Venice, "The Masque of Italy"

I could never leave Venice and be happy. It was everything I had imagined it to be and more; Canals instead of streets, old and colorful buildings, gondolas, glass, pigeons. However, as myself and my companions are penniless college students, we didn’t actually “do” a lot while we were there, (everything is way overpriced, kind of like living in California). Despite this, it is currently my favorite city in Italy, and my #1 spot to come back and visit (though next preferably with a hubby or lover, tis a city of Romance); and instead of writing a play by play of all the things we did not do or buy, I will simply tell you why I love the city.

(Also, my camera does not always come out with the best quality pictures, so thank you Michelle, Liz [http://lizvander.blogspot.com/], and Edie for letting me have some of yours too!)




1. The beauty it breathtaking. The architecture, the colors, the water, the boats. I mean, perfect place to take pictures because the scenery will more than make-up for however you actually look in the photo.




















2. Murano. There is gorgeous hand-blown glass in every shop. As well as the city is a little more secluded, and therefore less crowded.


3. Everyone is wearing horizontal stripes. Gondoliers, babies, tourists. Everyone. (And we saw more than one pair matching together).









4. There are more tiny streets than big ones. And the big ones are canals.










5. You don't share the roads here because there are no cars. A dream.





6. It’s definitely a city, but also has the feel of a laid back beach town (necessary when living so close to the water). And the smell of the crisp, sea air follows you everywhere. Truly perfect.





7. The window boxes in different shapes with different flower displays.



















8. For how many tourists there are, there are still a lot of Italians.

9. The bridges! Each one is unique, beautiful, and (obviously) very functional (jaywalking is literally impossible).

10. Just like the buildings, every boat is unique. My favorites being a teal one and a Barbie pink one.






11. Every bit of architecture is beautifully worn down. Everything is lovely in its age





12. I had to walk through a catacomb type structure to get to the apartment I stayed at. We felt like we were in the Count of Monte Cristo.

This is Liz and I in our catacomb..."crying out as in Rome, 'Do your worst! For I shall do mine!'"













13. People's actual front doors are on the canal. That really does happen.






14. All of the doors are different. Some are wood, some are iron, others glass. And each has a its own shape and color.

15. The sunset is extra beautiful over the ocean.

16. Everywhere you look, there are adorable little dogs (like ones named Gio that speak Italian and like to cuddle). And children. And tourists.











17. There is no easy way to get anywhere. Every route is the scenic route.


















18. They are already selling carnevale masks and it’s not until January. They are so cool! (I would have bought one, but who is a penniless college student again? Oh yeah! Me! 30 Euro? Heck no.)


19. The men are beautiful in the morning. The men are creepy in the evening.


20. Some of the gondoliers are schifo (dirty). Some are super gorgeous (and don't wear shirts as they are preparing their boats for the day)


21. Its okay if you get lost, because you are on an island and you can't get off. Thank you Rick Steve.





22. It’s so artsy. Really no other word to use. There are art galleries and designer stores galore, beautiful green street lamps with pink glass, and every window display was a work of art that required time and talent.

23. The Peggy Guggenheim Museum was incredible (something I actually did pay money for and it was definitely worth it)! There was a whole room filled with Pollocks (which up close I can definitely say a 3 year old could never do. It was amazing in its chaos but you could still tell there was structure, symbolism, and meaning with every stroke), and there were Picassos and Kandinskys around every corner (even more incredible up close and personal. Obsessed with the colors), not to mention the Calder mobiles (I want one), even a Warhol. It was amazing.

24. There really is laundry strung up between houses.

25. At night, instead of falling asleep to the sounds of honking cars, I heard boats pulling through the water of the canal that was right below my window.

(the view from my window)

"Beneath is spread like a green sea the waveless plain of Lombardy, Bounded by the vaporous air, Islanded by cities fair; Underneath Day's azure eyes, Ocean's nursling, Venice lies, A peopled labyrinth of walls, Amphitrite's destined halls." - Percy Bysshe Shelley

Palio: Hail or Sun?

So...I'm falling a little bit behind. But give me a break, I'm in Italy.

The city of Siena had been slowly transforming as contrade put up decorations around their territories (seen mostly with colorful lamps and flags) and the Sienese (as well as some tourists who probably didn’t understand their significance) would show support by wearing colorful contrada scarves.

(they barreled in mounds of dirt to cover the stones. And the imprints of the horse hooves are just an inkling of how fast they were going)

The week of the 26-2 we lived and breathe PALIO (wiki it).

It was pretty much impossible to go anywhere without hearing songs and chants, or running into traffic of a contrada traveling together.

On Wednesday afternoon, Michelle and I were lucky to catch a drum procession from one of the contradas before going into work.

(See all the happy, smiling faces?)

A couple of hours later we were back in the Piazzo di Campo to watch the officials draw names of the horses for the specific contrada. We had an extreme taste of the high tension and rivalries when two enemy contradas (Oca and Londa I believe) got into a fist fight. I have never seen anything like it before in my life. About sixety grown men with the hands flying down from above their heads, just pummeling each other. The surrounding crowd was either fleeing from oncoming hands or shouting obscenities, lighting fire further. And it took over ten minutes for the cops to show up as well as break it up.

(I thought about my camera too late, but you can see the white hats of the policemen trying to divide the two groups. And all the people on the ledges and balconies were still yelling at the crowd)

Friday morning at work, Debora, our mentor, played us a video of that morning’s prova (practice round). In it we watched one of the horses slam into the corner of the piazza’s make shift rail, and another horse trip badly, knocking his jockey off and trampling over him. One of the horses, belonging to Chiocciola, died later from a heart attack and his jockey had a brain hemorrhage, and the other horse wounded his leg.

A sullen attitude swelled over the people of Siena, made even worse when the sky opened later that afternoon. Michelle and I had just bought more shoes after work (really cute white sandals if you were wondering) and we were slowly meandering to get a panino for lunch. We were distracted by an amazing vintage shop, and had been sifting through the clothes when it started pounding outside. Lots of rain and HUGE pieces of hail. I have never personally seen hail this big. And the first of July mind you. Anyways, we were stuck in this vintage store with lights flickering trying to direct our other roommate Edie to our location. Once the rocks stopped coming from the sky, we decided to go find her instead, and try to make it to the next bus home. The next twenty minutes were spent running/sloshing through the stone streets of Siena, being drenched by the rain, and looking like lunatics to the many onlookers in shops trying to stay dry.

The rain also proved a slight problem for the Palio that was scheduled for the next day. The track for the horses to run is all dirt. Meaning if it rained too much, if at all maybe, on Saturday, it would be postponed because the horses would be injured in mud. We came into town around 2:30 in the afternoon hoping for the best. Even though the sky was gray, there was still plenty of parading and singing to start lifting anxious spirits.

By 4 we moved into the Piazza in order to claim decent viewing spots. At 5, all entrances but one are closed; and even though the center looks full, somehow more people are still filing in. There was a very slow parade of all the contradas in their costumes and complete with flag tossers, which was only entertaining for about the first ten minutes (it went all the way up till after 7:30. Luckily I was standing next to two guys traveling around Europe for the next couple of weeks from Australia. They had chosen to support Oca (the goose) based on that it is some slang term in Australia. And they defined it with another word of slang. So if any of you know what they term is in Australia – let me know. I personally favored Luca (the she-wolf) and Tartuca (the turtle, and UC colors).

(flag tossing!)

Finally the traditional procession had ended and they started getting the line-up ready. I have never been with such a large group of people ever and have it be that silent. Gave me chills and sent my heart racing. Although there was still a pang of sadness as only 9 horses were racing instead of the expected 10 because rules do not permit for a new horse.

And then, this happened: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBRSFulakdE
And I was there.

Basically the Palio is my new favorite sporting event. And in the end I was very thankful for the cooler weather, it would have been much more miserable to wait that long for two minutes in the dire heat.

Note that out of the beginning nine, only five horses returned with riders actually on them. Second place in fact was riderless (in the Palio, it is the horse not the jockey who wins. So if the horse, jockeyless, had crossed first, that contrada would have won).

The Oca Contrada won! Obviously the Australians knew what they were talking about. We followed them in their victory march to their church, where they hung the Palio flag. So much happiness in that little square. Grown men and children alike weeping and kissing and laughing in the victory. The jockey was carried through on the shoulders of the contrada, and true heroes welcome. And the horse was covered with banners and flowers and also showered with kisses.

(the bottom is members of the winning contrada reaching for the tall white victory flag to claim as theirs)

It was truly an incredible experience – that was followed with equally incredible pizza and gelato [cannello (cinnamon) and fondente (dark chocolate) yummmmm].

Although it would have been easy to wallow in the celebrations of the night, we had to catch at 7:50 am bus the next morning in order to make it to church on time. The Branch is teeny tiny! 30- 40 people maybe (13, I think, of those all from BYU). The branch president kept calling us “my sheeps” to gather us into the next room. He was nice and funny, until he asked me to speak in church (well with a branch that small all of us were pounced on immediately). Dang it.