Wearing a flowing silk dress and arm-in-arm with her trusted hairstylist—who flew in from the United States with her— Jane Fonda strolls like an ordinary person along the Fondamenta delle Zattere in Venice . Then we’re on the taxi boat, and Fonda strikes a pose for a few photos.

She’s been to Venice so many times that she has a hard time remembering them all. The first time was with her father, Henry Fonda; the last was with Robert Redford , her lifelong friend and colleague, in 2017, to receive the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement and present Our Souls at Night , the last film they shot together.

A life so full of events and turning points that it would be more accurate to say she has lived many lives, one within the other. There was the daughter who followed in her beloved yet distant father’s footsteps, raised in his shadow and scarred at age 12 by her mother’s suicide.

There was the model and then the Barbarella girl, a sex symbol trapped in a cliché she couldn’t wait to escape. There was “Hanoi Jane,” the anti-Vietnam War activist.

There was the actor with two Oscars and seven nominations, and the aerobics guru in a leotard and leg warmers. There was the wife of three very different men—director Roger Vadim, politician Tom Hayden, and tycoon Ted Turner—and then the woman who chose to remain single.

And today, there is the 88-year-old still on the front lines, fighting for the climate just as she once did for Vietnam.

This time, Fonda is in Venice for the DVF Awards, Diane von Furstenberg’s ceremony that honors women who help other women (among them this year is Gisèle Pelicot). “If I’m remembering correctly, I think the first time that I spent any time with Diane, we were inducted at the same time into the Women’s Hall of Fame.

And it was Gloria Steinem who inducted Diane,” she says, sitting in an armchair in a sumptuous 17th-century palace. Then she pauses: “I get emotional about it.” Gloria Steinem , the legendary journalist and feminist, a lifelong friend, recently passed away.

Later, von Furstenberg told Fonda: “You’re so much stronger than you’ve ever been.” Fonda spoke about the source of her strength today and the state of Hollywood politics during a roundtable conversation.

Jane Fonda with Diane von Furstenberg.