Hello!
So I have decided to BLOG again, re-creating my Europe blog into one that documents my journey through graduate school, traveling, and my general passions. A catch-all blog, if you will. I will get to blogging soon, but until then, feel free to read through some past adventures as I explored the NL and Italy!
Sandy
So today I decided to spend a few hours in the Rialto area to see what kind of shopping is available in Venice. Strangely enough, I haven’t actually spent time shopping here, but know where everything is from walking everywhere constantly. Not only did I need a break from studio, but the day was beautiful and would have been a shame to waste indoors. I had the luxury of D&G, Prada, Burberry, Chanel, MiuMiu, La Pearla, etc. at my fingertips and it was ultimately a very relaxing two hours. I ended up buying…a bottle of water. Even when not in designer shops, prices are so inflated here that an item going for $100 in the US could easily go to 150-200 Euro here (double/triple the cost). Big “le sigh”, but I did find great entertainment in almost every shop from who else but the employees. Majority of the time employees assumed I was either French or Russian (there are NO blondes here). To try to get me to buy things they themselves would model with an item. I loved the gals that would model with the purses…holding them in mannequin poses to show me all the ways I could carry it. Entertaining their efforts was half the fun. Oh, and the lies were triumphant. I can guarantee over 70% of what I saw that claimed to be Italian or Venetian was certainly sourced from China.
So that was fun. There is also a lot of pathway reconstruction happening right now. I almost fell into a gaping hole in my neighborhood, and a British tourist actually climbed into one to see how the underground infrastructure worked (I fell in love with that guy for being so inquisitive). I’m sure most of the construction is to raise the level of the pavement to cope with their everlong battle of soil subsidence and rising tide levels. Two nights ago half the fondamente between San Marco and the Arsenale was flooded. Good thing I’m getting out of here before aqua alta season; the photos I’ve seen during that time do not look fun and I certainly do not have the ability to drop euros on galoshes. It isn’t uncommon for a residential building to be vacant on the ground level, or to see flood barriers soldered in front of low-lying ground level doors.
Maybe it’s not too early to give my final impressions of Venice:
1. The absolute best food I have had here have been our home-cooked meals. Mary and Tiffani are excellent cooks, and not only did we save an enormous amount of money by cooking for ourselves every night, but we were able to try out recipes with the produce and grocery items the real locals eat. Mini purple artichokes are phenomenal, as is real shrimp scampi. Home made risotto is finger kissing good, and nothing beats “pasta n things”. I’ve learned many ways to cook polenta, and will probably avoid pizza for a solid year. My search for the best calamari I have ever eaten ended this past Friday when our Venetian instructor, Francesco, had us over to his flat for dinner. Hands down, the best calamari I have EVER had, and will ever have. Very bittersweet. I may or may not be addicted to Prosecco, as it is the northern Italian way to go about drinking during dinner, and I can only hope to enjoy a true Italian spritz in MN as I do here.
2. This city needs wealthier younger people. It’s expensive to live here, and kind of a pain in the ass to put up with clueless tourists, but it is so unique and beautiful. Reason why they need to be wealthy: almost every building I have studied needs severe repair. Sure, the antique patina is super charming, but there is little to no effort being made anywhere to preserve these buildings. As the soil continues to subside and the foundations continue to soak up water, these structures are decaying fast. But it’s expensive to do massive repairs here…boating cranes in and adhering to World Heritage preservation guidelines isn’t cheap. Reason why they need to be young: this city needs more younger families. Once teens reach fledgling age, they move to Mestre and abandon Venice. Almost half of the apartments here are vacant or just seasonally occupied, and the only nightlife is in Campo San Margherita and near the Rialto. The aging population is a problem all over Italy, but Venice especially. It’s terrifying to think that if these statistics don’t improve, they can only get worse, and this place will turn into a theme park for tourists that spend an average of six hours here.
3. I better not hear anyone complain about the street layout of downtown St Paul ever again. I still get confused on routine walks here…today for example, coming out of the grocer I took a grand detour to get to the Rialto area.
4. Being forced to visit multiple stores all over the city for errands is an incredible money saver. Not having something like a Target as a convenient one-stop-shop removes any and all impulse purchasing. I have literally spent all of my money thus far on groceries, small snacks, wine and beer, batteries for my camera, toiletries, vaporetto passes, and other necessities. No candles, furnishings, clothing, etc. For those that read this that preach “live simply”, my life the past 9 weeks has been the epitome of simple. I honestly believe most people I know should be exposed to a culture and way of life like this to put their consumption habits in perspective.
5. Most people here are really amazing. A few of the cool people I’ve met: Francesco, the shop keeper of the print shop we use for studio. Most chic thing in Venice, clean white interior shop, 28” iMacs lining the walls, cacti as corner garnishes, and the man himself wears off-white fit jeans and clean track jackets. I just love styled out people and he is the best styled out man on the Guidecca. Guilia, our Venetian TA. She has four jobs and is hilarious. Her and her man made us dinner one night and was one of the best nights I had the entire trip. Her company is amazing and comforting, and she has helped me with way too many basic things here. Architect on the vaporetto, can’t remember his name (it was a brief encounter). Wearing all white and navy blue with a fancy hat to match, this guy was great company on my 2am boat ride home. Like most people here, he started talking to me in Italian while I smiled and nodded my head pretending to understand. When I realized he was going to keep talking to me, I had to politely ask him to use English if he knew it. He was spending some time here to take a break from a project he’s working on in central Italy before taking a trip to a conference where all the modern starchitects are gathering to pat each other on the back. I had a feeling he was kind of a big deal but didn’t reveal a whole lot about himself. I may have very well met an Italian architect celebrity. Christian, the waiter at Moka Efti. We frequent this establishment as a group due to its proximity to studio and charming allure. This guy loves us but pretends to hate us. He gives some people the funniest looks and critique, then discounts our bill heavily.
Alright, this is getting long and I have a few more things to accomplish before getting to studio for the day. My next update will probably be from Paris!
So I’m in the midst of my final days here in Venice. I have mixed feelings; part of me is trying to soak up as much Venetian sun and experience as possible before returning home, but another part of me can’t wait to see the loving faces of my friends and family. In a week we present our final studio projects, so everyone here has been spending a good chuck of our days working away in our Guidecca studio.
We’ve come to love this little Guidecca island…the pizza/calzone shop two bridges down, the Palanca bar for dupio espresso, the teeny tiny Coop, the sounds of rowing boats being built in the yard outside our door, the brilliant shine of the sun reflecting inside the workspace…I think I’m going to really miss the daily life I’ve made for myself here.
It’s really strange, actually, how quickly I became accustomed to the normals of life in Venice. Last week we took a bus tour around Padova and a few other more northern cities where urban life is dominated by vehicles. Being thrown onto a street with cars whizzing past (probably going ~20mph, seemed so fast to me though) was a real shock when the fastest and loudest things in Venice are the dinosaur Vaporetto boats that can only be compared to the oldest busses in the Metro Transit lineup. I keep wondering what it’s going to be like to adjust to life in Minneapolis again…getting used to cars, large streets, huge grocers, convenience stores…24 hour things! It has been a wonderful experience that will surely come full circle in the first few weeks back home.
But, on to my most recent adventures. We took a bus tour around some northern Italian cities, saw a cemetery designed by Scarpa (he is also buried there), saw the Antonio Canova museum (just his plaster studies and residence, but an AWESOME Italian garden *swoon*), went to a library designed by Scarpa…it was quite whirl-wind, but totally fun. We were sort of surprised with a nice pizza lunch in the wonderful hilltop town of Asolo mid-day and had the luxury of being carted around in a huge lux tour bus rather than enduring multiple train rides.
Last Saturday Tiffani, Mary and I went to the Lido (has the only maintained swimming beach in the Venetian Lagoon) with Tiff’s friend Pamela who visited from Germany for a few days. It wasn’t the sunniest of days, but relaxing nonetheless with the sounds of crashing waves and an expansive endless view of the sea in front of us. I got my feet in the water and read a little and sketched a lot. Unfortunately, I had an awful calamari experience after searching high and low for days to find some good stuff at a reasonable price. But that’s ok, some coffee flavored gelato made up for it, and Pamela’s bolognese dinner later that day was phenomenal (she made me veggie sauce!). That evening, Tiffani, Pamela and I went to an opera near the Rialto. It was my first real opera experience and completely blew my mind.
After that, the week has been filled with amazing home cooked meals, sketching, chatting, walks around Venice, preparing for our departure, and reminiscing on our travels thus far.
I’ll be in Paris my midnight on Sunday, May 8th, and can not wait to relax in the amazing flat Erin found! More on that later, though.
Ciao!
So, this past week has been probably the most stressful week of my entire trip thus far. Not only did we have some mid-workshop studio presentations which never seemed to end (every guest speaker we had come in that week had to hear our presentations…not the most productive use of our time hearing the same feedback over and over about things we were already aware of, but I regress…) but the four of us LA’s had to complete a summation paper for our NL leg of the trip. So by the time Saturday rolled around I was exceptionally tired, exhausted, and feeling the mid-trip homesickness. There have been many more moments this past week than ever where a certain pace of the breeze or smell in the landscape or touch of the sun reminded me of summer back home; up at the cabin, in my parent’s backyard, the parks by the river… I needed this weekend to take some solo time to do some mini-traveling at my own speed and leisure. So that’s what I did.
Saturday I slept until late afternoon to make up for sleep lost over the NL assignment. Once I was up, I did a bunch of errands and walked to the grocer to grab a few comforting snacks (cheese, wine, fruit) and read a bit while eating at home. I then thought it would be fun to document the Arsenale area where I live. Two hours and 200 photographs later I was already pooped and retired for the night.
Sunday I decided to fulfill my aching desire to go to Burano. Burano is the island in the Venetian Lagoon with the brightly colored houses and is the home to fine lace making. What glass is to Murano, lace is to Burano. I am so glad I went alone…I was able to amble around the entire island, take amazing photographs, get a few sketches done, have a spritz (or two…) with a nice dinner, enjoy the public greenspace (!!), and bask in the setting sun on the fondamenta. Even made a feline friend while enjoying the sunset, she couldn’t get enough of the feeling of my boots scraping against her sides. Made my heart ache a bit for Sadie. I couldn’t believe how far above my expectations this little island jumped. Every view, vista, twist or turn was filled with bright happy colors, storefronts displaying beautiful lace products, and narrow canals with tiny personal boats. The overall scale of Burano was very small, which made it feel even more comforting as the colorful buildings enveloped you from both the sides and below as their bright colors reflected off the water in the canals. I made a great decision to stay during sunset, as the vibrant Venetian sun set the hues of the buildings ablaze in the short half hour it took the sun to set. I have a feeling I’ll be taking many a respite on Burano over the next couple of weeks…
So yesterday I wanted to complete my northern lagoon trip by hitting Torcello – just a 10 minute traghetto ride off of Burano. After the near-hour long trip out there, I was unfortunately disappointed in what I experienced. Let me preface this with the history of Torcello and why I may have been excited to get out there: before Venice was the main hoo-ha of the Venetian Lagoon, Torcello was the hot spot. With over 50,000 inhabitants and its own government in its hay day, it was the epicenter for commerce in this region until Venice began to really explode in the 14th century. Because of rising levels of mosquitoes (malaria) in nearby swamps and other location related reasons, Torcello became a rural farmstead type island with a real interest to archaeologists. So, I went there expecting to be able to tour some pre-14th century ruins of a small village or city, see historical things in the landscape being preserved and cherished, and maybe a nice path system around the island to relieve the traveler weary from the more “urban” setting of Venice. What a bust. The path to the ONLY place visitors were able to visit was a brand new fondamenta situated between a canal (duh) and very unkempt weedy brush land that was fenced off. Along this fondamenta were glimpses and peeks into a few rural backyards (some were adorable and fresh with lush greenery and gardens), a random huge restaurant with a very manicured English-style adjacent yard, a brand new bridge that was modeled after the original bridge there (it was missing some nice patina), and finally the *big deal*. Randomly placed remnants of relics along a brick wall, a fancy WC (1.50 euro to pee, what a rip off), a wellhead that had been moved from its original location somewhere on the island, the excavated foundation of the 7th century church, the most recent church (probably 14th century) and a vineyard you could look at but not get into. The church’s belltower would have been quite impressive if it wasn’t for the nearly opaque scaffolding wrapped around it. So, basically, they took everything neat and historical from the entire island and piled it helter-skelter into a less than 1-hectare large space for the visitors to see then closed off the entire rest of the island to non-locals. If you can’t tell, I was a bit upset about this fruitless journey to one of the oldest inhabited islands in the lagoon. But, I had to make my day worth it so I found some interesting things to sketch and spent two hours doing so. A nice American family assumed I didn’t speak English so I overheard them critiquing my sketching (they loved it) and I cowered in second hand embarrassment for some airhead American girls wondering boisterously how to get back to Venice (hint: there’s only one way, and it’s the way they came).
So I got back to Venice and wandered around the western part of the city for a bit until it got really dark, headed home, made dinner, and retired for the evening. Regardless of my disappointment with Torcello, my weekend was exactly what I needed. I’m still dreaming about how wonderful Burano was and can’t wait to get back there.
Today marks the beginning of a fresh week of classes – studio all day today – time to get some fresh ideas on paper for this project!
Oh, and this is where I read every morning…perfect little window nook in my bedroom. Ciao!
Alright, so I have been extremely busy!
Studio is in full swing, my group presents our site plan on Tuesday so we are in crunch time to get our final concepts, ideas, and design down. I have really enjoyed working with architects. Learning their approach and style of work has been an exceptional experience that really is worth every ounce of effort.
My activities over the past few days have been exciting and wonderful, unfortunately I haven’t found cheap batteries here (on a strict budget) so I haven’t been able to take photos this week. Tiffani will be sharing hers with me, though, so expect a few new sets on Flickr by next week.
So yesterday we had our first out-of-city tour. Cramming two cities into one day is challenging, but we did it and it was a whirlwind blast. Vicenza was great, we went to Villa La Rotonda (swoon) - one of my favorite buildings ever.http://www.villalarotonda.it/it/homepage.htm
We also visited a theater he designed inside of an old Roman building while in Vicenza. That was great - the debut performance of the theater was Oedipus; both the theater and the play were so successful that the theater stayed and the original set design was never changed (!!!). Super neat.
After Vicenza, we went to Verona. Verona was once a fortified city with some of the fortification walls and landform still in tact. Our first stop was Castelvecchio - an old gothic style castle mostly meant for military purposes that was redesigned by Scarpa (one of my favorite architects) in the 60’s to become a museum housing ancient artwork, weaponry, and artifacts. All the content was phenomenal, but Scarpa’s architecture had me enthralled. The interplay of materials, the attention to joinery and detail, the interplay of indoor and outdoor…my heart was very happy there. I was able to do some sketching from the top of the castle and absorbed as much of the amazing view of the mountains of northern Italy as humanly possible. After Castelvecchio we wandered in a circuit around downtown Verona, saw more Roman ruins, the Romeo and Juliet balcony (at the House of Capulet), an awesome street artist, and had some of the best gelato of my life.
After that over 16 hour day (up at 5am, home after 9pm) we were exhausted today. We had a short walking tour with Carla around the area my apartment is located (“Arsenale” area to be generic). We went to five churches (church architecture isn’t really my bag - won’t go into much detail about it) and saw another Scarpa design that I’m going to visit at some other time in more detail. I then had the afternoon to get lunch and a spritz, go grocery shopping, run to studio for a group meeting, and take care of some things such as updating my blog!
I’m happy, healthy, a little homesick, but loving every moment of my trip.
