Oct 15th, Verona Duomo and Tower

10/15   Tuesday

            Verona is a beautiful city. We are sort of confused by the tour groups walking through town, since it just doesn’t have a lot of big-ticket sites. Even the sites that are noteworthy are not filled with tours. But it probably makes for a good afternoon stop on a multi-city tour. We buy our Verona Card, so we have plenty of sites to check out.

            Our first stop is St. Anastasia, a mostly 15^th Century Gothic church. The exterior is brick, and looks decidedly unfinished. Inside, however, the high vaulted arches are covered with a delicate fresco that looks like tapestry. There’s a holy water font with a sculpture of a hunchback holding it up, probably not meant to be as amusing as it is.

            The next church we visit, the Duomo, is of a similar architectural style with the early Romanesque building expanded into Gothic. It’s elegant and awesome, with elaborate sculptures in all the chapels along the nave.

            Back in the city center, there’s a popular square with a canopied market. They’re selling knit shawls, sweaters, scarves, wool caps, fake Murano glass, fake Burano lace, aprons with Limoncello recipes on them, and all the usual tourist knick-knacks. It’s sad to see, but most of the goods are RPC, or Made in China. They do sell very nice local roasted chestnuts.

            We climb up the Lombardi Tower for a beautiful view of the city. The great bells chime just as we come up to the platform with them. Ow!

            Now, we head to one of the most, as I would put it, bogus of attractions: Juliette’s House. There’s a real cottage industry going on pretending that Juliette, of “Romeo and Juliette” lived here, with a balcony out to the courtyard that serves as the sight of “Romeo, Romeo, etc, etc.” The fact that this is fiction doesn’t seem to bother anybody. The house and museum is an actual 12^th century home belonging to the family Dal Cappello, which is close enough to Capulet to satisfy the tourists. The museum, which is of course empty, has the actual bed and costumes used in the Franco Zeffirelli film. There’s also an email station where one can send a message to Juliette. The action is in the courtyard, though, which on some days is impassible with fans. There is a wall of love locks, a bronze statue of Juliette with a shiny right boob in danger of going the way of St. Peter’s flipper feet, and thousands of little notes to Juliette stuck to the walls with chewing gum. A gift shop sells souvenirs, heart-shaped everything, and gum. A guardian stands by with a bottle of cleaner, valiantly trying to keep the walls of the home free from “Marcus + Andrea” and such. In the passageway to the courtyard, there are huge white panels completely covered with such scribblings, along with a big sign that says “Writing anywhere other than on the white wall will result in a $500 fine.” Good luck with that.

 1 Video Included

Verona Duomo and Tower

Oct 14th, Venice to Verona

10/14   Monday

            Our train to Verona is less than two hours, a pleasant ride through the countryside, with farms and towns in the flat river basin, and low hills growing higher as we move westward. We make a connection from the train to a local bus, and are surprised to find the bus terminal absolutely swarming with young people, probably high school students. It seems there are hundreds of them. Our bus arrives, apparently headed for Old People Town, because none of the kids get on.

            We are met in the streets by our host’s brother, who lives in the apartment and is moving out for the week. It’s in a lovely neighborhood, on a tree-lined street by the river, with a view of the Cathedral across the river and a villa on the hills behind us. The city seems elegant and genteel, much like Florence, without all the tourists. There is a foggy mist coming in, so we head to the nearby grocery store to get something for dinner before it starts raining. We end the day having porcini ravioli on out covered terrace, looking out at the hills covered in fog and juniper trees, looking so beautifully Italian.

Oct 13th, Venice Burano Lace

10/13   Sunday

            We have a beautiful day, cool and sunny, just right for a boat ride to the nearby island town of Burano, famous for the lace-making school that was established there, which is now a museum.

            The island is really pretty, quieter, full of farms and vineyards and distressed farmhouses. The houses are mostly two or three stories, and painted rich pastel colors of blue, green, yellow and pink. Incredibly picturesque. The main street is full of tavernas and osterias for the tourists, mixed in with shops selling lace tablecloths and scarves, “made in Italy” but certainly not handmade anymore.

            The Lace Museum is right off the center plaza, and as usual, is empty. None of the hundreds of tourists on the island seem to have any interest at all in the distinguishing feature of the place.

            The museum has a well-produced video telling the story of the lace school, founded as a way to provide a trade to the abandoned girls and orphans in the city, when the fashion for fine lace was blooming. Venetian lace from Burano became the gold standard for hand made lace. The school was in operation for nearly one hundred years, closing in the 1970’s, and existing now as the museum. In the video, woman demonstrates the process for making a small piece, an oval designed to resemble and emerald, with different stitches making up the facets. The stages are also shown in a display on the wall so you can really examine every step.

            It’s a shame that no one is here to see the displays. The rooms are fitted with cabinets that have rolling shelves to hold the lace pieces, so you can move the drawers yourself to see more work. The lace is absolutely incredible, so delicate and intricate. A gossamer bridal veil embellished with floral designs lies in one drawer, and every thread has been woven with a small needle, by a young girl holding her work in her lap.

            In the plaza just outside the museum, the local church is holding a “Festival of the Children” with older kids running ring-toss games and water-gun games and dance music going on, lots of shrieking and scooters and strollers and balloons. The church guys are putting on a big barbeque, but instead of chicken, which we would expect, they’re having a calamari roast. Just down the street, all the tourists are sitting at the table-clothed osterias, paying their restaurant prices, missing all this.

            The island seems like a very nice place to live, with farms and orchards bordered by small canals. But, having worked our way through the piles of tourists at the dock, we wonder how much of that you could take if you lived here. 

            We have a great boat ride back to Venice, with the sun getting lower and golden on the water.

 1 Video Included

Venice Burano Lace

Oct 12th, Venice Churches

10/12   Saturday

            More churches and museums! We visit the Carlos Goldoni House, home to the 18^th Century playwright. His father had built a puppet theater in one room for him, which is still there, with all his puppets. A desk and some other furnishings are about all they have, but it’s amusing to be in the home, pretending we live there.

            The Ca’ Rezzonico is another grand 18^th C palace museum, with royal furnishings and elaborate ceiling frescos. We watch a video of one of the famous frescos being restored, an incredibly detailed and careful process, with marvelous results. On the third floor is a collection of paintings donated by one Edigio Martini. There are rooms and rooms full of work from the 15th to 18^th centuries. It’s not entirely clear what his curatorial interest was, but naked ladies seemed to play a significant role.

            We find ourselves in a local neighborhood, which we know because there are children with roller blades and scooters running all kinds of loose on the plaza, screaming as loud as they can. We also seem to be near a university, judging by the groups of younger people filling the cafe tables, smoking and piling up beer bottles. No tourists are to be found here. We squeeze in between the tables and order an Aperol spritz for just 3 Euros each. A four-year-old careens into our table with her trike, but she scoots off unabashed to join her little brother, who is stabbing at everyone near him with his umbrella sword.

            After our relaxing cocktail, we look for a nice taverna for dinner. We find a small spot with dark beams on the ceiling and two sisters working as the front of the house, with somebody, maybe mom, running the impossibly small kitchen. We’re given a table, and told we can have red wine or white wine, whichever we prefer. “It’s our own wine, it’s good,” she assures us, and we have no reason to doubt her. Of course, some people sit right next to us, even though there are other tables at this hour. They’re an older British couple, and have that mumbly, nattering way of talking that older British couples can have. It turns out that they’ve each ordered a grilled fish, which comes to them gloriously whole, hanging off the plate, crispy and glistening. Bob is beside himself watching them pick at it. “They didn’t even touch the head!” he says in disbelief once they’ve finished.

 1 Video Included

Venice Churches

Oct 11th, Venice Sunny Day

10/11   Friday

            We’re having fun with the boat-buses in Venice. They come running right up to the floating docks with no finesse whatsoever, bashing into the pier as a way of stopping, sending the boat and the dock swaying roughly. The handlers throw a rope over the pylon, pull the boat up close enough and hustle everyone off, then everyone on. The engines rev up with a growling, last-legs grumble that makes the whole boat shudder and vibrate with the effort of moving. Then we barrel off, woe betide any little gondola caught in our path.

            One does not trifle with the ticket police, either. We’ve seen them come on the bus or boat, dressed so casually that you’d never suspect them. They shout an official pronouncement: TICKETS EVERYONE! And move through the crowd checking your ticket. They catch someone every time, and everybody’s got a story of course. One poor guy gets led off the bus, whining “Mi hermano, mi hermano.” Another man, with his wife and kid and parents from Japan, we guess, starts shouting on the boat “WE ARE TOURISTS! NOBODY TOLD US TO PUNCH THE TICKETS! WE ARE TOURISTS!!!” The Ticket Officer says “Sorry, that is not my problem,” and takes his credit card for the 200 Euro fine.

            We have something different for today, the Ca' Pesaro International Gallery of Modern Art. The collection is interesting, 19^th and 20^th century works, set in a grand palace on the canal. Of interest is a plaster sculpture of Rodin’s Thinker, created as part of a plan for a pantheon of figures, and later cast as the independent figure that’s ubiquitous today.

            On the second floor of the palace, we have works from the Sonnabend Collection of Pop Art. Ileana Sonnabend was an early collector and promoter of Warhol, Koons, Lichtenstein, Dine, and so many others; she practically invented the notion of pop art as a serious consideration. It’s equally fun to see people confronting Warhol’s Brillo boxes, thinking “What the…???”

            Once we’re through the modern collection, we return to the center stairway and enter the other side of the building, where there is an Oriental Museum, who knows why, which has a dramatic collection of ancient Japanese weaponry and armor, collected by one of the Bourbon princes. The collection of netsuke is absolutely my favorite part.

            It seems we have time for one more, so we head to the Museum of Natural History. This is a departure from the typical rooms full of dusty cabinets, as this museum has recently reopened after a great refurbishing project. The exhibits are beautifully done, with creative lighting and an art installation sensibility. The birds are suspended from the ceiling in flight. The seals and penguins are each shown in a huge bubble, as if swimming in the sea. We’re very surprised that in this touristy city, there is no information in English, not even one hand-out. We can follow along, of course, but it would be interesting to learn some of the science too.

            One full dinosaur skeleton is presented with a video story of its discovery, fairly recently, in the deserts of North Africa. The Touareg nomads were familiar with these monstrous bones, incorporating the creatures into their legends. A chance meeting, more or less, brought a scientist, Paul Sereno, together with a Touareg chieftain, who led him to it, just lying there intact, half buried in the dune, where the winds had blown the centuries of cover from it. It turned out to be an amazing new site for fossils, called Gadoufaoua, Touareg for “the place where camels fear to go.” No, really.

            On our way home, we pass the Thai Pavilion, an installation site that’s part of the Venice Biennial, which is going on through the rest of the month. All around the city, we’ve been seeing pavilions and installations set in the permanent museums. We only have ten minutes to see the show, but we pop in. One room is filled with objects wrapped in colorful string! The second room is the Golden Teardrop, an exquisite construction of small bronze teardrops suspended in a matrix to create a huge sphere. This is paired with a video telling a simple story of a Thai woman learning to prepare the “teardrops,” a Portuguese egg dessert. The story of the intertwining cultures is the theme of the video.

 1 Video Included

Venice Sunny Day

Oct 10th, Venice Murano Glass

10/10   Thursday

            It’s just a glorious day, cool and sunny, a perfect day for a Murano boat ride. We have a slow tour of the side canals of Venice, working our way out to the bay. On the way to Murano, we pass the cemetery, an entire island given for burials. That would certainly be an interesting visit. It’s all behind a high brick wall, so we’re left wondering how the graves are done in this below-sea level city.

            Murano is very appealing, with all the charms of Venice here on a smaller scale. Despite the touring crowds, the island has an easy, relaxing feel to it. Of course, nearly every shop is selling glass. Some of it is low-end souvenir stuff, others are extraordinary art glass. We’re disappointed that there don’t seem to be any working factory tours or demonstrations. In fact, there’s very little done in the way of directions or advertising for anything, one just walks around to find whatever. We manage to get to the Museum of Glass, once again occupying a former palace. They have a short video showing some glassworking, and several rooms of historic glass of various eras and styles. Overall, though, it’s presented with almost no interpretation or explanations, and few labels on the glass pieces. It’s difficult to match the descriptive information with the work it describes. We are certainly spoiled from our experience with the Corning Glass Museum, but still, a few labels wouldn’t kill anybody.

            We spend the afternoon strolling around the city, browsing at the shops and glass art. There are signs everywhere protesting shops that sell glass from outside Murano. Cheap imports are a threat for every market.

            We’re happy to have another boat ride to get us back to Venice. The light is changing as the days get shorter, and everything looks beautiful from the railing of a boat.

1 Video Included

 Venice Murano Glass

Oct 9th, Venice Peggy Guggenheim Collection

10/9     Wednesday

            Bob and Venice are having a love-hate relationship. On the one hand, Bob loves to be on or near the water, so being in Venice makes him happy because everything is on the water. But, Bob also needs to know where we are on the map at every turn, and he and the twisted streets of Venice and the canals and the map are having a terrible time getting along. I can only hope they learn to play nice before the week is over.

            Today, we find our way to the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, located in her villa on the Grand Canal. It’s a popular destination for American tourists especially. The villa is smallish, elegant and perfectly Italianesque. The courtyard is a sculpture garden, and there is an adjoining building for additional exhibits. Much of the work is displayed as she had placed it. Calder, Picasso and Dali welcome you into the foyer. The custom-made Calder headboard is in her bedroom. The library holds five, or is it six, works by Jackson Pollack, illustrating the evolution of his method. I recall that one Pollack work recently sold at auction for $58 million dollars. Hmmm.

            The other building has a show of post-impressionist works by Bonnard, Signac, Redon and others. Here I notice that most of the works are labeled “Private Collection.” So these are works that one can’t expect to encounter again in any museum. It’s a rare privilege to see them, and strange to consider that somebody might just have one in their dining room.

            In the garden, we visit Peggy’s grave, with her dog cemetery next to her. A big plaque reads “Here lie my beloved Babies” with the list of fifteen or so dogs buried there. It all makes us want to learn more about her and her family.

            Next up, the Museo Correr. This building was designed to be Napoleon’s home, but it is actually more interesting because it’s located right on St. Mark’s square, and you can look down on the tourists and pigeons from the upper floors.

1 Video Included

Venice Peggy Guggenheim Collection

Oct 8th, Venice St Marks Square

10/8     Tuesday

            When we arrive at the bus station in Venice, we stop at the Tourist Office and buy a Venice Pass, which will give us entrance to the major sites. With this and our bus/boat pass, we’ll save money and time as we tour the city. Our first agenda is to grab a boat to St. Mark’s Square, not so easy since everyone else has the same idea. When we get to the Square, we’re confronted with a wall of tours and tourists. Not only that, but it is high tide, and the plaza is flooded, up to two feet deep in some areas. There’s a narrow boardwalk set up for passage, completely clogged with people, and the souvenir venders are selling neon colored plastic overbooties that will probably last you a good hour. It’s crazy!

            We figure this is a good time to visit the Doge Palace, which is right here as well, but not attracting much attention. This is the home of the ruling officials, The Doge, elected for life by the city aristocrats, not really Dukes, but the senior officials who ruled the city in both church and civic matters. The Palace is a huge mansion, with rooms for meetings and courts and gatherings of the Councils. We wander through the great corridors of court rooms, lushly appointed living apartments, and the prison, which is pretty interesting, and through a passage over the Bridge of Sighs, where tourists outside are taking our photo as we look out the windows.

            By the time we get through the Palace, the tide has retreated and we can get into the Cathedral, just a short time before they close. The Cathedral is kept very dark, and that’s too bad, because the ceiling is covered in gorgeous golden mosaics. It would be indescribably beautiful in the light. As it is, it’s one of the most dramatic churches we’ve seen. The floor is often neglected ass everyone is looking up, but it’s also incredibly decorated with intricate designs in red, black and green marble.

            Back in the square, we’re treated to the iconic view of St. Mark’s Square, tourists and pigeons cavorting. The cafes that border the square have elegant bandstands with small orchestras playing traditional music for the patrons sitting with their cappuccinos. The violin and accordion notes of Volaré fills the air.

1 Video Included

Venice St Marks Square