Un Po di Aqua Alta

This weekend I did some interesting stuff but I'm going to be super lazy and summarize very briefly. On Friday after school I met Meg, her mom, and Wendy at the train station. The city was CRAZY packed with tourists which made me quite upset because in them I was able to see "man's" truly careless and destructive nature. Despite the overload of tourists, Wendy and Kelly got what I would consider a pretty good tour of the city. First thing first, we took the #1 vaporetto down the entire length of the Grand Canal to Piazza San Marco. It's actually a good way to see the city's "main street"... if you can find a seat on the boat. After checking into their hotel, we had lunch. After lunch we were able to get into the Basilica because the mass for Good Friday was just about to begin. This was great for two reasons. First, we didn't have to wait on line to get into the church, and second, the lights were not turned on until after we were inside. This always has a spectacular effect because the mosaics are gradually lit up, slowly revealing the intricacy and magnificence of what can barely be seen in the dark. After church we roamed around for a bit, chilled at the hotel, then went to dinner. On the walk to dinner the waters were rising and on the walk back from dinner, many places were significantly flooded. 

\/ High Waters \/

The next day we did sort of a rush around the city... walking over the Rialto and a quick trip to Murano where we saw the Glass Museum which was impressive but only for about the first 5 minutes. After Murano we can back to Venice, missed out on seeing a cool church, walked through a "street" fair, and ate some more food. By this time it was already time for Kelly, Wendy and Megan to end their short trip to Venice. 

On Sunday I went to a city called Bolzano. Although in Italy, this city retains the culture of Austria, of which it used to belong. Here people speak German and street names are in German and people eat Leberwurst... the whole thing. Anyway, this town is special not just for its bipolar-ness, but also because it is home to the South Tyrol Museum of Archeology. In this museum, I saw Otzi the Iceman. 

quote from museum website:

Over 5000 years ago, a man climbed up to the icy heights of the Schnalstal glacier and died. He was found by accident in 1991, with his clothes and equipment, mummified and frozen: an archaeological sensation and a unique snapshot of a Copper Age man.

For several years highly specialised research teams examined the mummy and the articles found with it. They have been on exhibit since March 1998 at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology.   

It was pretty remarkable. They even know how he died! They had his clothes and all this crazy 5.5 thousand year old stuff! Unbelievable. And luckily I came back alive. I was quite afraid that he would come back to like Encino Man and attack me but he couldn't even stand upright. Remarkable nonetheless. 

Monday I spent all day in Museums. The Jewish Museum in the Ghetto. Was really interesting and I was able to see the 3 of the 5 synagogues that you can visit. Just like most everything here, they were beautiful. I also went to the Museo Correr where I saw the exhibition by Lawrence Carrol and also the rest of the museum which has stuff about all aspects of Venetian History. 

Some cool stuff

This week I visited more churches. They were all beautiful. I only have around 5 more left on my list!! 

Also on Wednesday I had my Art History class, L'arte Veneziana, with Elena... that's my professor. We had class at the school this week which is good because the school closes at 5 and the secretary kicks us out. If class is a field trip or something... Elena will jut talk for hours and hours. But its okay because she is really nice and interesting. She is also quite active in the contemporary art world here in Venice. On Wednesday after class she invited me to a beat poetry reading at the gallery of one of here friends. The artist/performer was from NY... I don't remember her name but she was sort of boring so it doesn't matter. At the gallery Elena introduced me to many of her friends, artists of all kinds working here in Venice. Glass artists, painters/sculptors, video artists... Also at the performance was Lawrence Carroll, a relatively established artist who currently is exhibiting something like 50 works at the Correr Museum (a huge museum in Piazza San Marco, Napoleons old private apartments). It was really cool because he explained to me his own work, some of which was at this gallery. He also knew of Rockland County because he once lived in norther NJ. After the (unimpressive) performance Elena and her friends invited me for drinks which was followed by dinner.... I didn't finish with my teacher until around midnight. It was really cool because I was able to speak Italian with these really cool people who do really cool work. 

That's about it... Meg, her mom, and Wendy are coming to Venice now... just for one day. 

Barack

"Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely -- just as I'm sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed." Barack Obama... like 3 days ago.

An American politician admitting that religion is not always right. Right on.

Choppy Chopin

I think it has been over a week now since I have written anything so this post will be a review of whatever i can remember... I'll try to put everything in order as much as possible. I have been full force visiting museums and churches and have seen many beautiful and incredible things. So far i have been disappointed by only one church. Every other church, no matter how big or small, has in some way been unique and/or intriguing. One of my most recent visits (should i mention the name? I'm afraid to offend the saint) was pretty boring and even ugly. But whatevs. I also visited the ducal palace with my Venetian History teacher. It was the field trip for learning about the functions and organization of the government during the republic... what better place to learn about than in the actual halls in which it all took place. Speaking of the Palazzo Ducale, which is in St. Mark's Square, with the recent arrival of Spring weather, the orchestra's have started performing outside the cafe's in St. Mark's. Speaking of music... I went to two concerts this week at La Fenice. One was a performance of Beethoven's 5th and 6th symphonies. The 5th is of course fun to hear performed by an orchestra but the 6th, my favorite of LvB's symphonies, was incredible. I just got home from a piano concert of Chopin, Debussy, and Schuman by some German guy.  It was pretty good as well but i felt that there was something about his playing style or method than made all the music sound in-cohesive or choppy. The British lady who sat in my box for the first half seemed to like it. She said, and i quote, "It brought to mind young children (are there old children?) frolicking in a wood." I also went to a cooking class this week which was taught by one of the teachers from school. It was a great time because Rachel, from binghamton, and another friend... attended and also because the food was delicious and the other company, especially the teacher, was a whole lot of fun. 

I almost forgot. This saturday i did a few interesting things. I went to this small town called Civadale del Friulli. It's a medieval town, only 20 km from the border with Slovenia, with some really cool sights and churches. I also had a great meal that only cost 4 euro. Poor man's food: polenta, sausage, and this potato and cheese concoction. Unreal. That evening i met my friends Sara, Richard and Anna in Udine. That city is about 1.5 hours from Venice and only 15 min from Civadale where i spent the morning and afternoon. We walked around the city for a little, there was a chocolate  street fair. Oh god. One stand had all this chocolate molded into the shapes of different kinds of tools. I ate a wrench.

 

Then we went to a soccer game/ football match: Udinese vs. Lazio. It was quite an interesting experience, my first football game and all, but to fully enjoy it i think i need to know a bit more about the game. Thats about all for now. I will try not to slack off as much anymore especially since i have some pretty exciting stuff coming up. Ciao and peace.

\/ beautiful weather in perhaps the most beautiful city\/

Die Glasmenagerie

I only have 40 minutes remaining on my battery time because apparently this train doesn’t have outlets for such things as cell phone or laptops. This train, by the way, is the train from Milan to Venice. I am on my way home from my weekend trip to Zurich. It was quite an incredible weekend too. J But first thing is first… I don’t know if I told “you” but at the beginning of this month I moved up a level in my Italian class therefore I have a new teacher for one of the classes. Apparently, he has been to Binghamton but I didn’t inquire about why because I didn’t/don’t really want to discuss Binghamton while I’m in Venice.

So Zurich… It was a last minute decision but this time it worked out fine. I was a little nervous at first though because I wanted to call the hostel I was staying at to triple check the directions about how to get there from the main train station. Nobody was answering the phones but I figured it out by myself with the help of an old Bavarian man who I met on the tram. Speaking of the tram… Zurich has quite a remarkable public transportation system. Everything is super clean and super punctual. To the minute! I could literally talk for hours about how amazed I was at this public transportation system but that would certainly be less than interesting. So after all my traveling to and from, I ending up having all day Saturday and Sunday until 3pm to spend in the city and I loved it. Saturday I did most of the sightseeing that was suggested by the books and tourist offices and so forth. Including:

-The Botanical Gardens, which other than the greenhouses was pretty barren yet still beautiful.

-St. Peter’s Church, has Europe’s largest clock face, the Swiss boasting there clock making skills.

- The Grossmunster, where the Protestant Reformation began in Zurich, I climbed to the top of one of the church’s towers. For half the way up there was only a tiny spiral staircase on which people going up had to squeeze by people going down.

- The Zurich University and the Federal Institute of Technology, two learning institutions with beautiful buildings right next to each other and from where you can see a great view of the city.

- Some of the city’s theatres, Opernhaus Zurich (Opera House), Tonhalle (some concert hall), and Schauspielhaus Pflauen (apparently on of the most important German-speaking theaters… I saw The Glass Menagerie there IN GERMAN… thank god I’ve read/seen it many times before… it was awesome)

-Rapperswil, a nice small town about 40 min by train from the city center… some nice views of the lake and a cool Medieval castle.

- Fraumnster, another church with 6 stained glass windows by Marc Chagall. These windows were just as impressive as the ones he did in Jerusalem.

- The Kunsthaus, a modern art museum. They had a lot of cool stuff by some really big names which is always interesting to see (Meg and Alli- lots of stuff from Aruna). They also had two really cool special exhibits. The first was called Europop. It was an attempt to prove that Europe had important pop artists before or at the same time that pop art was making it big in the states. I think the exhibit failed at this stupid-to-begin-with goal because the exhibit feature work by Warhol and Lichtenstein (Americans) and because the subject of a lot of the European pop was whining and annoying complaining that America stole the idea from Europe. It was annoying but there was still some cool stuff and I always love seeing Lichtenstein pieces… my fave. The other interesting exhibit was photos by Edward Steichen, a photographer who in the 20’s and 30’s did a lot of work for Vogue and Vanity Fair, called In High Fashion. It was really cool to see because it features photos of some of my favorite Old Hollywood starts as well as other celebrities of the time (Gloria Swanson, Al Jolsen, Fred and Adele Astaire, Joan Crawford and her husband Douglass Fairbanks Jr. on and on goes the list… President Hoover, Amelia Earhart, George Gershwin). It was a remarkable exhibit. It was also really cool because I read about so many of these celebrities in the biography of Cary Grant that I just finished. Unfortunately he was not featured in and of the photos.

I don’t know what more to say… I had a great time. I feel like I haven’t even scratched the surface of Venice yet and I’m already leaving to go see other places… I have some heavy-duty sight seeing planned for the next few weeks within Venice. It will be interested because I can accomplish some of it in my one-on-one Art History and Venetian History lessons/excursions. The teachers for these classes are really cool and I enjoy their courses so much. I feel very lucky to have this unusual and incredible opportunity that these classes offer.

 

Peace. 

\/ the lake from Rapperswil \/

\/ at the top of the Grossmunster \/

\/ at the bottom of the Grossmunster \/

What is New York thinking?

Some upsetting news...

Nina, Michael, I have lost faith.

Slater is not Zach. 

Dove Elettra

Yesterday I went to see Elektra at La Fenice, a theatre here in Venice. It was amazing. The Opera House was beautiful... I did not take this picture. 

La Fenice means "The Phoenix" because the theatre has a history of "fiery destruction and miraculous rebirth." It last burned down in 1996 therefor the rebuilt theatre is super state of the art and is on constant fire patrol. I have tickets to two other upcoming events.

Verona

So this past weekend I went to Verona and met up with Megan and Alli. In retrospect, it was a very nice weekend, but until it was over, the trip seemed as tragic the scene set there by Shakespeare... Blah blah blah.. I thought of all these puns to use relating "Romeo and Juliet" to our experiences but I have since decided that they are stupid and will try my best not to use them. Anyway, upon arrival, I had to find a place for us to stay because Megan and Alli, who were supposed to arrive before me, were stranded in Bologna. The Italians seem to think that they can sell train tickets with a connection that leaves at exactly the same time... So after we all finally arrived in Verona and found a suitable hotel, it was just about time to go for dinner. We walked around the city for a while then found a pretty decent restaurant to eat at. I enjoyed the food but it was unfortunately a little expensive. The next day, Saturday, we went around Verona to see all the sights. It not much and can be done in one day. Still, it was nice weather and a pretty city so all in all it was a good day of sightseeing. Sunday we went to a small town called Bardolina on Lake Garda. It was a tiny town with just a few restaurants and shops but an incredible view of the lake and the surrounding mountains. It was a nice day there too but things fell apart when it came time to return to Verona to catch our trains home... It all ended up okay therefore I wont bore you with the details but we did determine that it is better to be lost in Italy than anywhere else.

\/ Lake Garda \/