Venice...on Speed

If you can go to Venice, get there, even if it is for one day (even if it only for 7 hours like our trip). If I describe our mood it would be similar to Loony Toon’s Speedy Gonzales after a shot espresso. We shot around the city like crazy people. We had a plan, which was fairly well executed until we missed our “bus” (I quote because the buses, vaporetto, is really a boat, of course, it’s Venice) because we couldn’t squeeze out of the crowds easily enough.

Ponte di Rialto. We bought a mask for Elizabeth’s sister and some glass jewelry on this bridge.
On accident we went to San Marco’s Square first which is the architectural highlight of Venice.


We went to the Petty Guggenheim Museum, which houses her personal collection of contemporary and modern art: Picasso, Magritte, Miro, Braque and more artists I studied last quarter. I acted as our tour guide, giving Elizabeth insights to the artists’ lives and their significance. It also houses an impressive sculpture garden. Here I am sitting on the museum dock.


This gives you an idea for how lush the sculpture garden is at the museum. This is a view of the cafeteria.


A wise bench outside the museum


From the Guggenheim, we connected to the 41 to Murana, an island famous for their glass blowing.

Since it was Sunday the furnaces were not on, but Elizabeth and I got a peak of an old man blowing a vase. It was so cool. The glass they produce are beautiful. It’s easy to see why they are world known tradesmen.

*Murana glass colonial figures (i'll add the pic later)

Next we shuttled to Found. Nuove where we worked our way back to the Ponte di Rialto to do a little shopping. We got a bit lost, but this is where I snapped some of my favorite pictures. (I took 126 this day!)

*(i'll add this picture later) An apartment in what was the Jewish Ghetto of Venice. Notice how tall the building is with its four matching green shutters. Since the Jews were not allowed out of this area, they had to build up in order to expand. Remember this is all built on WATER!

A typical Venician vender


Mama Penguin. Don't worry I didn't buy these for you, since I know you hate clutter. Thought you'd like to see what your kind looks like in Murana glass.



All the Gondala drivers and bus drivers wear aviators. I found this hillarious and thought of Nicole, who stole Mike's aviators at the 80's date party sophomore year. So stealth.


A Gondola on our way back to the train station sails along the glistening waters.






After Elizabeth broke a glass earring, we trekked up to the train station to catch the last train to Florence at 16:38, although we wished we could have lingered. Exhausted, we found our way to the dinner car where we had a leisurely dinner of pesto pasta, beef and fruit (we tried to make it last as long as possible since our tickets were SRO). We were quite impressed how good our meal was (although it was expensive) since it was on the train. In the States, this would never happen. The Italians take such pride in their food and culture. It’s admirable and speaks volumes for their system of values. Elizabeth chatted almost nonstop, despite our exhaustion, for the three and half hour return ride. I’m so glad she’s here to do this trip with me. We’re good travel buddies who don’t mind splurging for food, are interested in history, are trilled to be here and we always seem to jump from deep conversations to the next. While we pledged the house together in the fall of our freshman year, our schedules always kept us apart. It’s a good thing when you pinch yourself and realize you’ve had friends you’ll always have, no matter the miles, time or events that may follow.

My favorite Elizabeth question followed my drool-fest on Italian life and how I wanted to live here forever. She asked, “If you move to Italy, do you loose nine ours of your life?” Being I, I answered in a technical scientific answer about relative time, not realizing the philosophical power behind her question until later. We, people of this Earth, are only here for a finite amount of time. In the end my, life probably won’t matter too much on a global level. It’s unlikely I’ll have a city named after me like Romulus (Rome) that survives 2725 years and counting or have a wooden statue of myself in the first University like Hippocrates. Romulus and Hippocrates didn’t act they way they did in order to be remembered. They did what they saw was right and followed that path. While time may pass without respect for location or circumstance, it is a constant renewal, almost a gift (sorry I’m getting cheesy). Some of you may have heard me speak of my AP Art Portfolio in high school. Its central theme was the loss of childhood with time, portrayed as a cruel robber of innocence. Four years later, I believe I’m finally seeing that time isn’t a robber but rather just the opposite—philanthropic. In the end I’m reminded of a favorite quote of mine by Robert Frost, “In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on”. I don’t want to miss another minute of it wishing for the past. With that said I’m off to kick around Florence until my art class starts at 4:15. It will be interesting to see where my art leads me to now after making this realization.

I would apologize for the personal-ness of my blog but that would lead me to another quote: “Never apologize for showing feeling. When you do so, you apologize for the truth” by Benjamin Disraeli. Those who know me well know that I make it a point to be true to myself and do what I think is right in all aspects of my life. I don’t mean to preach because seriously if you managed to read through my lengthy lousy writing (which I give you a round a applause for), you most likely know me well. Thanks for listening/reading. Feel free to e-mail me how you are doing or philosophical thoughts. As you know, especially those I have lived with (Christie), I can spend hours on these topics. I miss you all and hope life where ever you are is everything you want it to be and if it isn’t--don’t be afraid to change it.

Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Con Amore-

Jacqueline

PS I’m not sure if I mentioned this but Elizabeth will be doing some featured posts on food since she’s the expert. I’m her official photog. Look for that next week.

PS If anyone has any web based photo storage sites please let me know. I want to be able to share high resolution pictures and be able to print them off the same site, as well as be able to load them easily from a mac. I'm looking into webshots. Does anyone know any other mac friendly ones? I have a ton of 10MG pictures so it has to be pretty large storage wise. I