[...]"Like Venice, she has a rich heritage - Jewish and Christian, secular and sacred, traditional and revolutionary, superstitious and enlightened - carrying within it the predilection towards greatness. Like Venice, she must bear the heavy mantle of an illustrious history upon her shoulders, but, not content to rest upon the laurels won by others, she is undaunted in her independence and in the establishment of a firm foothold in the present, while already embracing the future. Like Venice, she can assimilate the essential elements of diverse sources and streams both geographical and cultural, nevertheless maintaining unity and uniqueness."
[...] full text

Victoria Martino, from The Inner Landscape, October 1999