I am on a train heading home. Home as you all know is currently Lucca. Yesterday we were in Venezia, or Venice. Then we went to Vicenza for one night, then left on a bus to Padova, or Padua, then got on this train where we are headed to Firenze, or Florence. This train’s final stop is Roma, or Rome.Who decided to anglicize the names of these cities? It is not like the Italian name is hard to pronounce, or spell, or remember. Paris gets to be Paris, Hamburg gets to be Hamburg. Even Montréal gets to keep it’s name for crying out loud.
We spent a total of 2 days in the very crowded and tourist packed Venezia.
The Vaporetto or local bus
It is a double edged sword that the very thing that sustains this city is also what is it’s downside. In an effort to try and see a truer side to this amazing city, we purposely went ‘off-road’ and happily got ourselves lost in areas where we were often the only ones around. This was quite a feat if you saw how many thousands of tourists were packed into the region from the Rialto Bridge to the Piazza San Marco.
Venice
This meant that we did not do the Basilica di San Marco, nor the Palazzo Ducale. The first falling under the category of churches, and we all know that the boys have an embargo on any more of those (in Italy) currently. The latter as the queues to get in would mean standing in 30+ heat for an hour waiting.
But it also meant that we explored more on the peripheries of the city.
Doing this we found that Venezia has a very large and beautiful park on the water about a 10 minute walk from the tourist hell. It was here we sat and cooled off in the shade from the 30+ heat. There was hardly a soul in the park, even though the world renown Biennale International Art Exhibit was being held within it.
We also went to the Peggy Guggenheim museum (http://www.guggenheim.org/venice). This was a big highlight of the trip. Especially for Dwayne as there was a Robert Rauschenberg GLUT exhibit. We saw Picassos, Pollocks (Dwayne’s favorite), Dalis (Luc’s favorite), Kandinsky, Klee, Chagall, Tanguy (another Luc favorite), Calder, Balla, and Severini. I would say I had a few favorites. I love the Calder Mobile. I loved ‘Mare=Ballerina’ by Severini. You really need to see it up close to appreciate how it was painted. I also loved Giacomo Balla’s work, especially ‘Abstract Speed’.
Then we went to Vicenza to visit our newest friends, Tony and Cheryl, whom we met in Lucca. Tony is a professor of Architecture at LeHigh University, but was here with students from the States as Vicenza is the site of the famous Andrea Palladio and his work. They are a great couple and we took an immediate liking to them. They also have an amazing personal story and have endured great obstacles while still maintaining their grace and humour. Perhaps if Cheryl doesn’t mind one day I will share their story as it is inspiring. We loved Vicenza and I would recommend that if one were here visiting that they add this amazing city to their itinerary.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=107496&id=648575142&l=4ef503a41f
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Anthony Bourdain and the Belleaus dined here
August 6th, 2009 - 1:43 pm
Funny – tell your friend Tony that I lived in the Lehigh Valley for a year – then travelled there constantly for the next 6 years. Allentown in the Lehigh Valley.