In this episode of Venice Talks, Monica Cesarato sits down with Elena Bozza, Head of Digital at Linkness and one of the voices of Face To Face, the program produced by a local television channel based in the Venice area that tells stories from Venice and the Veneto region.

Together they explore how Venice is communicated today: not only as a beautiful postcard, but as a living, working, changing city made of people, businesses, creativity, innovation and local voices.

Elena brings her experience in digital strategy, social media, community management, video content and media communication to a conversation about what it really means to tell a place like Venice in the digital age. How can local businesses communicate online without losing their soul? How can technology, television, podcasts and social media work together? And how can AI become a tool without replacing the human voice behind every meaningful story?

This episode looks at Venice beyond clichés, beyond likes, beyond the algorithm: a Venice that still has many stories to tell, if we learn how to listen.

• Who Elena Bozza is and her role as Head of Digital at Linkness
• Why local media still matters
• The idea behind Face To Face and the importance of public conversations
• How to tell a more real, modern and living Venice
• Why Venice must be communicated as more than a postcard
• What local entrepreneurs, creators and professionals reveal about the energy of Venice and the Veneto today
• The future of local storytelling across TV, podcasts, YouTube, Spotify and social media
• How Venetian businesses can use digital communication without losing authenticity
• The most common mistakes small businesses make online
• Why social media should not be the only place where a brand exists
• How AI can help communication without making it cold, fake or soulless
• Why community management, listening and human connection matter
• How to create content about Venice that still feels fresh and meaningful
• The importance of showing the people behind a brand
• What kind of communication Venice needs for the future

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to Venice Talks, follow the podcast on your favourite platform, and leave a review. It helps more people discover the real Venice: not only the one seen in photographs, but the one made of voices, stories, work, creativity and everyday life.

You can also follow Monica Cesarato and Venice Talks for more conversations about Venice, its people, its food, its traditions, its artisans and the many stories that keep the city alive.

🎧 Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you tune in.

✨ Credits:

Hosted by Monica Cesarato

Produced by Monica Cesarato, Sentire Media

Guest: Elena Bozza for Linkness

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 info@monicacesarato.com.

In this episode of Venice Talks, Monica Cesarato welcomes back the story of Women for Freedom, an organisation dedicated to supporting women, girls and children living in situations of poverty, violence, exploitation and fragility.

After the first conversation in 2023, this new episode takes the story forward with Sara Memo, part of Women for Freedom, to understand what has changed, what has grown, and what still needs to be done.

The conversation begins with the heart of the organisation itself: dignity, protection, freedom, and the concrete projects that help turn compassion into real action. From there, Monica and Sara move into one of the most powerful cultural expressions of this mission: Women for Freedom in Jazz, the Venetian festival founded by Elena Ferrarese, now celebrating 10 years of music, solidarity and women’s voices in Venice.

This is an episode about listening. Listening to stories that are difficult but necessary. Listening to women whose voices deserve space. Listening to jazz as a language of freedom, resilience and connection.

Because in Venice, sometimes freedom does not arrive as a speech. Sometimes, it arrives as a song.

Show keynotes

• What Women for Freedom does and who the organisation supports
• Sara Memo’s connection with the mission of Women for Freedom
• What has changed since the 2023 Venice Talks interview
• How to speak about poverty, violence and exploitation while protecting dignity
• The difference between charity and true solidarity
• How emotion can become concrete action
• The role of culture in raising awareness
• Women for Freedom in Jazz and the vision of its founder, Elena Ferrarese
• Why jazz is such a powerful language for women, freedom and resilience
• The 10th anniversary of Women for Freedom in Jazz in Venice
• Venice as more than a backdrop: a city that listens, hosts and amplifies stories
• The future of Women for Freedom and the next chapter of the festival

If this conversation moved you, please subscribe to Venice Talks, leave a review, and share the episode with someone who believes that culture can still make a difference.

You can follow Venice Talks for more stories about Venice, its people, its voices, its hidden layers, and the projects that keep the city alive in ways visitors do not always see.

🎧 Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you tune in.

✨ Credits:

Hosted by Monica Cesarato

Produced by Monica Cesarato, Sentire Media

Guest: Sara Memo for Women for Freedom

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 info@monicacesarato.com.

In this episode of Venice Talks, Monica speaks with Laura from Maranteghe, a vintage and second-hand shop in Cannaregio where fashion becomes memory, identity and a small act of resistance.

Founded by Miriam, Sara and Laura, Maranteghe was born during the pandemic, among wardrobes to reinvent, forgotten clothes to rescue and the desire to create something with meaning. What began as a shared passion between friends became, in spring 2024, a physical shop in Venice: a “covo”, a little den, filled with pieces that carry stories, character and soul.

But Maranteghe is not just about vintage fashion. It is about giving clothes a second life, celebrating Made in Italy, listening to the stories hidden in Venetian wardrobes, and pushing back against fast consumption and the sameness of mass tourism. In a city too often reduced to souvenirs and quick visits, Maranteghe offers something slower, stranger, more personal, and beautifully Venetian.

Together Monica and Laura talk about friendship, style, sustainability, female energy, old clothes with new destinies, and the wonderfully ironic meaning of the word “marantega”, rooted in Venetian dialect and linked to witches, old women, sacred female figures and a touch of glorious mischief.

In this episode, Monica and Laura discuss:

• How Maranteghe was born during the pandemic from friendship, wine and wardrobe reinvention
• Why vintage fashion can be emotional, cultural and sustainable at the same time
• The meaning of the Venetian word “marantega” and why it became the perfect name
• How Miriam, Sara and Laura choose the pieces that enter the shop
• The stories hidden inside the wardrobes of Venetian women
• Why second-hand fashion can be a form of resistance against waste and mass-produced style
• How Venice inspires style, theatricality and personal expression
• Why Maranteghe stands against the “mordi e fuggi” tourist economy
• The playful Venetian detail behind their logo: a lion sticking out its tongue, inspired by a medieval bas-relief in the Archivio di Stato di Venezia

Listen to the new episode of Venice Talks and step inside a shop where clothes are never just clothes. They are fragments of lives, whispers from wardrobes, and tiny spells stitched into fabric.

🎧 Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you tune in.

✨ Credits:

Hosted by Monica Cesarato

Produced by Monica Cesarato, Sentire Media

Guest: Laura Gamba from Maranteghe

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 info@monicacesarato.com.