hearing the voices of Venice, subscribe and leave a review — it helps others discover these stories too.
💌 Want to share your own Venice?
Send me a short audio clip (1 minutes max) telling me what you loved most about the city — at [email protected].

In this episode of Venice Talks, Monica speaks with Sergio Vidal of Atelier Martina Vidal Venezia, a family atelier that has safeguarded the art of Burano lace for four generations.
They talk about patience as a creative act, about heritage that does not live in museums but in the hands of artisans, and about the quiet strength required to carry an ancient craft into the present without losing its soul.
This conversation moves through memory, responsibility, beauty, and the fragile power of thread that, stitch after stitch, still tells the story of Venice.
Listen slowly. Venice is speaking softly.
Episode key notes
The Vidal family history and the roots of their lace tradition in Burano
What it truly means to preserve a craft that cannot be rushed
The balance between tradition and innovation inside the atelier
The role of artisans in keeping Venice culturally alive
Why Burano lace is far more than decoration or souvenir
The human and emotional side of working with a centuries old technique
The future of lace and why younger generations should care

If you love Venice, craftsmanship, and the stories behind the hands that make beauty possible, this episode is for you.
🎧 Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you tune in.
✨ Credits:
Hosted by Monica Cesarato
Produced by Monica Cesarato, Sentire Media
Guest: Sergio Vidal from Atelier Martina Vidal
If you love hearing the voices of Venice, subscribe and leave a review — it helps others discover these stories too.
💌 Want to share your own Venice?
Send me a short audio clip (1 minutes max) telling me what you loved most about the city — at [email protected].

Beyond the Facade: Not Just Churches
In this episode of Venice Talks, Monica Cesarato sits down with Monica Gambarotto for an informal conversation that drifts away from the usual itineraries and into a quieter Venice.
Together, they explore five churches that rarely make it onto must see lists, yet reveal something essential about the city. These are not monuments to rush through, but places shaped by neighborhoods, communities, silence, and time.
This is a walk through Venice when the crowds thin out, where churches are not just places of worship, but mirrors of everyday life, forgotten histories, and layered identities.
Listen slowly. Venice is speaking softly.
Episode key notes
Why Venetian churches still matter beyond faith and tourism
What it means to look past façades and guidebook highlights
Madonna dell’Orto and the idea of the neighborhood church
Tintoretto, daily life, and sacred spaces that feel lived in
San Sebastiano and the power of a single artistic voice
How Veronese transforms a church into a continuous visual story
San Francesco della Vigna as a place of balance, silence, and authority
Architecture as a language of power and restraint
San Pietro di Castello, once Venice’s cathedral, now far from the spotlight
Geography, distance, and the feeling of being outside the usual Venice
San Giorgio dei Greci and Venice as a crossroads of cultures
What lesser known churches reveal about identity, imperfection, and belonging
How slowing down changes the way we see Venice

🎧 Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you tune in.
✨ Credits:
Hosted by Monica Cesarato
Produced by Monica Cesarato, Sentire Media
Guest: Monica Gambarotto
If you love hearing the voices of Venice, subscribe and leave a review — it helps others discover these stories too.
💌 Want to share your own Venice?
Send me a short audio clip (2 minutes max) telling me what you loved most about the city — at [email protected].

In this episode of Venice Talks, Monica Cesarato sits down with Matteo Seguso, Murano glass engraver, to explore the world of engraved glass, craftsmanship, and time.
The conversation moves inside the workshop and the gesture. We talk about engraving as a language, about the discipline of the hand, and about what it means to carry a centuries-old craft into the present without turning it into nostalgia.
From Murano to the international stage, this episode reflects on tradition as a living practice, on the responsibility of making by hand today, and on why glass, when worked slowly, still has stories to tell.
Key Notes
Murano glass engraving and its role today
Working glass by hand: time, discipline, and precision
Tradition as a living, evolving practice
Craftsmanship versus mass production
The relationship between material, gesture, and identity
Teaching and passing on knowledge
The future of handmade work in a fast, digital world

🎧 Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you tune in.
✨ Credits:
Hosted by Monica Cesarato
Produced by Monica Cesarato, Sentire Media
Guest: Matteo Seguso
If you love hearing the voices of Venice, subscribe and leave a review — it helps others discover these stories too.
💌 Want to share your own Venice?
Send me a short audio clip (2 minutes max) telling me what you loved most about the city — at [email protected].