More pictures!

If you click the link, I put up the pictures from St. Mark's the other night.  It was so cool, the water went halfway up my calf.  We ran into a bunch of drunk English men who decided it would be better to take off their shoes to wade through the freezing water when my feet were cold and they were dry!  They started laughing when they realized we were taking pictures of them and they took pictures of us in return.  Trevor waded in a bit too deep and got water in his boots, and Joe decided to wade in anyway, even though his shoes weren't waterproof.  

There are also some pictures from our self portrait assignment in photo.  I felt a bit weird and narcissistic taking these - and then putting them online - but I know a few people want to see some pictures with me in them.  We are going out for karaoke tonight.  Gotta go do some warm ups... mommy made me mash my m&m's.  ;)

Aqua Alta

As I've mentioned before, Venice is an Island. And I bet you've heard that the city is sinking (which is true, 30 cm in the past 100 years or so).  

Every once in a while, the water gets really really high and the city floods.  The Venetians call this the Aqua Alta, literally, high water.  You know when it's Aqua Alta because an alarm sounds.  The first time we heard this Jersey and I thought the city was under some kind of attack.  Its very loud, and kinda makes me think I should find a school desk and hide under it.  

Anyway, you can tell how high the water is by the tones of the alarm.  If its just one note, then its at the lowest level of flooding.  If there two tones, then its at the next level, three tones, the third level ect, ect, ect.  The flooding is generally unrelated to the rain, but has more to do with the winds, and the tides.  

There are areas of the city that are lower than others and as a consequence, flood more often.  There are also streets (Calle) that get more flooding than others and have wooden planks set up about two feet off the ground, so that you can walk through when the water is high.  

Yesterday, it was nice and sunny, and as we were walking to school we discovered that the calle we had to walk through was flooded.  Julie marched on through because she had rain boots, but the rest of us, who saw the sun and said, "oh I'll wear my nice clothes," had to take a detour over the wooden planks they put up for just such occasions.

Tonight the Piazza San Marco is supposed to flood, and we are going to go check it out.  I'm bringing my camera, tripod, and rain boots, so hopefully I'll get some decent pictures to put up here.

Carnivale starts this weekend, and everyone is having visitors... myself included!  Its looking like it will be really fun. I'm excited :)

P. Tuck & Padua

Today we had an art history field trip to Padua.  We saw Giotto's Cappella degli Scrovegni frescoes (super old, 1304-05, and super famous).  We also went to La Basilica di Sant'Antonio, which was breathtaking.  It houses the relics of Saint Anthony, and I actually saw his tongue, larynx and lower jaw, on display in the reliquary.  I'd have to say that so far, this is my favorite church.  Because its a mendicant order church, all of the decorations were private  commissions, so every available space has some kind of tomb or tribute from a wealthy family.   We were really lucky to be able to go up very close to the altar and get a good look at some of Donatello's bronze sculptures and reliefs (yes, the first of the ninja turtles).    And the reliquary is decked out in Baroque glory.  Plenty of gold and cherubs and clouds, a welcome departure from the late medieval, early Renaissance works we've been covering.  

(sorry, no pictures are ever allowed inside any church worth taking pictures of)

Also we had a guest this week!  Patrick Tuck from the study abroad office has been sitting in on our classes and galavanting about Venice with us.  Today he came to Padua with us, listened in on our Photo crit, and saw our apartments.  (Apparently he took pictures of my room, and I was not prepared for this, and have laundry drying everywhere.... yay?)  He's gone tomorrow, but it's been fun having him here, and I hope he had only good things to jot down in his notebook.  

If you are interested...

BU Today has a video up about our program!  It features two girls from last semester, Erika and Katie P, and gives you a good idea about what I've been doing here.  

Link

Today is beautiful, sunny, and relatively warm!  So of course, I've got a cold.  Yes, if you've been counting, that makes two colds, three weeks.  I'm going to have some soup and catch some rays.

Ahh, Love.

One of my photo assignments is "couples and kissing couples."   I love these pictures.  Venice really is a romantic place and its not terribly difficult to get some nice pictures for this project.  I took two hours today and got lost in the city, on purpose this time, to take these.  

And this is my mask for Carnivale!  E bellisimo, si?

I've got a lot to catch you people up on don't I?

First off, after a couple of conversations, I think I'm gonna tell you all a bit about Venice in general.

  

It is an island.  

Many Islands, in fact.  In about the 6th century AD, the barbarians from the north were terrorizing the people on the mainland in Italy, so a bunch of them decided to move out to the islands in lagoon and become fishermen.  It slowly built itself up over the next few hundred years, and eventually became the trading capitol of the world, the city through which the east of Byzantium met the west of Rome.  "Once she did hold the gorgeous east in fee, and was the safeguard of the west." -William Wadsworth.  

There are no roads here- only canals and walkways.  So this means no cars, no scooters, no bikes.  You wouldn't be able to use any of those here, because even on the rare occasion that the walkway is wide enough for a car, you'd drive three feet and encounter a step bridge.  Only boats and feet.  Gondolas cost about 100 euro, and only tourists use them.  Most Venetians own a boat, and apparently once it gets warm, we'll get to see the teenagers cruising around with their boom boxes blaring up and down the canals.  There are also water taxis, and the Vapparetto, which is like the T in boston, but in boat form, and only goes up and down the Grand Canal.  There are some walkways that used to be canals, but were filled in, like the Strada Nuova.  Many of the older and more beautiful houses have grand entrances right out onto the water, but small, unimpressive entrances from the land- because most people would arrive via boat, and not on foot.  The causeway to the city from the mainland was only built in the 19th century.

This has presented a bit of a problem for me.  Last weekend I went to Bologna, and on Thursday, I went to Florence with my Art History class.  Would you believe that cars and crossing streets has become something I had to re-adjust to?  Its a lot easier to walk around and get where you're going when there is no chance a large metal machine will hit you at 30mph.  

Other than that my trips have been really great.  In Bologna we ate some really good food and got a nice tour of the gothic center by a tour guide named Carla.  Clearly she was awesome.  In Florence I nearly cried, because the second I got off of the train I realized that I hadn't charged my camera battery and couldn't take any pictures.  But I'm making plans to go back with some friends so that we can climb to the top of Il Duomo, and go to the Uffizi art gallery, and take as many pictures as possible.  The part I liked the best was that it was sunny and warm in Florence.  We've had about two days here in Venice when the sun came out for like an hour.  It snowed today.  I didn't go outside.

Side note: I bought my Carnivale mask.  It's Red and gold.  I splurged a bit, but I fell in love.  There will be pictures soon!!