Can't think of anything clever.

April 7, 2006
Friday

Today we had our final walking tour with the Professor who is above scale. We started out again very close to our apartment, and wandered up to the northern part of Venice. We zigzagged through some elegant and touristy areas and got to a part of Venice that is referred to as ‘lesser Venice’. This is not meant as a demeaning term, but rather to refer to it’s rather more humble architecture. You find more people living here, and more shops for things that people need in homes, like light bulbs and plumbing fittings.

We also visited the Gheto, from which we get the word Ghetto. This was the island in Venice where they put the Jewish people as they immigrated here from other places. This island was totally isolated, and could only be accessed by boat, even though the canals that surrounded it could very easily have been spanned with bridges. This was a form of enforcing a curfew, and there were many injustices in the system as I’m sure you can imagine. I’ll spare you the depressing details, and leave you with a couple of lasting points. First of all, this is still an area of town where many Jewish people live – there are five synagogues in the area, and most signs are in Italian and Hebrew. Second, this is the only area of Venice with skyscrapers – imagine having a 9th floor walkup. Yikes.

We didn’t have much to do in the afternoon, so most of us scattered to work on other homework assignments. One of my classes was having a brief meeting in the afternoon to discuss where we were with our assignments and to hash out strategies to try and get us all done with the coursework by May 12, or at least by the end of the summertime. My goal is to be done by May 6, but I’ve got another three classes to get through by that time, so we’ll see how it goes.

April 8, 2006
Saturday

Grumble grumble grumble. Had to get up very early to get over to Piazzale Roma (Venice’s bus stop) by 7:30 in the morning. After getting crammed onto a bus designed for midgets, we rode for four hours to get into Milan. Every person in the class of my height and higher ended up with bruised knees because the seats were spaced so closely together that there was nowhere for our thighbones to go. Ouch.

So it was with collective creaking bones that we stumbled off the bus in Milan for the Isaloni furniture show. The show runs for about 10 days each year, and is only open to the public for one day. We got in because we are design students and because our professor is admirably well connected here in town. The show was amazing – to walk from one end to the other took about half an hour at good speed. It’s the largest furniture show in the world, and it’s where they keep all the cools stuff. Things like glowing green bathtubs, postmodern showers, and every kind of cool furniture thing that you could ever think of. Now, you all know me. I’m not that much of a shopper for furniture, clothes, jewelry etcetera (books and wool are notable exceptions, I know) – however I had no trouble walking round here mentally furnishing and refurnishing an ever grander array of imaginary dream homes. I saw a lot of modern furniture that I was surprised to like – and a lot of old fashioned stuff that I was surprised to hate. Weird – I might be turning ‘designy’.

Half of the fun at the furniture show was the people-watching though. All these interior design divas and buyers were walking round shouting things like "Ciao darling!" and admiring each other’s outfits.

By the way, I’ve got some bad news.

The 80’s are back.

I’m serious. Men in white jackets with pink shirts and pink ties, loafers with no socks. Women in miniskirts and leggings. Lots of 80’s perms and hair that’s business in front and a party in the back. Behold the return of skintight jeans tucked into boots. Huge sunglasses? You got em. Blue eyeshadow? Yup. Jellies? Heck yeah. Madonna bracelets? Uh-huh. Billy Idol crew cuts in platinum and gel? Oh yeah baby. Bermuda shorts? You know it! Punk plaid pants and mohawks? Yup yup yup.

Ew.

I am pleased, however, to announce that some nice things are coming our way too. Coats with actual tailoring, and shirts that go past the hipbone. These are both pieces of great news to me, because I cannot wear crop tops – they look ridiculous on Rubenesque, short-waisted long-legged women like me.

April 9, 2006
Sunday

Up early, of course, to go to rowing lessons out on the Giudecca. I got to row on the six seater this time, and we did much better. We rowed in sync, in a straight line, and my back didn’t feel on fire at the end of it. I’m really enjoying this Venetian rowing and will have to see if there’s any way to continue doing it in the U.S. without spending a fortune.

Afterwards I went off and wandered around Venice on my own for a bit. Snoopy was very excited because I took him to go see the Doge’s Palace. He was a bit disappointed that it wasn’t the Dog’s palace, but I told him that he could pretend if he wanted.

The palace was extremely cool – I loved the paintings and the armory especially. The armory really reminded me of some video games that Roman and I play, so I actually stood in a room full of tourists, axes, maces, pikes, and swords, and got a bit misty. The woman next to me asked what was wrong, and I told her that I missed my husband. She then got a bit of an odd look on her face as if to say "what kind of guy must *he* be?". *laughing* In retrospect it’s very funny – but at the time I just did not feel like explaining. Especially since it is now getting a bit old having to be constantly explaining how I, with my bizarre accent that is neither English nor American, happen to be traveling with Americans and married to one at home, studying in Grad school, and spending six weeks in Venice simultaneously.

It is interesting though, the confident way I stride through Venice now seems to inspire confidence. Lots of people stop me to ask me the way places and I can generally help them. Here’s my quick speech I give people "Unless you are trying to get somewhere very very specific, put away your map. Venice is small – you can only get a bit lost before you’re going to see a sign somewhere. Follow the signs and pick the landmark closest to your hotel – signs there are signs home. All signed areas lead to other signed areas. Go have fun and don’t worry so much about your bloody map."

However the touristy fun could only last for a brief couple of hours before I had to get back to the apartment to start work with my group on our project.

April 10, 2006
Monday

Woke, went into school worked all day, got home midevening, went to bed.
Only two things exciting happened today. First of all, my left thigh felt like it was going to crack in two. Going up and down stairs became an adventure in peglegging. Andrea, one of the girls in my group, had similar problems with her right leg. It turns out that when you row correctly, you don’t murder your backs, you murder one leg. Will have to remember to switch sides next time – it’s like doing an hour of lunges on one side otherwise.

The other cool thing was the aqua alta! The water level was very very high when we got home, so we got our cameras out and headed back down to Piazza San Marco via a circuitous, yet dry, route. Piazza San Marco (not to be confused with Pizza San Marco, which is very overpriced) is the lowest point in the city, and therefore has the most dramatic flooding during the aqua alta. They set up elevated walkways and everyone shuffles along trying not to fall into the sewage/water. It was marvelous! Some kids got café chairs in a long row and were crossing the plaza by stepping on chairs that they moved out in front of them like a long caterpillar. Some insane people rolled up their jeans and were walking around in the water barefoot – remember, in Venice if it is wet, it is sewage! Ew.

April 11, 2006
Tuesday

Woke, went into school, worked all day, got home midevening, went to bed.
Mini aqua alta, but only enough for the drains in San Marco to bubble up a bit – this happens fairly frequently so it was pretty ho-hum.

April 12, 2006

Do you sense a pattern here? Woke, went into school, worked all day, got home late evening, went to bed.

April 13, 2006

Woke very early and headed into school. Lynn, Angela, and I had estimated that we needed a further three hours of work to finish up before our presentations began at 12:30. Because we are superstars, the three hour estimate was dead accurate, and we still ended up having time for lunch before the 6 hour presentation marathon began. We presented exactly in the middle and I think we did well – the feedback was both complimentary and constructive, so we came away with enthusiasm and ideas for ways to push our ideas to the next level.

There was also the most amazing stench of sewer gas that kept wafting through the studio, sending us all into fits of giggles and making orange peel a pretty high priced commodity.
When we got home, Lynn and I decided to go out to dinner. We ended up going to a lovely little place right next to our apartment. Sandra and her Mum (she just arrived for a visit) ended up going to the same place an hour later, and ordering almost the same seafoody things that we got.
When we got home again, we made a significant dent on the wine stash from the awesome fill-your-own-bottle place. I love Europe. I can drink wine all evening and feel great the next day – the wine is all sulfite free and I’m certain that that is what makes a difference

April 14, 2006
Friday

Got up a little later than usual this morning, for a change, then collected the assorted troops and Sandra’s mum, then set off for the island of Murano. When we got there we were taken on a tour of a glass blowing factory. It was awesome! We didn’t realize until much later than we were extremely privileged to do this – this is a factory that does not open its doors to the public, we were let in as a personal favor. We also didn’t realize that the old guy wandering around in there was the owner/signature artisan of the place. Their stuff was exquisite (Carlo Moretti, if you want to Google it), and the family has been working in glass since the mid 1800’s, though this arty part of it was founded in 1956 by the Carlo – the guy who’d been wandering around behind us. The famous architect Carlo Scarpa had worked their briefly too. After a brief, and very very careful, wander around the showroom where I briefly considered buying these two very very cool 86 euro glasses, we wisely decided to leave without spending that much money on something so heavy and so breakable. Had they been cheaper, lighter, or tougher – it might have been worth it.. ah well…

Afterwards, we sat on the fondamenta with an excellent view of the lagoon, and ate pizza and beer. Yum!

After grocery shopping and heading back over to the studio to upload our homework, the rest of the day was shot – so in the evening we sat at home, drank cheap wine, and listened to the gondoliers floating by.

April 15, 2006
Saturday

Today is a bona fide day off. No rowing lessons, no boat tours, nothing!

So of course, I planned a full agenda for myself. I didn’t plan on going to any museums as they were sure to be crammed by tourists, and I didn’t plan on doing much shopping, as the shops were sure to be crammed by tourists. Yes, yes, I know. I’m a tourist. However, when you’ve been here three weeks, the wine lady knows you on sight (I get a free biscuit every time I stop by J), then the crowds start to be a bit much.

So, I slept in, and it was glorious! I made it until about 8:30, when the garbage men and their songs of love and garbage woke me. I got some coffee and enjoyed watching them for a while – it’s really very entertaining. In the mornings the residents of Venice take their garbage down and leave it out in the calle (like an alley – like a street) for the garbagiers to come and put it in their hand trucks. They sing too.

The garbagiers then take their full hand trucks to a nearby dock that has a garbage boat (a garbarge, perhaps?). There is a little crane on the garbage boat that picks up the hand truck, hoists it over the boat, drops it into a frame that opens the base, the junk drops out, then the truck is returned to the dock to be carted merrily off again. The best bit is when the garbagiers know that the trash is from a good place and they start sorting through it, saving the good bits. Then, they are likely to turn around, burst into song, and then pee in the canal.

All good fun when you’re waking up to a small vat of espresso.

The first thing I did was walk up to the Billa, the grocery store near the ferrovia (train station) to pick up a couple of unromantic essentials for the house (dish soap, and coffee). When I was dropping the loot off at home, Lynn and I started chatting and discovered that we had planned the exact same day, completely independently. We wisely chose to continue on together as she is excellent company. Hannah was off being very social, and Sandra spent the day showing her Mum around Venice.

First stop was making sure that the Gelato shop on San Lio was as excellent on Saturdays as on Fridays and Thursdays. Important work you know.. for the… um… homework. Yeah, for the homework – mapping the gelateria network for San Marco and Castello.
I tested blood orange and chocolate (it was outstanding) and Lynn continued her detailed thesis on straciatella and fior de latte (she claims it was very good, but asserted that more tests would be needed).

Thus refreshed, we walked down to Piazza San Marco, and then west towards Campo San Moise where I knew that there was a book shop that sells books in English. We bought a couple of novels, and I found a great map book of Venice (it asserts that the house we’re in is from the 15th century, and that the fancy house across the street used to be some sort of Doge’s palazzo – that explains the lions on the façade I suppose).
Next stop was walking all the way to the eastern part of Venice to visit the giardini pubblico, the public gardens. There’s a nice naturalistic bit, and a wonderful grove of pine trees. It was nice to sit in the greenery with our new books, but I got cold after a couple of hours and walked home.

April 16, 2006
Sunday

Another day off! What joy! Some members of the household dashed off to try and catch Easter Mass in one of the famous churches – I decided to go for a walk instead. Lynn and I therefore went up to the ferrovia to see if we could finalize our plans for travel after the trip – both of us want to have a look at Florence and Tuscany for a couple of days while Sandra visits a friend in Switzerland. We’re all converging on Carcassonne (France) at that point to spend another couple of days with my Aunt, before Sandra and Lynn head home, and I start the long lonely wait for my husband to come to visit.

We get the tickets to Florence squared away pretty easily, but then run into trouble getting to Carcassonne. It turns out that it is nearly impossible to travel between these two points on the map – which is odd since they’re pretty close together and in the US I would just drive. The train takes a bajillion hours and 437 train changes. Airplanes involve taking multiple trains to get to far flung airports, changing planes in sixteen different countries, then taking yet more trains to get to where you want to go. I may be exaggerating a touch, but that *is* the Venetian way. In the long run, the train may win by virtue of the fact that if we don’t mind circumnavigating the globe twice, we’ll probably be able to take a night train for part of the trip and will be able to save a night in a hotel room.

The irony is that it will probably be easier to come back to Venice from Florence to start our trip to France.

After that, we took a walk through the western part of the city that I had not seen before – I got to be the navigatrice (Lynn *is* very brave) and didn’t get lost once, This is a new record for me, since I am getting lost in Venice all the time. Luckily, Venice is small, so you don’t generally stay lost for long – but since I largely think I know where I am going, I often blunder on in a straight line, neglecting to turn, and finding myself in an undiscovered corner of the city saying to myself "well this is interesting". I’d also like to have a word with the shopkeepers who keep changing their displays – it gets very confusing. To get to San Marco I used to take a left at the Disney store, another left at the black dress, right at the orange vase, keep left at the spangly mask, etc. Now the dress is peach colored, the orange vase is a blue bowl, but the spangly mask is still there.

The upshot is that I keep setting off for San Marco, and ending up at Academmia. It’s a bit like when you climb in the car and intend to go to the grocery store, but end up at work.
I digress, I apologize.

Our walk wound us through the western part of the city, hopped us over the grand canal, and then took us over to have a look at the Fenice, the opera hall that burned down in 1996. If any of you read The City of Falling Angels, then you already know all about this. Having successfully found it (admittedly not hard to do) and then standing there for a moment not quite sure what to do, we took pictures of it then walked on back home.

For record, this walk took us nearly eight hours to complete, with a one hour stop for lunch at a place that served, among other things, horse pizza. Don't worry, I had the margherita.

Distance in Venice is funny, and I’m coming up with a theory. Measure the distance you think it is on the map, then triple it. With all the dodging around tourists, buildings, bridges, sotoportegos, pigeons, beggars, and the like – it ends up being pretty accurate. At home, I generally walk a mile in around 15 minutes. Here, it takes 45 minutes, and I never stop walking.
To that end, I’d like to announce that I have reached my zen with crowds. They no longer bother me – I either float along with them, or I surf ahead dashing through transient passageways between people as they eddy around. It’s very calming, and for a person with definite reclusive tendencies – it’s quite a revelation.

We came home and I made Lamb stew with the extremely inexpertly butchered lamb leg that we had procured at the market. The stew ended up very nice and we had it with an assortment of spring veggies, wine, and then some bizarre and boozy pasque cake.

April 17, 2006
Monday

Another day off! Unfortunately Lynn is sick again, so she stayed home with chills and fever. I set off to have another look at the giardini, and I ended up sitting in the shade reading all afternoon, fending off the occasional suitor. Since I’ve been outside for most of every day since early February, my hair is quite light blonde and my face and hands are very brown (farmer tan!). It’s still too cool here to put on short sleeved shirts, though reportedly this time last year you could go swimming out at the Lido in the Adriatic.