May 31  Verona

            Yesterday I went to Venice for the day.  I sound really spoiled saying that, J, but it is really nice to be that close.  I slept a little later than I planned, and I had to wait a while for the bus at San Fermo, but I still made the 9:18 train to Venice. 

            Got a 12 hour vaporetto ticket and got on #2, but mistakenly the wrong direction.  Got a seat in the front though, next to a very nice family with an adorable son less than 2 years old who would make an exaggerated smile at me and say “no,” to which I would say “si.”  We went all around the back side of Venice and saw where the HUGE ocean liners docked. 

            I got out at San Giorgio Maggiore, which I had been meaning to see anyway.  While I was contemplating, and even drawing the architecture, people were scurrying around the side and disappearing.  So I finally checked it out, remembering that there was a tower to ascend.  Luckily it was 12:30, and the tower closed at 12:50 for lunch, and there was an elevator.  I waited in line a bit, reading Brunelleschi’s Dome by Ross King, which fascinated one French man immensely.   Otherwise, it was rather quiet at the top of the tower and the views were wonderful.

            I caught the vaporetto back to San Zaccharia and wandered back there a bit before making my way to San Marco.  Had a pleasant lunch on a canal.  The view and location was probably better than the food, but it was still good.  The “zuppa” was hardly soup but a pile of mussels and clams, and I certainly enjoyed those!  Also had pasta with popcorn shrimp, but I could not eat all of it.  Plus a quartino of white wine and capucchino.  Wonderful.  Saw a ton of private taxis and gondolas riding past during that hour.

            Thought a good deal all day about Ruskin’s Stones of Venice.  Found myself studying and thinking about all the architecture differently, noticing much more than I have noticed in the past.  I actually almost finished that book on the train over to Venice (reading Brunelleschi’s Dome on the way back.)

            Did some shopping for all the kids as I wandered back to Piazza San Marco.  Once there, I sat on the library steps near the café with the musicians, and I drew a bit of San Marco and the Doge’s Palace.  It was a beautiful clear, slightly breezy day, temperatures in the 70s (or 20s, depending on your scale).  I heard Dutch, German, a great deal of French, English (and Irish), and I even saw sign language on the vaporetto.  Everyone was having a great time: children running to catch pigeons (even with no food for sale), lovers and spouses holding hands, some sitting illegally on the steps around the piazza eating ice cream, others splurging to drink in the cafes lining the piazza.  What a wonderful living museum with a park-like atmosphere and great shopping too!

            On the way back to the train station, I stopped at the Accademia, which they are in the process of redoing.  Good thing, too, because the structure and the works are pretty old-fashioned and dated, and this is coming from an art historian.   I saw more than enough Byzantine style altarpieces and religious pieces.  But I did especially enjoy the Giorgiones, Titians, Tintorettos and Bellinis.

            I especially enjoyed looking at Giorgione’s The Tempest.  I realized again the reasons why I think this content is about creativity: the innocent, pure, nude nursing mother with only nature surrounding her.   On the left we have the creative shepherd amidst bits of architecture and a fantastic dome rising from the back.  The jagged edge of lightening points to him and crosses with a line between the delicate foliage: a light struck bush in the background and the dark bush in front of the mother.  What a lovely piece!

            Didn’t quite make the 6:20 train, although it was still on the tracks.  I had only paid 6.15 Euros and not the E 15 something, so I took the longer train.  Got to the apartment before 9:30, and Chantille and Amy came over to discuss Murano vaporetto lines.

            This afternoon I wandered around Verona instead.  I spent a good deal of time in the Guisti Gardens, a wonderful Renaissance and Mannerist creation.   I love reading up in the arcade looking over the city. Wandered up the stairs and saw some other churches and ruins even further above me, wondering what they were.

            Then I wandered to down the Via Guisti Giardini and over the bridge to Sant’Anastasia.  They are doing a great job with the continuing restoration.  The revealed groin vaults glow with their paintings. 

            As I wandered to the Duomo, many Italians were on their way home from mass.  They were dressed up beautifully: ties on all the young boys, girls in dresses.  There was a happy, festive air.

            The Duomo has plainer vaults than Sant’Anastasia, but it does have lovely trompe l’oeil paintings on the walls.  I could wander around the cloister, but the museum with Roman mosaics and ruins was closed. 

            Many of the shops were open, and I got one more present in the Piazza Erbe stalls.  Stopped at a bookstore and asked if there was a book on Verona architecture.  I think I was talking to the owner who said there was no book on Verona architecture, whether in English or in Italian.  So I left joking to myself that maybe I would have to write it.  I was taking pictures all day of the various Gothic, Renaissance and Mannerist influences just in the domestic architecture, not even counting the more astounding Roman and Medieval influences elsewhere.  It is a most beautiful and fascinating city architecturally.

            Made my way back to my apartment and cooked up a good dinner.  Rachel and Jonathan stopped by to get some salt for her crepes before I finished up the strawberries for dessert.