Context Venice Tour Guides

Monica Vidoni was born in Venice to American parents. Raised mostly in the U.S, she has lived as an adult in the U.S., England, Hungary, Switzerland, and, of course, Italy. Monica holds undergraduate degrees in history from Kalamazoo College in Michigan and the London School of Economics. She earned an M.A. and Ph.D. from Stanford University in European history and has published books and articles on Venetian history. Her specialty is women's history; her book "Working Women of Early Modern Venice" (Johns Hopkins U.P.) examines the popular-class society in sixteenth-century Venice through parish records and witchcraft trial transcripts. After working as a tenured professor in America for several years, Monica moved back to Europe three years ago. She now lives in Venice full time with her Venetian husband and their daughters. Her cookbook, 'Venice, Food and Wine,' has recently been published and is available in bookstores and on Amazon.com.uk. Other current projects include a children's novel set in Renaissance Venice, and a study of the gambling habits of the poor in the Renaissance.

Susan Steer teaches for the University of Warwick's undergraduate and M.A. Venice programs. After graduating in the history of art and Italian in 1998, she took an M.A. concentrating on Venetian art and architecture, and in 2004 she completed her specialization in Venetian renaissance painting with a Ph.D. on the altarpieces of Bartolomeo Vivarini. Susan has taught undergraduate and life-long learning courses on subjects such as the altarpiece, Titian, and Venetian renaissance painting for the University of Bristol (UK). For the University of Glasgow, she has worked extensively as a researcher for the National Inventory of European Painting 1200-1900, the catalog of European paintings in museums in the UK which will be published on-line in 2008. Susan has also contributed articles to the Burlington Magazine and Artibus et Historiae. Susan met her Venetian husband Paolo in 1997 and they have since divided their time between homes in Venice and the UK.

American-born Sharla arrived in Europe over twenty years ago with a love of Italy and two suitcases. A true foodie, she puts her pen where her mouth is, having published travel articles in La Cucina Italiana magazine ( USA version Dec 2010 issue and Jan/Feb 2011 issues) . She also has added a gig as regional editor with Unusual hotels of the World and her last scouting trip was to the arctic circle where she slept in a tree hotel, an ice hotel and a 747 plane turned hotel. Naturally, she is writing an article about the experience.

Louisa is an art historian who obtained her B.A. at the Courtauld Institute, where she specialized in Venetian art and the Italian medieval and Renaissance periods. In 2000, she earned her M.A. from the University of Warwick in Venetian Renaissance art, although she specialized particularly in medieval Venetian art and sculpture. She has worked as an English teacher to students of all ages, as well as a translator for cultural and artistic publications on historic and contemporary art in Venice, for institutions such as the Fondazione Querini Stampalia and the Island of San Servolo. She has also worked as a simultaneous translator for the Italian Military on cultural tours of Venice for English American delegations and aboard cultural cruise ships as a lecturer on Venetian art, architecture and history. She is a keen art lover and although untrained in contemporary art greatly enjoy following it through the Biennale and with temporary art exhibitions held in the city. Louisa is married to a Venetian and has two small daughters, Isabelle and Maddalena. Married to a "native" she has the opportunity to enjoy Venice from different perspectives: as a tourist and art lover and as a practical everyday Venetian (with the added bonus of having a private boat!).

Mario is a certified Italian Sommelier (AIS) and Master Cheese Taster (ONAF). His background also includes a degree in the Science of Food Production from the University of Bologna. Mario, a native of Milan, has lived in the Veneto for 35 years, and his grandmother was from the Cannaregio sestiere of Venice.

He is an experienced wine educator, and particularly enjoys the wine tasting seminars he regularly organizes for the U.S. diplomatic corps in Italy. In the past Mario led a seminar on Italian wine and food for the undergraduate students of Boston University studying in Padova. He also works as a travel consultant, specializing the wine and food of the Veneto, Friuli and Trentino Alto-Adige.

Mario lives in Padova with his wife, Rachel, a native of Ohio, and their two children. He can often be heard to say "A glass of wine is not merely something to drink, but a true reminder of our history, traditions and culture."

A native of Canada, Tamara came to Venice in 1993 to organize her country's participation at the Visual Arts Biennale, and discovered something completely unrelated: the world of wine. She took courses to become a professional Sommelier, and now conducts wine-tastings and tours, in addition to her continued work for Canada. Prestigious past clients include the Gran Caffè Quadri and the Culinary Institute of America, as well as countless individuals whom she has brought closer to this fascinating and timeless subject. Having made this enticing libation her new life's focus, Tamara is presently studying approaches on how to best match wine and contemporary art...

A native of Murano, Andrea is an accomplished musician and composer with a Master's degree in the humanities from Venice's Ca' Foscari University. In 1992 he founded the Joy Singers, a well-known Venetian gospel choir, which has won international acclaim, and is the artistic director of the Venice Gospel Festival. For years he has collaborated with schools in Venice and the Veneto in order to promote gospel music to Italian youths.

Originally from London, Jane graduated in zoology in 1988 from Oxford University. After a brief spell in the City she began her postgraduate studies at Imperial College Centre for Environmental Technology (London) and subsequently won a research scholarship to the Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei in Milan. Her research has broadened from methods for valuing non-market goods, which is crucial to the development of environmental policies, to improving the connections between the scientific and policy making spheres, including the public understanding of science. She worked on a number of projects supported by the European Commission and for the Italian National Research Council to survey research efforts on climate change. Since marrying a Venetian, Jane's interest in sustainable development has concentrated on unraveling the key issues central to the safeguarding of Venice, from the physical, ecological, and socio-economic standpoints. Since 2001, her work has been supported by the Venice in Peril Fund as the Venice research fellow of a Cambridge University project which aims to crystallize our knowledge of the main issues, processes and trends in Venice which affect the long term survival of the city and its unique heritage. She is co-author of The Science of Saving Venice (Umberto Allemandi, 2004).

Rachel Erdman has been living in the Veneto since 1994 and is originally from Ohio. While working for the Boston University study abroad program in Padova and Venice for many years, she especially enjoyed sharing her love of all things Italian with students and visiting faculty. She now works as a travel consultant specializing in personalized travel throughout Italy. As a lover of food and wine, she is fulfilling a dream to become an Italian sommelier. She has also coordinated private cooking courses in the Colli Euganei for the Abano Ritz Grand Hotel with an emphasis on Mediterranean and Veneto cuisine. Rachel holds a B.A. from Boston University in international relations and it was during her studies that she first developed a passion for foreign language and culture. She lives in Padova with husband Mario and two children.

Italo Ongaro is native of the island of Murano and, for the last decade, has been working for the University Ca' Foscari of Venice as the head scientific glassblower. In addition, he works closely with the department of environmental science and the department of chemistry as the captain of a 25-foot research vessel. This vessel is partially owned by the Veneto Region's Meteorological headquarters, with which he participates. His knowledge of the Venetian lagoon is extensive, as he frequently traverses the lagoon on research projects. He currently lives in Mestre.

Francecsa studied foreign languages at Ca' Foscari University, Venice (including modules in comparative and Venetian history of art), and graduated with a dissertation in English Renaissance literature in 2002. She recently completed her Ph.D. at the same university in English Restoration theater.
She has been lived in Venice since 1995, but also spent two years in England, where she studied history of art at Warwick University and taught Italian language and literature at Downe House School, Berkshire. She has always been deeply interested in Venice, its art and history, and worked as a registered guide of the mosaics in St. Mark's Basilica for two years.

Luca Zaggia is a geologist who has been working for the last 15 years as a coastal oceanographer for the National Research Council of Italy, Institute of Marine Science, Venice. His research has been focused on many aspects of the management of the lagoon ecosystem, from the assessment of contamination in the water and sediments of the city canal network prior to dredging to the monitoring of the input of freshwater and contaminants from the tributaries of the drainage basin. More recently, with his staff of technicians, he has been involved in studies on the hydrodynamics and transport of sediments in the tidal channel and shallow water areas of the lagoon, as well as the monitoring of the environmental effects of the works for the protection of Venice and its lagoon from floods. In cooperation with European and American institutions he is also working on research focused on the determination of submarine groundwater input in lagoons and coastal areas.

Isabella is an art historian who specializes in the study of historic clothing and textiles. She has lectured extensively both in Italy, where she also taught History of Dress at the Universities of Udine and Padua, as well as in the UK and US. She has published several essays on such topics as Venetian textiles and lace and is currently working on a publication about the dress of Venetian nuns from the 15th to the 18th century. She currently lives in Venice where she works as curator of the Rubelli Historical Collection and Archives.

Originally from Genoa, Erika moved to Venice ten years ago to study Oriental languages at Ca' Foscari University, where she graduated with a thesis on Japanese art and architecture. She has a keen interest in the art and history of Venice and worked for some important cultural institutions, such as the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, where she was in charge of special events, and the National Oriental Museum at Ca' Pesaro, where she studied and cataloged part of the collection. Her time at the Guggenheim collection sharpened her knowledge of contemporary art, which she continues to study. She is now a licensed tourist guide of the city of Venice.

Originally from Venetian mainland, Matteo Gabbrielli has lived in several different countries, which sparked his interest in art history and archaeology. He holds a B.A. in Cultural Goods Preservation and an M.A. in Archaeology from the Università Ca' Foscari – Venezia. He specialized in Islamic Archaeology with a thesis on Medieval Egyptian ceramic, focusing on the shards found at the Italian – Egyptian Center for Restoration and Archaeology (CIERA) in Cairo. Matteo chose to specialize in Islamic Archaeology, due to his personal passion and curiosity for the Islamic World: this particular interest was developed after several travels and stays in different Middle Eastern countries.
He works as a freelancer archaeologist following projects in different locations of the Veneto and also teaches history courses in local schools. In addition, he continues a close collaboration with the CIERA where he is involved in the direction of archaeological excavations.

Originally from Vail, Colorado, Hilary Haakenson first toured the calli of Venice as an undergraduate studying abroad. Yet, over the last eight years, the art and architecture of Venice have repeatedly drawn her back to the Serenissima. She earned a dual degree in art history and fine arts from Boston College and with the help of a Fulbright Fellowship, she is now working towards completing her PhD on the medieval art and cartography of Venice and its rival Maritime Republics, Genoa and Pisa. Her research allows her to study first hand art and architecture that reveals the relationship between Venice and the East, the self-representation of Venice’s early oligarchic government, and the production in Venice of many of the earliest nautical maps of the Mediterranean.

Originally from Madrid, Almudena graduated in Art History in 1997 from Warwick University (B.A. Hons). Her first experience of Italy dates from 1996, as an undergraduate living and studying in Venice. Her interest in Italian art was further fueled during her Master's thesis, which dealt with the fourteenth century tomb of Rizzardo di Camino in Vittorio Veneto, and the course "Rome before Avignon." After completing the M.A. in art history at Warwick in 1999, she focused her doctoral research on the artistic patronage of Cardinal Gil de Albornoz in Spain and Italy in the fourteenth century. Throughout her Ph.D., Almudena traveled extensively around Italy and Spain, and lived in Rome for a year while collecting documentation kept at the Vatican archives. Her main interests lie in the history of the Church in the 1300s and the patronage of medieval fortresses, reliquaries, and textiles, as well as tomb sculpture. She has worked as a family art workshop docent at CaixaForum Madrid and teaches history of art to young children on a private basis. She has translated numerous academic articles, including articles on the architectural history of Toledo Cathedral. Currently, she works with the Association of Friends of the International Brigades translating interviews with veterans of the Spanish Civil War, an indispensable resource in our Civil War and Madrid after Franco walk. After living in Vicenza, Italy, Almu now splits her time between her native Madrid and Venice.

Davide Calenda was born in Venice he graduated from Ca' Foscari University with a degree focusing on the history of architecture and medieval history. After a specialization course on Innovative Tourism Marketing he started his interests on sustainable tourism. He also has a special research interest on Venetian military architecture an military art theory. As a coordinator of an European NGO he organized cultural seminars in many of the European universities. He also spent time teaching the history of Italian art at the University of Turku in Finland. A passion for Venice has brought him back to his home base in order to transform successfully his cultural interests into a profession and also to apply concepts of sustainable tourism crucial for preserving his fragile city.

No biography information for Nadia Mazzon.

Joanne took her MA at the Courtauld Institute on Gothic architecture before completing her Doctoral thesis on Venetian church interiors in 2009 at the University of Warwick. She has since received post-doctoral fellowships from the Institute of Advanced Study at Warwick, Society of Renaissance Studies and British School at Rome. Joanne has also worked for The Art Newspaper and the Warburg Institute Library. She has lived in Venice on several occasions, and is currently conducting research on aspects of Venetian art and architecture during the Renaissance.