Thursday, July 20, 2006
ART
Alright...i'm worn out. It's 10:30 here, and finally starting to cool down. It has been so freakin hot...94 today. Or...40 degrees celsius or some crap like that. Oh man, but it's been fun. On Wednesday we got lost - it's the best way to explore venice. It's an island so hey, you can't really get off. If you can find your way to the Accademia bridge, one of three that cross the Grand Canal (which everyone can tell you how to get to) then you're golden. Anyways, the coolest part of getting lost is that you find random churches that you weren't really expecting. And there are two great things about churches: 1) art (architecture, paintings, sculptures, ornate furniture and decorations) and 2) I can finally put all those years of Latin to good use. I'll never be good at speaking to italians, french, or spaniards but i can sure as hell translate an inscription on some old dudes tomb. Anyways, we found some really cool churches - San Giovanni e Paolo (old Gothic and full of old doges - the princes of old venice) and Santa Maria Formosa (which we actually stumbled in illegally through the backdoor without having to pay but we eventually did pay for our all-churches pass). We had an awesome lunch at Taverna San Trovaso (Griffin had the lasagne which was much different from the one I make, and I had some proscuittio and tortellini). We had some cappucino and gelato as well. We came back so Griffin could do some work and I ended up taking a long nap while Griffin gave tours of the wake house. Griffin made delicious pasta for dinner and we finished the wine we bought (which was amazing, Casa Defara or something like that). We hung out with the wake law students and played power hour (mostly watched them play)for most of the night but then I crashed.
Today we went out this morning and I had a cafe latte and Griffin had a coke at Bar Da Gino, the little cafe/bar right up the calle that we go to about twice a day. Then we went to Ca'Rezzonico, a museum of 18th Century Venetian Art. There was lots of crazy furniture (very ornate), ceiling paintings (Frescoes to be exact...everyone loves the Frescoe), and sculptures. Today was designated Art Day (by me), so after we came back and Griffin checked on a few things at the house, we went out and went to San Salute (the church that's right behind the Wake house and in all the pictures of Venice but isn't San Marco) and then went to the Accademia, another art museum. Mostly we saw some titian, tinoretto, and some other venetian dudes. Pretty fun - some really cool stuff. My favorite was this 9-painting cycle of Ursala and Ereo (or something like that) anyways he was british and she was from some place in Italy and then they got married but she wanted him to be confirmed by the Catholic church and she was some big-wig so they went to Rome to get him confirmed but Rome got sacked by Huns and they got killed. Sad...like a Nicholas Sparks book.
After that we had drinks and Gino's (I had a spritz which is a venetian drink with i dont know what in it and Griffin had Prosseco which is venetian champagne) and some good ol tater chips. Then we went to the grocery story (Billa) and tried to get stuff to make Chicken Marsala but apparently marsala isn't as Italian as I thought it was and I couldn't find it and the store people didn't know what I was talking about (apparently it's Sicilian, which is different). Anyways, we threw together some food and it was pretty good, not the best, but good. We drank some wine (not as good as before...but hey that's what you get for 1.20 euro wine.
Now it's time for bed so we can try to hit up San Marco, the Beach, or somewhere else tomorrow. Ciao!
