Blogs from Venice, Veneto, Italy, Europe - page 129

Day two in Venice. We toured the Acedemia, which was an art history dream come true…Highlights include two artists: Titian and Tintoretto. Just to give you an idea of what I’m studying/learning, I’ll throw in an excerpt from my notes here: Titian (aka Tiziano, Titianvs): paints deliberately, lived to be 89-90 years old, before him you could not see brushstrokes in painting, as he ages he cares less for smoothness and details, reportedly painted his last works “in blood” because they have a “redness” to them, has perfect perspective, is genius because he changes style easily and according to meaning. Tintoretto: apprentice of Titian until Titian kicks him out, he always reveres Titian regardless, compulsive painter, brilliant, lower class… A contest was held to see who would paint the ceiling of a hall, the night before ... read more

The hotel we were staying at had free breakfast, so we were excited to see what we would get, unfortunately it was ham rolls! After brekkie we bused back out to Venice, we walked for miles all over the place, at one stage we were trying to get to a certain bridge, and one wrong turn took us all the way back to where we had started. It probably didn’t help that instead of a map, we were playing rock, paper, scissors to see which way we would turn. We sat in Saint Mark’s Square for a while, reading about the basilica and how most of the adornments on the outside had been pilfered off other churches. The number of pigeons in the square was crazy, people would hold seed in their hands and would get ... read more

I decided that Claire was also too smelly (they´re all going to kill me when we meet up again for Oktoberfest!), and headed off on my own, going solo for a week, while Claire headed back to Prague. I caught a train across the Italian border to a city called Trieste. I arrived at night, struggled to find my place to sleep, but finally made it, giving me time to wash clothes, shower and crash for the night. In the morning, I walked around the city checking out the sites, taking some photos. The place was alot more appealing in daytime than when I arrived the night before. Since this was only a pitstop, I jumped on a train for Venice. Arrived in Venice with a few good hours before dark, so grabbed a map and ... read more

It’s that thought or something similar to that effect, that ran through my mind as I wandered about the slow sinking City of Venice soaking in the Beauty, the Paradoxes, the electricity and the extravagance of this Phantom city of my dreams. It was one of the 3 must sees of my European trip, the other 2 are Neushwanstein Castle and Paris. As we entered Italy from Austria, one thing struck me, was the industrial clutter along the route, something I avoided seeing in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. I learned that most of Italy’s most industrial cities of Milan, Torino and Genoa are in the North, which may explain it. I expected to see more the Italy of cobblestone villages, women washing clothes in a stream, donkeys pulling carts, etc. or the Italy of the ... read more

Venice, Italy Welcome to Waterworld! Venice, or Venezia to the Italians, is of course famous for its canals. There are about 150 of the buggers, splitting up nearly 120 islands, all connected by about 400 bridges. There are no cars in Venice. Instead, water taxis, waterbuses, and the world-famous gondolas sweep along its myriad of canals. Unique in Europe, Venice is the only major city that still functions without the use of roads. If you want to get anywhere in Venice you have to get in a boat or else walk. Arriving in Venice around noon, we disembarked from the Sprit of Dubrovnik, the high-speed ferry that had delivered us from Poreč, Croatia. Our trip to Venice was going to be a real whistle-stopper; we had a mere five hours to experience all things Italia! After ... read more