Torcello

With my history of Venice class I went on my 2nd most recent adventure to Torcello, an island in the northern part of the lagoon, that used to be far more important and populated than archipelago of Rialto. By 1000, it has over 10,000 residents. By about 1200, the lagoon around Torcello had become a swamp, all silted up. Unnavigable canals and malaria did it in, and the islands around the Rivus Altus (ri-alto) became Venice. Sadly, this is home now to little more than ruins, with fewer than 20 residence. When building the Venice we know today, Torcello was used as a mine, so almost nothing is left of the city that used to be here. Much of the land has been converted to artichoke farms of people from nearby Burano and Murano.
The one exception to this is the Cathedral, which has some of the most fantastic mosaics I've ever seen. Built around 1080ish, some of the best of Byzantium are on those walls. Climbing the bell tower, I got to see all the way to the sea on one side, and Venice and the lagoon on the other. Unlike every other bell tower I've been in, instead of having just stairs, the inside of the bell tower also had ramps.
Thy also have a large stone chair, that locals claim was the throne of Atilla the Hun. and yes, I did sit upon it.

This image was from http://campus.belmont.edu/honors/byzitaly/Torcello.html, a really good site for info and pictures about Torcello and late Byzantine art.

First days in Venice!

Arriving in Venice on Friday afternoon was an adventure in itself. Getting up at 6am, I found that although Viterbo is only 1 hour at the most from Rome, to get to the train station in the city, because of the insane amount of traffic, would take almost three times that. After the 4 hour ride to Venice, and as I exit the train, the sky opens up. Within minutes I was drenched. After getting the waterbus to the academia, the closest stop, I hiked across the city. Now, wheeling these three bags wouldn't have been a big deal, if it were not for the distinct features of Venetian city planning that made wheeling very difficult. My luggage almost didn't fit though some of the alleys I had to walk though to get to the house. Canals entail bridges, 7 of which I needed to cross to get to the house. Also, because it is sinking into the sea, the city is under constant reconstruction, so my route included a lot of backtracking and dead ends. But now I'm here- safe and sound.

House really isn't the proper word to use when describing Casa Artom. More accurately, it should be called a palace. My triple room, which is at least five times as large as my double at wake, has direct access to the Grand Canal. That means that when police boats come speeding by, we can hear the waves crash right up against our door. Our library is HUGE and the house is decked in bookshelves, overflowing. The kitchen even has a pasta roller! I'm all set.
Casa Artom also has a fantastic location. If we talk a right out our door, we immediately run into the Guggenheim and the Academica. If left, we hit La Chiesa di Santa Maria della Salute. It takes 10 minutes to walk to the supermarket, and less than 2 to get to a fishmarket that is open every morning with the catch of the day.
On Saturday I visited the Academia museum and wandered through the San Marco district.

I am learning to appreciate all the things my parents did for me so much more now that all the planning, preparation, and performance of all activities essential to life, I must now do myself. To cook, clean, do laundry, while doing everything else you want to do during the day was a feat I successfully accomplished today- hopefully by the end of this semester I'll be a well-oiled machine ready for the real world. My first dinner- cooked for myself: mashed potatoes with green peas and pancetta. Adding that fatty Italian bacon makes everything taste better.

I received a text being invited to a theater house party- Thanks for the invitation Nathan, but I won't be able to make it.

Tomorrow is our first day of planned activities: intense touring around the city. Wish me luck!

Love and miss all of you, and you are certainly in my prayers,
yours truly
Alé

Germany

Morgan I have just arrived back in Viterbo from spending a week with family friends, my Uncle Herman and Aunt Lisa in Germany. But let me quickly bring you all up to speed with my experience. From the minute we arrived, we were comsumed by german culture. Our first dinner: a delicious batch of bratwurst and potatoes dumplings. Later I watched a comedy that I couldn't understand on TV. Not only was there a language barrier, but I didn't understand why it was so funny. It seemed to me to be a bit scary. two people took turns yelling from the screen at the audience, in german. anyway, breakfast was fantastic- big and long, the exact opposite of an italian breakfast. Fruehstueckwurst, fresh rolls, homemade jams, fried eggs, austrian mountain cheese, fruit- it was delightful.
Then we visited Ronneburg castle, where there was a view of Frankfort from the top of the tower. One of the things I like about these out of the way places is that they let you do stuff you just can't at most museums. Like trying on the medieval armor, that sort of thing. After that we sampled the black forest cake and headed home.
Story about magic table, donkey, and baseball bat
Then we visited Gelnheusen where there was a castle of Fredrick the First, Holy Roman Emperor (the original Barbarosa)in ruins and early lutheran cathedral.
At Bad brueckenau there was a very interesting art deco church and bath complex- The story goes that one of the kings of Bavaria had a palace there, and built another for his mistress across a park. Whenever she wanted him to come over, she would put a candle in the front window. This distraction apparently caused him so much difficultly to perform his duties as king that the state could not function properly. They call the river that springs from the spring beneath the bath complex the "sin river".
At Kreuzberg we visited a fransiscan monestary located at the top of a mountain. They are well-known for the beer brewed there in the ice. After scaling the icy summit, we feasted on Frankfurterwurst and lentils, boiled sort rib, sauerkraut and maskedpotatoes, dumplings and gulash. Before leaving we visited st. Bernard breeding kennel they had at the monestary.
Finally I wanted to tell you a story that the Grimm brothers wrote down that was originally from Hanau, the city were we stayed. Three brothers were all kicked out of their father's house for being lazy, and so each became apprentices at different workshops in a town two days journey away. The first worked for a carpenter, the second for a miller, and third for a turner (someone who works with a lathe to turn wood). When they each completed their apprenticships, they received their rewards for their good work and went home. The first received a table, that when he said the magic words it would instantly be covered in food, sumputous enough for the finest feast. On his way home he stayed at an inn overnight, and hosted a feast with his magic table there. The innkeeper, who was a very greedy and clever man, replaced the table with a look-alike while the boy slept. When the first son arrived home, he gathered all his friends and family around, talking up the feast they were about to have. Needless to say, when nothing happened, it was a flop.
The second son reveived a donkey, that when you said the magic words, gold coins poured out of its mough, nose, and ears. Using said gold coins to pay for his stay, the innkeeper saw the donkey's value, and switched the donkey that night as he did the table. When the second son arrived home, he also prepared his family for a surprise, that turned out to be of little excitement.
When the last son arrived at the inn, with a big piece of turned wood (similar to our baseball bat) in a bag, the innkeeper was certain it must be of great value. More careful than his brothers, the third pretended to be asleep as the innkeeper took the bat our of the bag. Then the boy said the magic words and the bat proceeded to beat the innkeeper to a pulp. Sorely beaten, he confessed to his crime and handed the donkey and table over to the third son, who brought it all back home.

Naples: Days 2 -4- Sorrento, Pompei, and the Museo Archeologico Nazionale

The past two days we took some day trips outside the city. Sorrento was first- an hour or so boat ride took us to the harbor at the base of the cliffs on which Sorrento sits. Sorrento was beautiful, and had all of Naples' charm, without any of the explosions. The next day we headed to Pompei, a city that was considered ancient when the Romans concured it in the 1st century BC. It was amazing to walk through all the streets. It was really cool to see Vesuvius, although much of it was blown off 2000 years ago. Imagining how tall it would have been makes you realize how much it loomed over the city, and how quickly the city must have been destroyed. After that, we went to the National Archeological Museum. There two of my most favorite sculptures are there: the tired Hercules and the Farnese bull.

Naples- day 1: the city

So we completed our first day in Naples- and we made sure to fill it to the brim. The best place to start is, logically, the beginning, and our beginning effectively was at Cafe Gambrinus, because that is where we had breakfast. Less than a stone's throw from Palazzo Reale and Piazza del Plebiscito, Gran Gafffe Gambrinus has been host to frequents like Gabriele D'Annunzio, and Oscar Wilde. Then we headed over to Palazzo Reale. There was a ballroom there that would have been a fantastic place for us to host a swing dance, but awe well. It soon became apparent why Naples is extremely well known for their nativity scenes. In the palace they had a nativity scene that must have included over 100 figures. To create the effect of perspective, they sculpted the figures smaller as they went off into the distance. After that we headed over to Castel Nuovo, which was considered new around 1279 during the reign of Charles 1st of Anjou. This helped distinguish it from Castel Del'Ovo (Castle of the Egg), and Castel Capuano. The Castle continues to be where the city council meets today. The coolest thing there was the Baron's Hall, which had an eight-pointed star shaped dome ceiling. Finally we saw the Capodimonte- top of the mountain, from which we enjoyed spectacular views of the city and some fantastic works of art. There was a painting by Artemisia, of Judith slaying Holofernes that is spectacular. The artist was obscessed with having the perfect colors, so much so that it is rumored that she used her own blood to make the right color red in her paintings.

Now we're in Naples. It was the capitol of it's own kingdom for hundreds of years before becoming part of Italy at the end of the 19th century. It is organized much like how I would want to build my own capitol city: wide boulevards, imposing castles, galleries, theaters, and one of the most spectacular archeological museums in the world. It's charming in a sketchy sort of way- the wide boulevards are connected by narrow alleys. Although charming it does have a few downsides:
1- the Camorra- the name of the Napolitano mafia is the most violent in the world. More drugs, prostitution rings, and murders flow through these crime families than any other on the peninsula, and they are some of the most powerful in Europe. The most lucrative trade however is little discussed but has an amazing impact on the life of southern Italians: garbage. Hazardous waste has been illegally shipped by the mafia from northern Europe and Italy to southern Italy, where it has been illegally dumped in the countryside. The damage caused in these areas is horrendous, both for the agriculture (nothing grows as well when industrial chemicals are in the groundwater) and for the people. There is a fantastic film that depicts life in the Neapolitan suburbs where the Camorra is most powerful called Gomorra. However, serious government efforts have made significant gains against crime in recent years.
2- A few years ago, you might remember hearing reports of the garbage in the streets of Naples. This was because the Camorra, that wasn't getting enough in kickbacks, stopped taking out garbage. Having a monopoly on the system, the Camorra effectively turned the city into a trash heap in a few days. In the media, this was greatly exaggerated. That being said, Naples isn't a very clean city. It's charming and beautiful, but not that tidy.
3- The waiters can be really pushy- they will insist that you must try the house special, for every course, after the first time when you refused, at least a dozen times. You must be insistent. You must stand by your convictions and not be persuaded by their wiles- if they ask enough they know that you will eventually say yes to stop them from asking again. The important thing is that you must know what you want. They respond well to polite firmness- you don't need to be rude, but state quite plainly what you want and they will get it for you quick enough.
4- Naples, like many other cities, set off fireworks to celebrate new years. Unlike other cities, the Nepolitanos start the explosions over two weeks before hand, and its not unusual to hear pavement-cracking, earth-shaking explosions on a regular basis there. When we were calmly eating our pizza at a restaurant on the street, we heard this explosion from the alley behind us. Car alarms were going off, there was smoke, and we heard a bunch of kids scream. We were a bit nervous, nay, afraid of all the comotion. But the italians all around us were as unperturbed as if a bird had flown by. They saw how worried we were and told us to calm down- that sort of thing happends all the time.
Anyway- Naples in a nutshell: Strangely calm when everything around them is going crazy.