There are no more free copies left of those available for distribution to the public, they were all handed out in just a few hours, evidence to how successful this venture has been. Subsequently to numerous requests received, from abroad as well, pending a possible reprint, it was sought to make download available for everyone (here aside) of the "I Calendari della Gondola" volume published by the Città di Venezia.
All calendars commissioned by the Ente Gondola over the past twenty years, designed by the artist and graphic designer Fabrizio Olivetti, art director of the Venice City Hall's Graphics Office are gathered together along with two brief texts entitled "Man de dio... El ze cascà" (Oh my God... He has fallen) and "Vent'anni di venezianità" (Twenty years of being Venetian) both written by Piero Zanotto and Riccardo Petito.
Like taking a real dive into the most authentic Venetian mode, likely as colourful as those drawings that illustrate it, a project developed over the span of twenty years and all-round the privileged symbol with which Venice is known throughout the world: the gondola.
To begin with "fish and shellfish of the Venetian lagoon" ("pesci e molluschi della laguna veneta") up to the latest 2008 calendar, in which "Saints all about" ("Santi che vanno per via") appear in the town icons which can be verified just by wandering through Venice.
It includes sayings, proverbs, riddles, traditional celebrations, the islands of the Lagoon, Saints and Madonnas, "bàcari" (typical venetian nibble bars). What's more, a whole tombola game chart; the all-lagoon invitation "by boat is best" ("megio andar in barca"), the traditional regattas, a celebration of the gondola with it's artisans ("artieri"); a round up of illustrious Venetians, the Venetian "Beast assembly" ("Bestiario") and the most famous parade boats' decorations of the Regata Storica.
Mr. Piero Zanotto wrote: "Every year Fabrizio Olivetti has created emblematic Venetian theme drawings which do not want to recall strings of nostalgia but simply want to commemorate them. Establishment of this is in what still remains in the collective memory of the Venetians. The ensemble of moments that blend folk wisdom related to everyday life, strewn through the centuries by the so called Serenissima's symbolically playful, artistic, cultural, political moments". Zanotto adds: "Remembrance shreds as like getting lost in a maze of memories of interwoven proverbs, sayings that remain breeding ground to both the private and the intimate Venice".
Mr. Riccardo Petito remarks: "Nowadays, when just about any showgirl has her own personal calendar made - it's amazing and pleasant to remember that the contents of the most hanged and collected calendar were drawings and not sensual photographs. Calendars revealing the true Venetian mode, the city's known and unknown aspects, likely to disappear if not occasionally brought to mind, other more visually to the young. It is how they rediscover their parents and grandparents ways of saying and whom are part of a genetic and especially linguistic patrimony".

(Translation Elizabeth Cicogna)