John Rawlings writes book about historic Italian city

John Rawlings’ new book is a love letter to a city dear to his heart – Venice.

“It’s a she, always feminine, and they refer to it as ‘La Serenissima,’ the most serene one. And she’s been there a long, long time, and she’s been enormously powerful in the past,” he said of Venice.

“Siamo Foresti — A Venetian love story,” was recently released through Amazon. Rawlings will hold a book signing at White Apple Gallery on Thursday, June 29 from 6 to 8 p.m.

Described as “a cross between a sightseeing guide, travelogue and history book,” Siamo Foresti covers Rawlings’s feelings on a variety of Venetian topics, including its churches, restaurants, history and more.

Rawlings, an artist and retired college professor, and his wife, Souheir, first set foot in the city in 1982 on a honeymoon backpacking trip through Europe.

The city, loaded with hordes of mid-summer tourists, was busy, dirty and unattractive, he recalled.

“We got off the train in Venice with about half of the unwashed youth of Europe, it was the middle of July and hotter than hell — I hated it,” he said. “There were so many people, you couldn’t move, you couldn’t make sense of it.”

A few years later, while studying Italian Renaissance art history in Florence, a friend reintroduced him to “La Serenissima.” This time, he said, the experience was different.

“I was in love after that,” Rawlings said.

Since then, he and Souheir have made nearly annual pilgrimages back to the city they love so much.

Rawlings set out to put his feelings for the city on paper about four years ago, after encouragement from friends and family. Summing up a 35-year relationship with the famous city was no easy task, however.

The book, which developed out of longhand drafts and note sketches, is a way of reflecting and sorting out his own feelings on the city, he said.

For Rawlings, the city represents a bastion of history that is often overlooked. Rawlings attributes many modern ideas to Venice — banking, standardized coins and letters of credit all originate from the city, and the republican ideals the United States are based on were fleshed out throughout history in the city.

“If you were to find a book that covered the great empires of the world, she’d be in the first couple of chapters. It never occurs to us that this small place could have such a place in our history,” he said.

These days, Rawlings and his wife run Art and Soul International, which offers artist residencies, retreats and sojourns at their two studios in Venice and New Mexico.

Rawlings also currently has work on display at White Apple, including the series of paintings “Fiskardo Shadows,” and is always active at his home studio.

Having worked through the four-year writing endeavor and emerged with a book he’s proud of, Rawlings isn’t about to crank out another nearly 300-page book. Instead, he’s working on putting together a series of art-inspired children’s books featuring a curious chameleon named Clem and promoting “Siamo Foresti.”

The book, he said, is aimed at travelers both new and experienced who wish to learn more about the incredible city. Once exposed, most people know right away if they’ve fallen in love, just as Rawlings himself did decades ago.

“There are very few people that just like Venice, most people love Venice,” he said. “It’s an either or thing.”

“Siamo Foresti” is available on www.amazon.com. For more information on Art and Soul, visit https://artandsoulinternational.com/.