Carnevale 2006 A month before Carnivale arrived to Venice, I was warned by family and the natives alike to avoid the streets and be on the lookout for hords of costumed Venetians and international travelers. I think it may have all been in hopeful expectancy, because as the first days of festivities came and went, news of Carnevale and its famed magnitude were less and less favorable. Historically Carnevale parades and processions were symbolic and plentiful, attracting thousands, including all the Venetians the themselves, to piazzas and campi to watch, jeer, cheer, hurray, drin [View Full Entry]

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Observations from within an Italian classroom (non University): -There is no rubric for grading. It seems very subjective, if not completely. The last day of my computer design class, half Italian students, half Americans, we lasted 1.5 hours overtime simply because there seem to be no rules. People arrive when the please and the teacher is happy to repeat info (if they start on time) if not wait up to 30 minutes for the rest of the class to show...wasting the time of those who arrive ontime. Now, during overtime this particular day, we were supposed to lay out or final [View Full Entry]

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It is December 5, 2005. This will be my second Christmas away from home. I know this may not mean much to some, or others may realize they, too, haven’t been home in a while, or a few others may never have wanted to be home in the house in which they grew because of a difficult childhood, or even a few others may be questioning exactly what IS a home…but I, I know exactly what I am missing, and it is so very present in my heart that it makes me both terribly sad and overwhelmed with joy that [View Full Entry]

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When Venice flirts with the sea- Aqua Alta Saturday at 8:30 am I heard sirens. Never heard them in my life, but sounded just like they do in the films, only for air raids and emergency situations. I go back to sleep, to wake up 2 hours later. Get dressed and head out to go work in the studio at school. On the vaporetto, however, I noticed people wearing their knee high boots, but stupidly it didn’t occur to me why. Cautious they must be. Yes, cautious. But when the boat stopped at the first of many, I noticed the water [View Full Entry]

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My shoes echo in the alleys, clicks of my heels follow me home. The mornings are often heavy with a thick fog, a huge, dense fog that has fallen upon the city, rolled in by the etched deities that blow the directional winds on the ancient maps. There are no bird songs, but caws and screeches by seagulls and other water birds, even at times during the night. Once in a while, with the girls, I grab a spritz, the classic aperitivo mixed drink…typical that at about 7pm, the bars are filled with the locals sipping orange colored drinks with toothpick-speared [View Full Entry]

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The 51st Venice Bienniale-International Art Exhibition Steps from my apartment. A 10 minute walk, in fact, to the gardens near St.Elena. During the year, the architectural structures called pavilions, built by various countries decades ago to host their artists every year here in the summer months of the Bienniale, are empty. But these months this very famous international art exhibition attracts people from all over the world. Among the trees and connected by sandy and pebble pathways are the distinctly different pavilions by such countries as Hungary, Uruguay, Romania, Korea, Icelan [View Full Entry]

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Friday morning, I’d already arrived late to the station where we were all to meet to take the bus to the Questura. It is 7:30am and I am standing among the buses. They really did leave on time. Hm. So I ask which bus into Mestre (mainland Venice) takes me to the Questura office and once I exit the bus, following the throw of people ominously heading my way. We are in a residential neighborhood and a 7 minute walk through some buildings, past a church, and we near a huge, dull, windowless building. Sure enough, a line of 150 [View Full Entry]

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The rims light by warm white lights, like the entrance guided by candlelight. Upon water. The horizon is constantly waving and firm ground is not a constant. Slightly nasal, but warm-sounding Venetian dialect. Unusual silences. Lack of cars, buses, motorinos and bicycles. Lapping of waves Up and down, and up and down, the rhythm of my journey over the small sets of marble stairs that cross over the canals, as often as I’d stop for a traffic light or a cross in the road. And the rhythm repeats on the water. Green like jade. Calming. Margins of the city a big [View Full Entry]

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The Families, August 31, 2005 Arriving in Rome, I spent 1.5 days with my aunt, uncle and greeted my new baby cousin, Lorenzo. At dinner together at the house, Gioia and Andrea took turns holding and rocking the little one only 20 days old, while Gioia would nurse and the two, with exhaustion, expressed the life of new and young family. But the two are very tender and Gioia has taken a symbolic step many new mothers take…a wash and go haircut. Metaponto, Italy My time in Rome was short, as 2 days after my arrival in Italy I took a [View Full Entry]

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Too slow at the beginning, too fast at the end. The initial weeks of re entry didn’t spawn any tears…those, in fact, came weeks after my body and mind finally realized just where I’d came from and where I’d returned to. Home. Boston. Connecticut. Italy. Connecticut. Boston. Connecticut. Back to Italy. My return to the US constituted week upon week of visiting. Most people were already well-aware of my adventures, and I was more interested in the update on the lives of the people who’d I’d missed out on for 10 months. Visiting my good friends in Bost [View Full Entry]

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