WEEK 9
I’m happy to announce that it did not snow in Venice this week. However, having said that, I cannot go on to tell you that Venice has returned to its “normal” weather pattern for this time of the year. During the last week we have experienced extremely heavy fog, which turns La Serenissima into a marvelous living Monet painting (before his eyesight was restored). Facades lose all detail and present themselves in a two dimensional flatness…shapes gently torn from oriental papers of exquisite pastel shades. Edges surrender their crispness to the dulling effect of swirling moisture. Sounds are muffled and seemingly always far off. Things float slowly into focus and recede with the same grace. It was as if the city had put on a new and entirely mysterious garment and I was moved to think of one of Venice’s most famous sons, the great painter Titian, who used multiple transparencies of color to build his works. He called the technique ‘velatura’; veils.
La Serenissima was wrapped in veils this week.
We fortunate’s who live here, simply went about our business as usual, moving through our daily routines as if it were entirely normal to be a part of such beauty.
It was a week of work and the Italian classes march toward their completion next Friday.
On Monday afternoon I met the group and we went to San Pantalon. This is a church with an incomplete exterior that is not far from the Istituto Venezia. The students have walked by it hundreds of times, and it is always a treat for me to finally take them inside. Nothing can prepare you for the interior of this church that looks so much like a warehouse from the outside.
The ceiling, painted over a 24 year period of time from 1680 to 1704 by Gian Antonio Fumani is a stunning act of painterly skill and absolute perspectival bravura. I won’t even attempt to describe it, because no words can do it justice. It was a stunned group of students who left the building an hour later.
Wednesday afternoon was spent exploring San Francesco della Vigna, a church tucked away in the backstreets of Castello. The façade was added by Andrea Palladio who was assured by the church that the dilapidated buildings that surrounded it would be demolished so that the church would look out into an open Campo. It never happened, the old buildings still cozy up to this grand façade in attempts to share center stage. The façade is virtually impossible to see because the space is so crowded, and the noise you hear as you enter the front door is the sound of Palladio grinding his teeth in his grave.
Inside is a different story and the building’s interior reflects the sensitivity of Sansovino who worked here in 1534. It is a church that is populated with quite wonderful artworks, but the Capella Badoer Giustiniani with its bas relief sculptures that had been remodeled by Sansovino, always ‘steals my heart’. We walked slowly through the streets of Castello, stopping at a second hand clothing store at San Martino for a little fun, and then onto the Rawlings apartment where I served up pasta a sugo….meat sauce.
On Friday we met at the greatest ice cream store on the planet…Yeah Giorgio! (See photographs AND video attached), sampled his latest offering of blood orange gelato, (“to die for” quote from ice cream professional Caitlin), and then headed off into one of Venice’s oldest places. San Pietro di Castello.
This was the site of the original Cathedral of Venice, and it only lost this privilege in 1807 under Napoleon. It’s a quiet, very pleasant part of town, and is clearly well off the ‘tourist track”. We visited the church and wandered along its canals as we made our way back to Via Garibaldi.
It was a quiet weekend and most of us stayed pretty close to home. I invited the group out to the Lido and we spent a very pleasant few hours wandering on the sand picking up shells and talking.
Next week will see major changes in the program as Karen Leigh arrives with 8 more students who will stay for our last month in Venice, focusing on the watercolor class that she is teaching.
Next weekend we leave on our spring tour to Umbria and Tuscany and these ‘new’ folk will accompany us. I hope to have their input in future blogs, and next week’s blog will contain entries from the language teachers at the Istituto.
We are entering our last month in La Serenissima, but have many adventures planned before we have to say goodbye to her.
Ciao, ciao
John
John Rawlings, Director FVCC Semester in Venice Program
Caitlin’s blog
We have completed the second to last week of language classes and I can truthfully say that I am relieved! This next week will be hard to concentrate during…my mind will be on the fun Spring break trip coming up next weekend! This last week (as all the weeks have been) went by in a flash. We mainly just went to school each day and carried about our everyday activities. On Thursday my cousins came from Germany to visit me and I got to take them around Venice. It was very cool for me to be able to show them around and explain things to them. On Saturday I got to witness some of the illegal bag venders running from plain clothes cops. That was rather interesting…I almost got run over! Sunday though, was my favorite. We met John over on the Lido and went to the beach. Although it was not a perfect, sunny day it was still beautiful and enjoyable. I collected a good sized bag of sea shells and walked along the beach with my shoes off and pants rolled up. The water was freezing, but I still enjoyed it so very much. I had a great Sunday, and I plan on going to the Lido often now. Well ciao for now!
Erika’s Blog
As a form of escape from the hardened landscape and sudden leap in the tourist population, we decided to do as the Venetians and flee to the Lido, the summer get-away for Venice. We arrived on the sandy beach, confronted with blue-gray open sea, the sound of waves and smell of salt basking our naked faces. A smile settled on my lips and stayed there all day as I got in touch with my inner five year old, removing my shoes and throwing them over my shoulder to play in the waves and watch my footprints disappear with the tide. We spend a good portion of our time searching for shells, the gems of the shore, snatching up one that caught our fancy and discarding those we felt would be better for another person someday. Among the shells, we discovered bits of terracotta pottery, a small portion of the ancient heritage of this sea and of this place, and I couldn’t help but let my mind wander to the distant lands across the sea or the sunken ships beneath the waves that the piece could have originated from before it drifted into my hand. To tie up the calm, gray afternoon, we confiscated an abandoned volley ball and played a game of soccer up and down the beach, creating a source of entertainment as well as a common bond between the four of us to end our perfect Sunday afternoon.
Jessica’s blog
Today I squished into my polka dotted rubber boots and headed out for the Lido. I hopped on the Vaporetto in hopes of turning my day around, because I was just having an awful one. I arrived at the Lido stop and walked across the island to the beach. It was a very foggy day and the beach seemed as if it were being caged in by mist and fog. Although there was so much fog, I felt very much at peace sitting on a rock near the pier. I became transfixed with the rhythmic sound of waves lapping onto seashell strewn sand, and I do believe I began to meditate a little. It felt so good to just forget about everything and pay attention only to the constant whoosh and stir of the ocean with the occasional fog horn in the distance. When I looked over there was a single man on a sand bar that was fast becoming smaller and smaller, busily picking up shells and putting them into a net. I wondered if he was as lost in thought as I was while he stooped again and again to retrieve the shells. Did he come to relieve himself of a bad day also? This trip is teaching me that no matter where you are, or what world you are from, humans are humans and our feelings and thoughts are not very far apart wherever you come from. After sitting on the rocks for some time, and turning down the man with his arms outstretched and filled with scarves even longer, I splashed my way slowly to the street. I was feeling inexplicably better and refreshed. I feel lucky to be living in this amazing place. I get to live side by side with this ancient city and its friendly inhabitants every day, and when I’m not having a particularly great day I can head to the beach and everything is better. Venice, I have concluded, has it all.
Alyssa’s blog
Rather than traveling to a nearby city like we have been, this weekend we stayed in Venezia. I am so happy we did! The weekdays are full of school and I’ve been missing the exploration of Venice. There are places to see, people to meet! So I took different paths on my daily routes. Then I re-experienced some things that I felt I didn’t get enough of the first time, like the Ghetto and the Basilica at San Marco [when lit up]. I went to the Lido [the sandy beach that is littered with seashells] for the first time and collected dozens of shells, and met an old man who schooled us with his calcio [soccer] skills. We were even lucky enough to have some field trip days with John. I have felt so at home this week.
We visited the San Pietro church, which is near the end of the Arsenale. It has a very “Palladian-esque” [as John called it] edifice and was once THE Cathedral of Venice, in a very important location. Now it is in a nearly deserted part of the city. The “slums,” one could say. The campanile in the front looks similar to the leaning tour of Pisa in its almost-toppling state. From the bridge approaching this church, the view is intriguing, and different from the rest of the canal views in Venice. There were sounds and glimpses of the few people left in this area working on boats with their dogs lying on the docks in boredom, until one of the pups saw us and was as curious in us as we were with them. The lower population detracts tourists, so regardless the low number of inhabitants, the atmosphere held a truer sense of “Venice.” For a moment I could imagine that the people of the neighborhood had gone into the city centre, to work, socialize, or to simply enjoy the renaissance life in Venice, and left these few workers behind, who were content to continue in their daily chores.
I started this new thing, called Running Photography Adventures. If you’ve ever seen [my favorite flick] Yes Man, you know what this is. So far it’s just me, but maybe I can get a group together =] if we can fit through the calles that is! I like running in Venice because you can explore twice as much, twice as fast! Plus it’s a much needed workout after all of the Nutella and gelato we eat!
I have been preparing the artist in me, partly for my summer in Brescia but firstly, for our remaining watercolor course. I have been making some sketches, and on Monday, John will be giving us a lesson in outside perspective drawing! I love practicing art. In fact, I feel a little over-indulgent. For me, having time for something like art is like having too much dessert. But I must give in, because that is why I am in Venice. I have set aside this time in my life to have a grand adventure and pursue what I normally save for last [and never get to]. I’d like to thank my Dad, my grandparents, the scholarship committee, the loan officer…. =D
After a wonderful week in Venice [minus the fog that never lifted], I am feeling refreshed and ready to explore the rest of Italy again on our tour to Tuscany and Florence!
Kyle’s blog
Because of rain, there was no soccer this Sunday! Otherwise, a couple of friends and I would have gone to watch AC Milan (Home) play Napoli. The day wonderful, nevertheless, as we met Giovanni for a nice stroll on the beach, collecting many assorted shells and other remnants of dead things…and we played soccer! Sunday was foggy, overcast, and slightly warmer than usual – it was perfect.
The witnessing of an Italian sting operation highlighted Saturday! Right below our apartment there was a clash between some plainclothes cops and African bag salesmen. The preceding pursuit, which started who-knows-where, ended at our campo. The bag-guys had to struggle against these cops while carrying about ten bags on each arm. The excitement ended with the police triumphant, with stacks of black-market purses and shoulder bags under custody.
The last week was especially taxing on me, and by Friday, I was dead. Ha-ha late-night dinners, face booking, and wandering around will not be so frequent this next week. Sleep is good.
Veiled Venice
Outside San Pantalon
Inside
The Ceiling
I've changed the group into crazed 'gelato freaks'
San Francesco della Vigna
San Francesco
San Francesco
Capella Badoer Giustiniani
The canal alongside San Francesco
Used clothing store at San Martino
San Martino
Who are these people?
Behind the Arsenale
Sunset on the way home
Looking across to San Giorgio
In the back streets of San Pietro
Canale di San Pietro
Photographers at work
Mauro Codussi's Campanile...yes...it leans!
San Pietro di Castello
The old Monastery at San Pietro
In the backstreets of San Pietro
Castello
Alyssa's San Marco shots
San Pietro
Collecting shells on the Lido
Kyle the "beachcomber"
Caitlin and Erika on the Lido
Soccer on the beach!
