Ciao all-
Well, here I am again with another installment of self-reminiscence and letting ya'll know what I've been up to in the old Italian adventure. It's been a few weeks since my last update, so I've got a lot to cover. To sum up quickly, I've been to Venice, Southern Tuscany, Siena again and a couple places in France. And my dad and step-mom showed up on their honeymoon. There's a lot of ground to cover, so I'll just dive in.
The weekend after I sent out the last mass-mail, I went to Venice with three friends, Susan, Lee and Jeremy. Susan had a school trip to Padova (Padua in English), which is about 45 minutes from Venice for a class of hers on Saturday, the other three of us decided to tag along and catch Venice on the way. Venice as it exists today is pretty much two "cities." On the mainland is the modern semi-industrial, remarkably un-pretty city, while on the islands just off the coast, in the bay, is Old Venice. Which is practically Disney World in overall plastic-ness, not really a city anymore. It doesn't function as a living city anymore, just a place to herd throngs of tourists. That's not to say it wasn't beautiful and romantic and incredible (it is), but it all seems a bit artificial somehow. All the businesses seemed to be ice cream stores, restaurants, gift shops and other things catering to tourists. There weren't any of the normal niceties that I see in Florence that facilitate daily life for normal people in a normal city. It just disappointed me a bit. Also, Venice seemed incredibly difficult to get around. The canals and bridges and stuff don't make it very easy to travel in anything close to a straight line. We had to allot about an hour to get to just about anywhere somewhat nearish, and the same to get across town on a waterbus. Enough with the bad though. Venice is amazingly beautiful. It's really a city out of time. Walking across Piazza San Marco, there were live bands (piano, stand-up bass, violin and accordion) playing classical melodies in the moonlight. Any restaurant of any size had live music pouring out into the air. The Duomo of San Marco was beautiful also. The mosaics within would almost pass for frescoes from a distance; they're about 1000 years younger than the ones I saw in Ravenna and the improvements in the technique are very obvious. While in Venice, I went to an architecture exhibit (been hanging out with many arch majors) at the Biennale, a huge art exhibition hall that used to be a military base. We saw models and sketches of buildings and projects and much artsy fartsy stuff the world over. A lot of it was a bit too artsy for my taste, like the exhibit where they sectioned off a tree with Plexiglas and posted a sign saying, "Don't touch my tree!" and did likewise with a house, a countryside and a hill. Kind of a mix of environmentalism and artsy architecture. Cool nonetheless. It was a nice breather to see a bit of contemporary modern art after weeks and weeks of classical/pre-classical/renaissance stuff. Whew. And then we went home.
That week, as expected, my father and his new wife Amy arrived in Florence, after a brief stint in Montpelier, France and drive to Florence. I met them outside the Duomo (pretty easy to locate from anywhere in the city) and proceeded to play tour guide at a few key spots in town. We saw the Palazzo Vecchio, the old seat of Florentine and Tuscan government, the Boboli Gardens behind the Palazzo Piti (or Pitti, I forget...), and then had dinner at my host family's house, which was a blast. Dad talked politics (as per usual) and Amy and my Italian momma Patrizia discussed the finer details of Tuscan cooking, even though they had no common language between them, so I was certainly impressed. :) The next day, the three of us went to the Uffizi museum and took in the history of Western painting. I'd been there already with a group from school, so I was even able to show a bit (a very little bit) of knowledge of the works there. That night, after walking all over the city and getting Amy rather worn out, we went out for a pretty darn nice dinner; nice enough that I was basically no help in translating the menu. But of course the staff spoke English, so all good.
The next day I left for a trip to visit several Etruscan sites, mostly cemeteries and museums. Dad and Amy joined up for the morning and early afternoon, in Chiusi and Orvieto, and went on to Rome a bit after lunch. That night, the trip continued on to Tarquinia, where we had an awesome dinner and spent the night. In the morning, we visited the necropolis of Tarquinia, moving onto the necropolis of Ceveterei by afternoon, where a friend coined a new Etruscan tourism catch-phrase: "Our tombs are your playground!" The necropolis at Ceveterei was carved out of solid bedrock, with architectural features like doors, rooms, pillars, beds, etc all being carved out from one solid piece. The ground level as it appears today is about 6 feet or so lower than before it all was carved, 2500 or so years ago. All the tombs are laid out like houses, and are arranged in streets and neighborhoods like a real city, thus necropolis, or "city of the dead." The tombs have dirt dome roofs, and look like little hills, and we were running around and jumping from tomb to tomb (hence, the tombs and playgrounds catch-phrase). 'Twas much fun had by all, and perhaps the most interesting field trip I've been on. I'm guessing Rome will unseat it of that title. :)
The next week was midterms. I've gotten them all back now, and did pretty well, though one class I wasn't that happy with; but I'm still passing. Ah well, this all lands outside my major, so no huge biggey. Yeah, that's what I'll tell myself. :) That weekend, I went to Siena again, cuz it was cruddy last time. It was much more enjoyable this time, albeit colder. All good.
That night, I hopped on the train with my friends Maggie and Susan to Montpelier, France. Fall break had begun, and we decided to get way out there. And besides, I could get free lodging in Montpelier because my family had a French student in '93 whom we've kept in touch with and seen a few times, and I arranged to stay with them. I've never been to France before, and I was pretty blown away. Montpelier is much larger than I thought (about the size of Peoria or so), and very very beautiful. They just installed a public transit tram system there, which was really cool looking actually, and the city center is very active with shopping and nightlife and stuff. The University there has some really incredible architecture: all steel and glass (and some concrete) and again was a nice refresher from what I've been seeing in Italy. We stayed a few nights in Montpelier, then hopped a plane with our hosts to Paris. Yes, Paris. Oy. Susan went on a Caribbean sailing trip last December and met a guy who owns a bunch of hotels throughout France, including several in Paris, so we got free lodging there, too. Despite all this free lodging, I was still dead broke for several days, and Maggie and Susan had to pay for me for everything. "Susan, can I get a crepe please?" "Sure Brian, but nothing else until dinner time." Ugh. Ah well. (Hint: Dad, send money) We saw the Eiffel Tower, Montmartre, Sacre Coeur, the Pompidou, Notre Dame (several times, at night, including mass on All Saints' Day), the Louvre, the Arche de Triomphe (think I spelled it wrong...) and others. Of note was La Defense, which is a new modern downtown northwest of the city center. It's kind of a failed attempt, because most of the modern skyscrapers that were built there. There's also a huge IMAX dome and a modern squarish Grande Arche that lines up with the Champs Elysees and the Arche de Triomphe. Very cool but kinda sad. Before leaving Paris, we were almost broke and quite hungry, so we stooped to the lowest level and got McDonald's. I got the "Golden Menu," consisting of a Big Mac, 4 Chicken McNuggets, large Coke and large fries for 41 francs (about $5.20) which was awesome, and hit the spot. Didn't get to eat again for like 20 hours. Not too much to explain about Paris. It's beautiful. Unlike Florence, I think I could certainly stand actually living in Paris. Florence is really just too dirty for my tastes, but Paris is just awesome. I loved wandering around the Bastille and the Latin Quarter looking for a place to eat dinner. Everything about it was, well, enchanting.
Got home early yesterday by way of the train, and it was raining in Florence. Ah well, I still love being here. My time here is rapidly approaching its end. October has come and gone, and now I have just about a month left. The kids at DePaul are looking forward to finals soon, and we've gotten final projects assigned here. Before I know it, I'll be back in Peoria and ecstatic to see you all again. I've got a few more adventures left here (Rome sticks out in my mind), and then back home to the States, hopefully a bit wiser but still me. (I know, tough to imagine me being me, and being at all wise. Odder things have happened...) I'm gonna wrap this now, as I've been typing too long and you've probably been reading too long. We all have better things to be doing, so goodbye again for now all. Love you all!
-Brian