“Canalet” is the local name used for this square; it no doubt refers to the washhouse and its channel of water. The information board explains it all. However, this was also a place where lovers used to arrange to meet. Why shouldn’t one continue doing so? The installation “Woods and Woodcutters” is on the roof of the washhouse. It firstly pays homage to woodcutters, but also the way the locals sing – and I can assure you that both now and then, it was a little unusual. Please do refer to the information board.
Up high, the house of the Lorenzi family looms over the square; they were landowners that were amongst the richest in the village. To its left another old building, recognisable from the inscription W BL FF 1807; Davide Orler, another well-known painter from Mezzano, was born here. Two wood-stacks enhance the square, their meaning seeming to bounce a message to each other: “Opposites”, is almost a provocation that leaves everyone to make an effort of personal reflection since emptiness is an interpretable space that also includes its own opposites; and “Round”, where the burnt wood might mean everything or nothing, beginning and end, hot and cold, home and desolation. Before you set off downhill, look up; the roofs of Mezzano are set one behind the other till they meet the foot of the Dolomites of the Pale di San Martino, what a view! Photo?
