Sunday, October 9, 2011
Giannetta a Venizia
The post i worked on this AM - flew off the computer so now i will send some photos and not spend time writing something that could just disappear - I preface the photos by saying that I'm trying hard - and it IS hard to take photos that are not cliches - however, in the evening when I look through the photos I've taken all i see are photos that I've already seen! I'll keep at it -
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Pete is in Boston. Janet is is Venice
This will be a test as there is no point in spending time writing if the blog does not go out to the people I'm sending it to!! Whomever receives this test, I'd appreciate your sending me an email letting me know. You don't need to respond to the blog.
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Venice Sept - Oct 2011
We've now been here 5.5 whole days and they are just about now crowding each other out of my memory!
But - I can start with this very minute and work backwards: I'm sitting on our little balcony enjoying a cool breeze after a hot hot day. We bought sandwiches and with beer and wine we enjoyed a fine dinner here on our balcony - the 1stt time we've done this as all other nights we've been happy eating "out." Today was a wandering day ending up at sunset at the Dogana - the point of the island just across from San Marco on one side and the island of San Georgio on the other. It was the 1st time I took my good camera out. I'll post some photos when i figure out how to do that - can't remember from the Rome blog!
Yesterday we took the train - 1.5 hours to Trieste. It's a beautiful city set into a hllside with the main square - huge - a bit like Torino's Piazza San Carlo, but overlooking the bay. Again, it was VERY hot but be walked up a steep hill to visit a special church - through residential streets. There is also an ancient Roman amphitheatre just at the base of the hill - I have photos of it to post. Trained back to Venice in time for dinner at 9.
Oh - yes, our apartment: I'm adjusting to the funky parts and find it quite comfortable. One enters from a narrow dark sort of alley-way just off a bustling square. Up one flight to the door of the apt and then inside up another flight to the 1st floor which consists of bathroom tiled in RED and white with RED plastic toilet paper holder, soaps dishes, faucets, etc. but it's a good size bathroom not only with places to put your "stuff" but a little clothes washing machine - we bought a packet of soap in a laundromat so Pete can wash his clotthes! OK - bathroom and one VERY small BR with double bed and another comfortably sized BR which had twin beds before P and I made the twins be a double. NOW up the next flight of stairs - totally open on one side w/o wall or railing (!) to the main room and little kitchen - the balcony is off the kitchen...there is another balcony..smaller off the lower floor just outside the bathroom where one can pretend to be Italian and hang out laundry to dry! Each floor has large windows that on on either side of the room so the place has a nice open feeling a lots of light. The bathroom has a small tub with a hand- held shower thingy but...on the wall right next to the toilet is a shower head - and as there is a drain in the floor I decided to try it out - it's fine, but the next time I use it I'll put a plastic bag over the toilet so the seat doesn't get all wet...Yes, I closed the top but that didn't seem to do much to prevent the water from wetting the seat. It's interesting: our Rome apartment was dark and there was no place we could sit comfortable to eat so we rarely ate there. On the other hand the owner was friendly and welcoming. This apartment is far more comfortable in every way but I was handed a print-out telling me all things NOT to do and there are little sticky notes on at least 4 cupboard in the kitchen basically telling us not to open them..."private." Of course I DID open all of them and discovered that there were NO treasures! So other than the woman who owns the rental company and the young man who showed us to the apartment - both of whom are very nice and helpful, the feeling is that the owner is NOT friendly. I'm not particularly bothered about it as I'm ignoring most of what is on the "don't do" list. One of the "don't do" is "don't move the furniture." SO with the young man's advice we moved the beds! I also put a sheet for a tablecloth on the table outside where we ate as the table is dirty white plastic - I'm very sure that would have been on the "don't do" list had she thought of it!
Venice is CROWDED with tourists - many German and French and - Italian.
Day before yesterday - Sunday:
We went to the Arsenale portion of the Biennale. (there's another part we'll visit another day. Most of the art is either incomprehensible or ugly huge constructions - also incomprehensible. However, I got entranced watching a movie that was a series of fantastic movie clips, each with a reference to the time of day - and after a short while I realized that the time of day was exactly what time it actually was and that the referenced times in the movie clips were moving along at the same rate of time as my watch! The movie clips were from old and newer movies - what mattered was that the time was either mentioned or one saw it on a clock that was part of the scene. It turned out that this exhibit won 1st prize for the most creative exhibit in the Bianniale. When the prize was awarded the exhibit stayed open 24 hours for 3 days and one could reserve a block of time to watch it at any time, day or night. It took 8 months to make the movie.
One of the reasons I enjoy the Bianniale is that being inside the enormous ship building structures and imagining what the Venetian naval fleet was like as they sailed the seas hundreds of years ago - bringing back booty from places like Constantinople - is exciting and those building where the ships were built is where the Bianniale is held.
Wednesday - my computer will NOT read my card reader so until I understand why I cannot send photos-
bye bye for today----
But - I can start with this very minute and work backwards: I'm sitting on our little balcony enjoying a cool breeze after a hot hot day. We bought sandwiches and with beer and wine we enjoyed a fine dinner here on our balcony - the 1stt time we've done this as all other nights we've been happy eating "out." Today was a wandering day ending up at sunset at the Dogana - the point of the island just across from San Marco on one side and the island of San Georgio on the other. It was the 1st time I took my good camera out. I'll post some photos when i figure out how to do that - can't remember from the Rome blog!
Yesterday we took the train - 1.5 hours to Trieste. It's a beautiful city set into a hllside with the main square - huge - a bit like Torino's Piazza San Carlo, but overlooking the bay. Again, it was VERY hot but be walked up a steep hill to visit a special church - through residential streets. There is also an ancient Roman amphitheatre just at the base of the hill - I have photos of it to post. Trained back to Venice in time for dinner at 9.
Oh - yes, our apartment: I'm adjusting to the funky parts and find it quite comfortable. One enters from a narrow dark sort of alley-way just off a bustling square. Up one flight to the door of the apt and then inside up another flight to the 1st floor which consists of bathroom tiled in RED and white with RED plastic toilet paper holder, soaps dishes, faucets, etc. but it's a good size bathroom not only with places to put your "stuff" but a little clothes washing machine - we bought a packet of soap in a laundromat so Pete can wash his clotthes! OK - bathroom and one VERY small BR with double bed and another comfortably sized BR which had twin beds before P and I made the twins be a double. NOW up the next flight of stairs - totally open on one side w/o wall or railing (!) to the main room and little kitchen - the balcony is off the kitchen...there is another balcony..smaller off the lower floor just outside the bathroom where one can pretend to be Italian and hang out laundry to dry! Each floor has large windows that on on either side of the room so the place has a nice open feeling a lots of light. The bathroom has a small tub with a hand- held shower thingy but...on the wall right next to the toilet is a shower head - and as there is a drain in the floor I decided to try it out - it's fine, but the next time I use it I'll put a plastic bag over the toilet so the seat doesn't get all wet...Yes, I closed the top but that didn't seem to do much to prevent the water from wetting the seat. It's interesting: our Rome apartment was dark and there was no place we could sit comfortable to eat so we rarely ate there. On the other hand the owner was friendly and welcoming. This apartment is far more comfortable in every way but I was handed a print-out telling me all things NOT to do and there are little sticky notes on at least 4 cupboard in the kitchen basically telling us not to open them..."private." Of course I DID open all of them and discovered that there were NO treasures! So other than the woman who owns the rental company and the young man who showed us to the apartment - both of whom are very nice and helpful, the feeling is that the owner is NOT friendly. I'm not particularly bothered about it as I'm ignoring most of what is on the "don't do" list. One of the "don't do" is "don't move the furniture." SO with the young man's advice we moved the beds! I also put a sheet for a tablecloth on the table outside where we ate as the table is dirty white plastic - I'm very sure that would have been on the "don't do" list had she thought of it!
Venice is CROWDED with tourists - many German and French and - Italian.
Day before yesterday - Sunday:
We went to the Arsenale portion of the Biennale. (there's another part we'll visit another day. Most of the art is either incomprehensible or ugly huge constructions - also incomprehensible. However, I got entranced watching a movie that was a series of fantastic movie clips, each with a reference to the time of day - and after a short while I realized that the time of day was exactly what time it actually was and that the referenced times in the movie clips were moving along at the same rate of time as my watch! The movie clips were from old and newer movies - what mattered was that the time was either mentioned or one saw it on a clock that was part of the scene. It turned out that this exhibit won 1st prize for the most creative exhibit in the Bianniale. When the prize was awarded the exhibit stayed open 24 hours for 3 days and one could reserve a block of time to watch it at any time, day or night. It took 8 months to make the movie.
One of the reasons I enjoy the Bianniale is that being inside the enormous ship building structures and imagining what the Venetian naval fleet was like as they sailed the seas hundreds of years ago - bringing back booty from places like Constantinople - is exciting and those building where the ships were built is where the Bianniale is held.
Wednesday - my computer will NOT read my card reader so until I understand why I cannot send photos-
bye bye for today----
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