Observations

I have a post about my weekend trip to Ravenna complete with beautiful pictures coming very soon. But for now I decided to ramble on about some of the things I've noticed during my stay in Venezia.

1) Venice's economy must rely almost solely on tourism.

Living in New York City, I obviously come across my fair share of tourists per day, but this does not compare. I could not imagine how families of people born and raised in Venice who own restaurants and bars (as the majority do) cater their entire lives to strangers from all over the world, seeing different faces every single day running in and out like cattle, struggling to communicate with different languages and mannerisms, visiting their home like a Disneyland spectacle.

But that's just it - it is a spectacle. Venice is a beautiful city. I mean, stunning. It's hard to take a picture here that doesn't look like a postcard.  But with that beauty comes an onslaught of photo-ops and guided site tours and overpriced restaurants with crappy food and a great view of the Grand Canal. Venice has capitalized on it's beauty, of course, as one would assume a city would. But it creates the feeling that these streets are just pretty facades to look at rather than the structure of a real-life city. A home to some, even.

2) The neighborhood of Castello is the only "real" part of Venice left.

- as I have been told by native Venetians. And as far as I can tell, they want to keep it that way. It's not always appreciated when a clearly "American" looking girl, like myself, walks into a more locally-known caffe and orders a cappuccino. It feels like an intrusion, on both ends I can profess. I have come across some very friendly places who were more than willing to accommodate my friends and I for dinner and a glass of wine, but I have come across just as many who were not. 

3) Venetians are not as up-tight as (most) Americans.

Granted, I feel at ease in the fast paced get-it-done-and-get-it-done-now speed of things New York has to offer, and I realize many people don't find the same need to be constantly on the go and have everything at their convenience, but I find Venice particularly at the opposite end of the spectrum.

They have a "siesta" here, just like in Spain. But there is really no specific time constraint. It should be from about 12:30 to 3, but most businesses take their time to return to work whenever they feel like it, leaving closer to noon and arriving closer to 4pm. And when you're trying to run to an internet caffe to print out your paper in time for class, you may end up waiting outside half an hour for the guy who works behind the desk to wake up from his afternoon nap.

And it's not like you just walked over to that internet caffe. You took a boat. A slow, rocky boat, that may or may not have showed up on time, packed with sweaty, smelly tourists. And when it comes to emergencies - whether involving the police or an ambulance - you bet your booty they're coming by way of that same, slow, take-your-time boat. And what happens if you're in Campo Santa Margarita and there's a bar fight and someone calls the cops? They're very sorry, but they're on a different island and won't be able to make it. WON'T BE ABLE TO MAKE IT. Not showing up late, not calling a different precinct, they are literally are not coming, leaving you stranded with whatever crime or critical injury you may have just encountered. Changing the subject...

4) Venetians don't eat breakfast.

Or maybe they do. But it's usually just a brioche chocolata (chocolate croissant) and an espresso. Protein? Nah. Orange juice? If it's an Italian brand, it's fake. Bacon and eggs? Go to a five-star hotel and order the American continental breakfast for twenty-five euros.

5) Venetians don't eat anything but pasta.

Okay, that may not be entirely true. But while we're on the subject of food, let me just express my personal dilemma. 

If I calculated all of the walking I do in a day, all of the step-bridges I have to cross just to get to my freaking apartment, I should be burning a pretty decent amount of calories every day and my bod should be pretty bangin'. The problem starts when all of that hard work is countered with pasta, paninis, prosciutto and mozzarella, and assorted croissants for breakfast. Vegetables? They're usually fried. Sea food? Fried. Grilled chicken and spinach? WHERE?!? 

Reading this must make it sound like I am overly critical and hate it here, but I don't. I am just taking this beautiful city for what it is - tourism, bad OJ, and all.

Orsoni Mosaic Lab

Yesterday morning we visited the oldest working glass tile factory in Venice. It's an international supplier for interior design clientele as well as conservation of some of the most historically renowned sites in the world. The Orsoni lab is also singlehandedly responsible for all conservation of all of the mosaic work in San Marco. 

It was a really interesting place, and it was amazing to see the process of color selection and the actual cutting of the tile. Our appointment was pretty early in the morning and I left too late to be able to grab a cappuccino from the corner caffe, and then our small class ended up being joined on the tour by a very large group of senior citizen tourists. It ended up being a pretty hectic visit - and pretty hazardous, having all of those people around such a dangerous work environment.....old people almost getting run over by red hot metal poles and what not. Venetians are pretty laid back, the workers kind of just yelled Attenzione! as they passed by inches close to burning someone with molten glass. Whatevs.

This is a picture of one of the furnaces. Inside is a large ceramic bowl with molten glass being churned by the man working with a long steel pole. It takes muscles to do this, you could see them struggling to mix it.

This is a work bench across the room from the furnace. They take samples out of each batch of glass to try to match the exact color they need. These are some of their color samples. In this case they were trying to match the exact shade of red needed to repair one of the mosaics the company had been hired to work on.

Underneath this steel press is a flat, circular blob of molten glass. You can see it's still burning red. They flatten it and scorch it in the cold water bucket to check for even color tones.

These are some of the left over ceramic tubs they use in the furnace for the glass. You can see how the glass actually stains the ceramic bowls. Over time the left over colored glass actually ends up cracking the ceramic bowl under the heat and they have to replace it.

This is a picture of one of my professors standing over a large bin of excess glass from the cutting rooms. They melt down the left over odd-shaped pieces to be reused for firing.

More left over shards of different colored glass.

This is only a small section of their color library. They have thousands of colors, and will sometimes make a color by specific request from a client. They have to be careful when doing conservation work, though. Most of these pigments weren't available until the 18th or 19th century, so they try to stay authentic to the time period.

The back wall is only flesh-toned glass. So many different, very specific shades. (You can also see some of the senior citizens in this picture.)

More of the library.

This woman is cutting glass with a machine into centimeter length pieces of tile. I wish I got a closer picture, the process is actually insane. I would go blind doing that day after day.

The door to the Orsoni Lab. 

Sorry about the few and far between updates. I've had such problems trying to contact different Italian phone companies to get an Internet card. More to come soon, I promise. I'm off to Ravenna this weekend to go see some beautiful mosaics so this is an appropriate last post before I do that :) 

A presto!

Yesterday my roommate Perri and I woke up early and took a walk over to Piazza San Marco. I had no idea we lived so close, it was only about a five or ten minute walk. Every day navigating Venice gets easier. We took some corny tourist pictures and dodged the millions of pigeons (ew), and gawked at the tourists who were trying to touch/feed/have the pigeons sit on their arms....so gross. As my mom always says, pigeons are just rats with wings!

We were in desperate need of some caffeine but of course every caffe and store in St. Marks' Square is totally overpriced, so we wandered a couple of blocks away and found this amazing little coffee shop. Rule of thumb: If you stand at the bar to drink your coffee, you don't have to pay. If you want to sit inside, it's usually about one euro. If you want to sit outside, it's pretty pricey. That's how they get ya!

Most delicious cappuccino I've had so far. I'll be totally spoiled by the end of this trip and never want American coffee or Starbucks ever again.

Here are some more pictures of San Marco. It's absolutely breathtaking. I'll be able to go inside on a trip with my class this Tuesday I believe.

After our little visit here we ran through crazy winding streets to get to a boat stop on the opposite side of the mainland. We then met up with the rest of our group to take the vaporetta to the island Burano, where we then transferred to another boat to take us to Torcello where we had our class for today. I don't have any pictures from the churches there since cameras weren't allowed, but it was really amazing. 11th century stuff. We had great lectures from our professors about the conservation efforts (and mess-ups) concerning the mosaics in all of the churches. 

This next picture is the only picture I took at Torcello. Our professors took us out for a drink right after the lecture at a little restaurant that lined the river. It was absolutely beautiful and probably the fanciest place we've stopped to eat at so far. The girl in the picture with me is my friend Kelly, a graduate assistant.

Back on the mainland close to my apartment this amazing military ship is docked out on the water. Couldn't NOT take a picture of it - so cool! They brought it out into the water earlier and were doing some kind of cannon shooting drill. 

You can't see me but I am in this picture below standing on my friend's balcony. I met up with some friends for dinner, I think it was actually at that restaurant you see at the street below. We all had pasta and were serenaded by the owner and his wife with a guitar and violin. 

I've been getting around pretty well with the little Italian I know, and I learn more and more every day. I even went to the grocery store and knew how to ask for things I needed, and how to pay. I'm quite happy that I live in such a local area, pretty separate from the tourists. Last night on my way home from dinner we walked past a small taverna with a bunch of people singing karaoke in Italian, and they all waved as we walked by. Everyone is friendly and the city is beautiful. 

The beginnings

Having Kristina over for a quick breakfast at Lots of Lox with my dad made me much less nervous.  She helped me do some last minute packing, cracked a few jokes with my dad, and then once she left we headed off to the Miami airport. I had my last American coffee that I'll be having for a long time, and then at JFK I bought a black and white cookie for the plane ride to Venice just in case I was feeling homesick and wanted to eat my feelings.

I won't bore you with all of the mundane transportation details. Besides getting dripped on by the AC on my New York flight, and a nerdy study abroad student (also from NY) hitting on me from the seat in front of me the whole way to Venice, traveling was not as bad as I expected.

Arriving at the Marco Polo airport in Venice was a joy. I got my bags, had to take a 30 minute bus down to the Piazzale Roma, which was actually so relaxing. The surrounding town was so quaint, lots of farmland, but you really get a sense of holy crap I'm in Italy.  From the Piazzale Roma I took a vaporetta, which is essentially a water taxi, to the Accademia stop in Venice. I took the "scenic" route suggested by my professor and it was well worth it.

You'll probably hear me say this more than once in these posts: Venice looks fake. Like, Disney World fake. There can't possibly be a functioning city, with every day people with every day problems, that looks like this. All of those postcards and corny paintings you've probably seen a million times are not touristy over exaggerations - they are the real deal.  Here are some pictures I took to prove it.

Mom, since I know you're about to complain, click on the pictures to see them larger! :)

That little teeny door at the end of this dead end street is the door to my apartment! The first time I was taken here by my roommate, and with his assistance we managed to find it, but it took about half an hour to try to find on my own. Venice streets are not in any kind of logical order and maps are usually totally inaccurate for the more local areas. Although today I did some exploring and think I found an easier way to reach it, thank goodness. 

This is a bridge I cross to get to my apartment. It really looks like this here.

One of the many winding streets in the area where I live. No one uses dryers in Venice, everyone still uses the old fashioned clothes lines. I think it makes it that much more picturesque. 

Picked up some gelato while I waited for one of my roommates to arrive at the boat stop. As wonderful as this picture looks, I think it was from one of the more tourist-trap gelato places along the canal. I'll definitely let you know when I come across the good stuff.

Some seriously eclectic Venetian glass chandeliers in my apartment. Although judging by the rest of this building I'm prettyyyyy sure they're knock-offs of the real deal. 

Just some more holy cow this is actually what it looks like here pictures.

Well, there ya have it for now. I'd promise I'll update regularly but I had to buy a wi-fi USB card from an Italian phone company, and not only did it cost me 49 euros, but it's fairly slow and just by posting this I've already used 4% of my allotted time. This thing is supposed to last me for two months, but WE'LL SEE ABOUT THAT. I'll use the wi-fi at the building where I take classes if I can, but it's pretty far - several boat stops away, so I'm not always going to be able to (or want to) make the trek over there.  

Leave me a message! Calls and texts are expensive so it would be cool if you guys wanted to leave me some messages on here to communicate :) 

Venice!

So I haven't touched this blog in ages, but I'm doing a summer semester in Venice, Italy right now and thought - why not just use this old blog for my European adventures? If you scroll down I actually talked about applying to the program, which I thought was pretty amusing. Anyway, I'll be posting my ramblings on how things are going, accompanied by pictures of course! So far, I've had my camera attached to me at all times. Too many beautiful things, I don't want to miss anything! So keep checking back for more updates - I'll post as often as my unreliable wi-fi service will allow!

A presto!
Regina

Film Noir

So I'm a bit of an old movie buff. Definitely attribute that to my mother and grandmother who sat me down in front of a black and white television screen practically before I was even out of my Barney phase. Anyway, a friend just recently asked me for some recommendations, and that request forced me to group my favorites together, and I'm pretty sure I have compiled a pretty decent list that I'd like to share with all of you! 


All of these were ranked as the American Film Institute's top 100 movies of all time (coincidentally, I just have great taste :P) and they are in themselves an homage to a different era, a classier time which one can only hope to embody in the present.

This is CUL-CHA, PEOPLE. 
Enjoy (: If you watch, or have watched, any of these please let me know what you think!

1) Singin' in the Rain: My favorite movie of all time. It's a movie about the transition from silent films to the "talkies" and what the industry had to deal with. It has everything...great songs and dances, hilarious laughs, emotional moments, handsome guys, beautiful girls, amazing costumes and sets, you can't go wrong. Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor, Debbie Reynolds...perfection.

2) Casablanca: The romance movie of romance movies. Nearly every line is quotable, considered one of the most perfect films ever made.

<<<I should probably add that past this point the movies are in no particular order.>>>

3) Sunset Boulevard: One of my mom's favorites, as is with the next one on the list. Drama drama drama.

4) Gone with the Wind: Three hours long, but if you can sit through it it's a really emotional movie, and it dealt with some pretty controversial issues for the time. And hey, at least it isn't 6 hours long like their first unedited take...(yikes.)

5) It's a Wonderful Life: I watch this movie every single Christmas with my family. It will never get old.

6) To Kill a Mockingbird: One of the few movies that I feel actually rivals the book it was inspired by.

7) Rear Window: Starring two of my favorites, Jimmy Stewart and the beautiful Grace Kelly. Hitchcock's best if you ask me.

8) North by North West: If Rear Window is my first favorite Hitchcock film, then North by Northwest is my second. That crop-duster scene...

9) The Thin Man (series): Some of the oldest films I've seen, and some of the most entertaining. The whimsical chemistry between Myrna Loy and William Powell translates even to this day. Not to mention their dog Asta is the cutest thing ever (almost named one of my dogs after him), and you get all of this wrapped up in an awesome and very classic film noir detective plot.

10) High Society: I just love looking at Grace Kelly. And listening to Bing Crosby.

11) White Christmas: Bing Crosby, again. So excellent. Another Christmas staple.

12) There's No Business Like Show Business: A movie very near and dear to my heart. The progression of a musical family through different shows and different lives, with Marilyn Monroe, Donald O'Conor, Ethel Merman. It's a good one. Corny, but good.

13) The Philadelphia Story: Two of the most handsome men (Jimmy Stewart and Cary Grant) with one of the most stunning ladies (Katherine Hepburn).

14) All About Eve: Bette Davis. "Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night."

15) Sorry, Wrong Number: SUCH a good horror film. Even amongst today's high-packed action films and special effects, this movie from 1948 holds its' own. I highly discourage watching this movie alone.

My Brooklyn Apartment!

When my mom's parents passed away, they left us with an apartment full of stuff.  Kitchen appliances, utensils, crazy grandma knick-nacks, and some pretty dated furniture.  So I spent the entire summer with my mom going through basically every belonging they ever owned, and refurbishing it to be used in my new apartment! A little sanding, painting, reupholstering and re-imagining is all it took to make our apartment as quirky and as special as we could possibly want (: 

Here are some pictures!

 my very crammed, but charming kitchen/dining room/living room!

 my room from the doorway

 my room from the bed

 I had fun with these two items. These pieces were both gold which made them look really gaudy, so I sanded both and painted them with a black lacquer.  My dad says they look like they belong to the Adams family, which I take as a compliment. I also like my cat.

Julie's room (this was taken before she unpacked, the clothes on the floor are not part of the decor) with her awesome windows and awesome glass lamps

 I made that table out of a greek statue my grandma used as a planter, and a decorative plate I found. Painted them "cranberry" and then Gorilla-glued them together.

Note the awesome chairs and the equally awesome cherubs.

my entrance way, Chinese guard dog and all.

 

Another Greek statue/planter. Plant removed, paint applied, re-imagined as marker container for my cute (corny) dry-erase message board.

reppin' the BK with our awesome shower curtain

can't have enough cherubs.

or cats...

or Chinese guard dogs...

or eggs with legs?

Sex and the City: Complete Series, prominently on display with pretty coasters and statues.

close-up of dat cool cat.

Leopard chairs, black furry pillows. 

Go big or go home.

coffee table close-up

cherub overload

My salt-lamp shrine

more of my crap

My DaVinci wall

And there ya have it! Now come visit (: