One of the best gifts my parents gave me was to travel with me and my sisters early. By the time I was ten, I had been to Israel twice, Egypt, England and Italy twice. It gave me such confidence in those middle school years where experience is the currency.

My dad had forged a connection with an Italian cousin, Michella, a few years before on a solo visit. So on our family visit, we stayed at this cousin’s Rome apartment. I still remember him pointing at the nameplates on the door. “See, here in Italy, they keep their maiden name. It says Azzarito, like us.” Most of my memories of the trip are of playing with Michella’s daughter Silvia.

Me and my cousin Silvia in Rome in the 1980s

In 2017, when I was traveling to Italy to speak at a conference in Padua. I realized that I would be in close proximity to my cousin Silvia, who had moved to Venice for college and never left. After months of emailing, I got in touch and we made plans to meet. Instead of just hanging out for coffee as we had planned, we ended up spending nearly my whole visit together. I even checked out of my hotel early and spent the night at her apartment in the city.

And I got, what is surely one of my favorite things, an insider tour. We walked around the city, talking little cafe breaks. (“It’s Procesco time, now!” I mean, seriously? Anything more charming?) And when I told Silvia of my burgeoning interest in Roman artifacts incorporated into jewelry, she marched me right to L’Angolo d’Oro.

The shop is located at the foot of the Rialto Bridge, on a street where goldsmiths have been working for centuries. Goldsmith Enrico Simionato is a direct heir to this lineage — learning in the workshops of two Venetian goldsmiths who themselves had studied under Venetian masters. My favorites were those pieces that incorporated Roman artifacts

The coin was mounted in a way that it spun around so that to reveal both sides.

Enrico who explained what a challenging moment is was for luxury retailers. Once, Venice had been a shopping destination, but now much of the city’s tourism was of the cruise ship kind. Dock for a half a day and maybe purchase a cheap China-made trinket.

As I write this, Venice is going through another challenge. The city is under water, suffering some of the worst flooding in 50 years. The first plans to shore up the city were hatched at the same time as my first visit — 1984 — and they’ve been shrouded in controversy almost ever since. I’m hopeful that this 1200-year-old city will find a solution. It may sound trite: but a world without a Venice in it, isn’t one that I’d like to contemplate.

Family and Jewelry in Venice