Friends in I Giardini Pubblici

Each evening in Venice, as all over Italy, people gather in calli or campi--or via, viale or giardini in Castello--to catch up with friends before dinner (a ritual that the journalist Beppe Severgnini has called a "daily dose of social antidepressants"). It's something I've never seen in New York, or anywhere else I've lived in America. One group of elegant older women--ranging in number from 2 or 3 to 6 or 7 members on any given day--meets regularly in the public gardens right near the statue of male beauty (is it Adonis?) not far from Viale Garibaldi. I can't help but pass by without admiring their style, maintained even in the heat of summer.