Venice
Strategic Concepts & Mechanics
Primary Evidence
"Liupanshui locals greeted Li’s plans mostly with skepticism. Though their region is home to waterfalls, karst caves, and stunning green mountains, the city itself has little of beauty. Local industry consisted of coal and iron mining. One man wondered to a TV crew, “We don’t have much to see here. How much money would we have to spend to create something worthwhile?” Li Zaiyong believed a great deal, and he mobilized a great deal of funds to make things happen. Since he was the top official in the city, local banks had a hard time saying no to him. But none of Li’s efforts bore fruit. Liupanshui never developed into an appealing ski destination: China’s skiers went to the northeast in the winter, which has real slopes and real snow. Richer tourists from Beijing and Shanghai skipped Li’s gaudy European facsimiles for the real deal in Venice and Vienna. The faux European town squares have been taken over by local black goats, which treat the lawns as grazing grounds. Even the chestnut rose bushes died."
"The Crotta from whom the villa takes its name was a Lombard who arrived in town in the Sixteenth century from Laorca, the most northern of the districts of Lecco, with abundant riches and a certain baggage of mining experiences and knowledge acquired in German lands, as told by Raffaello Vergani, professor of Economic and Social History at the University of Padua. In Agordo he managed to establish himself, gaining prestige and recognition also from the authorities of Belluno and Venice, hence the construction of the Venetian villa in the center of the village. His great innovation was the use of gunpowder for the extraction of ore. A power."
"A backpack on your shoulder, heavy shoes, rolled up socks, an open shirt, drenched in sweat. When you reach the cross, look towards the plain. If you are lucky, in the distance, you can glimpse the bell tower of San Marco. My grandmother always repeated to me: on clear days, from the Dolomitic peaks, you can see Venice, a precious reward for the effort of getting there. It has never happened to me."