11438 Views on Venice

I don't know if I'm allowed to do this in this Forum because there are all sorts of conflicts of interest, but here goes.

I just got a new sponsor for my blog called Views on Venice, and I really like them! I really believe in them -- and not just because they are my sponsor. Well, I really believe in [I]all [/I]my sponsors or they would not be my sponsors, but Views on Venice has a limited-time offer that will expire by the end of January. I know some of you like to rent apartments in Venice, so I thought it would be a good idea to tell you.

Views on Venice rents apartments and palaces, and they are giving a 30 percent discount [I]for all of 2009[/I] if you book your reservation by the end of January.

I have all the details on my blog: [url=http://venetiancat.blogspot.com]Venetian Cat Bauer - Venice Blog[/url]

Cat

Category
The Veneto and Venice

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 09:56

oh ah eeh, possibly rules are being broken Cat, but certainly great to have you back. There's a thread about Members Avatars which you might care to participate in. I for one am curious about yours!!!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 12:52

Perhaps this info should be moved to the Venice section of the Forum so people can enjoy Cats blog later in the year?

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 13:58

I hope I am in the right place, because I am coming here through my gmail. I am happy to see you, too, Sally.

I am sure I have broken some regulations, but I want to tell you why: Filippo Gaggia's family owns a palazzo. He chooses to work because he wants to live in Venice and he wants to keep his palazzo. In order to do this, he rents properties with the most noble of intentions. Filippo loves Venice; of this I am sure.

On a very small level, I relate to him. My family used to have property in Upstate New York. Now it is gone, three houses destroyed; the forest is divided up; everything except the house my great-grandfather built on the lake. If it were still there, I swear I would do the same thing: rent it out and write novels. The memories of my grandparents are so much in my blood that I drove there in 2006 and stayed in the last standing structure, my great-uncle's hunting cabin. I nearly died from smoke inhalation when I lit the wood-burning stove. It would be a very nice life renting out all the property and living in the little hunting cabin (I would get the stove repaired:). It would also be good for the community.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 01/16/2009 - 06:04

Hi Cat,
you are right this is in violation of forum rules - and there has been an intensification of these recently. I will move this to the Venice section and ask anyone in doubt to first read the rules and then send me a PM before going ahead with the posting.

Cristiana

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 01/16/2009 - 07:34

Hi, Cristina,

Sorry to have violated the rules, but I would like to talk about it in the open.

I started my blog as a kind of joke on the Comune, who had indirectly said I could have an English language weekly newspaper to distribute to the hotels. When nothing manifested, I thought, well, the Comune has got this logo they are sticking on everything and charging businesses for that privilege; I will do the same because people believe me more than they believe them.

So, I created the blog, Venetian Cat, and I hired a Venetian girl to create my logo, which was a cartoon Lioness of San Marco with long red hair. I surveyed the Venetians first to see if they approved because, of course, this was a very bold move coming from an American. They thought it was funny, especially because of the words "Venetian Cat" because the "cat" represents Chioggia, not Venice.

One of my jobs when I used to write for Italy Daily -- first, let's clarify what Italy Daily was. (I was paid by Rizzoli.)

[CENTER]ITALY DAILY
Published with CORRIERE DELLA SERA
Distributed with the International Herald Tribune
[/CENTER]
[LEFT]I was not a journalist, I was a novelist, but they insisted I work with them, so I did. Anyway, one of my jobs -- in addition to writing long features about the art, architecture and culture of Venice -- was to find businesses that were real, that I believed in, which I put in OUR PICKS. There were no kickbacks whatsoever, although sometimes an artist painted me something, or someone sent candy or wine, as more of a "Thank you" gesture. This is Italy, after all.

So, in my capacity as a writer for Italy Daily, if I had come to the Italy Magazine Forum and said, I have just written about a great business, please check it out -- I think there would be no problem.

FAST FORWARD TO 2009. The newspapers have been almost completely destroyed. The magazines are suffering. Blogs are on the rise. What started as a joke became serious when the Financial Times featured my blog in their weekend magazine on my birthday, July 27, 2008, comparing the Venetian Cat Blog in 2008 to John Evelyn's Diary in 1645. (I immeidately changed my banner to a female lioness relief found on a [I]casa[/I] down in Castello that a Venetian photographer told me about.:) In addition, many of my former press connections in Venice had always kept me on their lists. My press pass for the film festival read: "Venetiancat"

If I covered La Biennale before, someone else -- Rizzoli -- was paying for it. Today, there is no editor, no publisher; there is just me. I wish I were independently wealthy, but I am not. I have gambled everything that blogs were the wave of the future. Like Italy Magazine, in order to survive, I must have sponsors in order to bring you content that no one else has, with a voice that no one else can copy. Have you gone over there and read my blog? If you want to know what is happening in the world right now, perhaps you should read what the Eurogolfe Forum held at the Giorgion Cini Foundation said about wanting the conflict between Palestine and Israel to end. Or, if you want to know if there is a conspiracy in the film world, perhaps you should read what I wrote about Mickey Rourke and "The Wrestler, " or about Wim Wenders statement: "I Will Never Be on a Jury Again."

So, if one of my sponsors has a limited offer that I think is fantastic and I want to let you know, how do you suggest I let you know? Ask another Forum member on the sly to pretend that they saw it and say, "Oh! Did you see on Venetian Cat there is this special?"

I have already had major wars with Americans who have used techniques like that, professing to be "experts" on Venice, self-publishing books, forming cartels to back each other up, etc. I don't like to do business that way.

I prefer to get this issue out in the open. Building the blog has taken an enormous amount of energy, and, of course, there has been enormous resistance. Our world is rapidly changing. Publishing itself is rapidly changing. I don't think we can keep the old rules in place in this new world. I do agree, however, that there should be rules, otherwise there will be sponsors on every grain of salt.

Hopefully, in the future, I will have enough sponsors to pay for the blog. It just takes time. At this time last year, very few people knew what a blog was. To me, the world is starved for some personal, human, honest information. I have experimented a little with Google ads, without success. I much prefer to have real live sponsors with good businesses that I can walk over and see with my own eyes.

Any suggestions or comments will be greatly appreciated. To me, if we all put our heads together, we will find a solution.

Thanks,
Cat[/LEFT]