As for the students of the American University of Rome, our thansgiving was provided by the school. It was nothing close to home-cooking (specifically my aunt donna's artichoke dip) but it would do. AUR brought in an Italian priest to say grace for us. Which was elegantly stated as:
"God is great,
God is good,
Let us thank him,
for this food."
also hillarious.
We had our fill of Italiano-American style potatoes, turkey, stuffing, etc. and headed towards the transtation, hopped on the 11:00 night train towards Venice and were on our way. We were afraid that there would'nt be able to get any sleep seeing as how we would be moving. BUT as it turns out you can flatten out your seats and between Joanne, Jen and myself, we all had our own seperate..we'll call them beds for a lack of a better word.
We got into the city of water at 5:30 in the morning. I want to take this time to say that I LOVED Venice, but I do have one problem with it. No bathrooms. Seriously. The bathroom on the train was really gross and the bathroom in the trainstation did'nt open for another hour. Putting your bladder in check is a serious constraint on a weary traveler. Believing we would have better luck towards the more touristy areas, we made our way through the winding streets.
Venice dosen't really have city planning, I mean it's like the urban planners were talking and said:
"Hey Guisseppe, where should we build this building?"
"umm...where there is'nt water?"
So it took us a long time to find St. Mark's Square. We tried using the map, which eventually became more hindrancce than help and started to follow signs. Some of them looked offical, others did not. After many wrong turns we came across the most beautiful piazza.
http://members.cox.net/mkpl3/italvac/066-venice-st-marks-sq.jpgI'm really glad I went to Venice when I did, I had been to Venice before, In fact I had my 13th birthday there. But Summer Venice and Winter Venice are very very different. Think of it as the bi-polar city.
Since the Renaissance, Venice had been praised for it's Summer lighting and artists like Da Vinci, Bellini and Titian sought to capture that specific light. It is the light that inspired chiaroscuro shading.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/Leonardo_da_Vinci_025.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0a/Bellini_mirror.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/41/Tizian_085.jpg
However inwinter, It's a light that is moody, dark and much like the time between waking and dreaming. Disorienting but also intriguing. However at 5:30 in the morning, tired, needing to pee, it's not as romantic as it sounds. Eventually we found a cafe that had the most delicious croissants. They were like, bread, chocolate and the stuff of my dreams all inside a neat little package. There was also in this cafe, even more importantly a bathroom. It's amazing how much the little things matter when you're traveling. The world can be brand new after a cup of coffee. We then made our way to the Doge's Palace.
The Doges were essentially "Dukes" that ruled for life in Venice. Pretty much kings, they were usually considered to be the shrewdest minds in Venice. The palace was pretty reflective of that. In Rome, to show power you show as much gold , silver and fresco as possible. Because surely, more is more. But at this palace, it's not so much how much you show, it's what you choose to show.
There is a understated quality to the structure. You get the feeling that they have money, but they have so much money they don't need to flash it around. It's in the detail; spectacular carving, materials, fine brush work. Roman grandure is meant to impress, Venician grandure is meant to intimidate.
We also went to the bell-tower in St. Marks, by the time we got there the entire Piazza was completely flooded. There were people walking around in plastic bags as shoes, also lots and lots of rubber boots. Finally an entire city that understands and appreciates the glory of Wellington Boots.
Back to the bell-tower, we were there while the bells started ringing at noon. At first we thought that maybe the bells were for show, but then we found out otherwise first hand. I should be getting my hearing back any-day now.
After that we went on a walking tour of the city and got to see the Canals, the Piazzas, The Churches and the beautiful glass they have there. Venice is maybe one of my favorite cities because it is so unique. I mean a lot of cities have canals, Amsterdam being the one that comes to mind. But in cities like Amsterdam there is at least an order, a reasoning. Venician canals seem like the kind of place where dark stories are born and bread, here the element of water is king and the city's mood depends on it. It seems like the kind of place you would have in a dream, like, "We were living in this city, but all the streets were water and I could'nt find anything, it was so wierd." There is an eerieness that is unavoidable and very very beautiful.
We took the train back to rome around 5 in the afternoon and got back around 10. Away from the water, towards the hills. All and all It was a wonderful trip.
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