Venice's Redentore Festival: Art, History, and UNESCO Warnings

UNESCO has urged the Italian government to take urgent measures to protect Venice and its cultural heritage, threatening to place the site on the Danger List. Meanwhile, the city prepares for the annual Festa del Redentore from July 15-17, 2016. The festival includes the traditional votive bridge of boats connecting Zattere to the Church of the Redentore on Giudecca, a historic regatta, and fireworks over the San Marco basin. The Fondazione Querini Stampalia held a thematic tour on July 13 tracing the festival's origins to the end of a plague epidemic in 1577. The Venice Biennale organized a fundraising dinner on Saturday evening at Ca' Giustinian, with proceeds supporting its historical archive. Major exhibitions include the Architecture Biennale, "Imagine: Italian Art in the 1960s" at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, and a show on vedutista Ippolito Caffi at the Museo Correr. On July 15, the literary blog Slow Words People and Stories from this World hosts its fourth Readers' Club at Vento di Venezia on Certosa Island, featuring writing workshops for children and an evening program with Alberto Sonino, Daniela Cornetti, and Caterina Perali. On July 16, Casa dei Tre Oci, hosting a Helmut Newton exhibition, offers extended evening hours with curator Denis Curti, happy hour, and prime fireworks viewing.