Arts Alive!

This past week has been a week dedicated to the art scene of Italy. We began the week with two of Fellini's most famous films, "La Dolce Vita" and "8 1/2", which would inspire the musical and later the movie "Nine". On Wednesday we had the cultural experience of a lifetime: American Artist Fred Wilson came to Casa Artom to talk with our class about his life of art. His presentation was arguably the shortest two hours I have ever sat for as he dived into telling us about his work in the 2003 Venice Biennale and then an exhibit he created for the Contemporary and Maryland Historical Society entitled "Mining the Museum" highlighting the history of African Americans in Maryland.
Friday half of us were scheduled to go to the Police Station in mainland Venice, outside of Mestre, where we would apply for our residency permit. The bureaucracy was comparable to the friendly atmosphere of a DMV, except far worse. After 4 hours of waiting we finally made it in and got our full hand prints taken and successfully acquired our residency permit. That night we had our third family dinner of Rob's family recipe of chicken picata with pasta,  Mrs. Lubin's fresh garlic spinach bought at the market that morning, and my great aunt's recipe of peach cobbler. Since I had to double the cobbler recipe to accommodate the gorgeous selection of huge peaches Kim and Mrs. Lubin had procured at the Rialto market, needless to say the cobbler took more than twice as long to cook and an hour after dinner we decided to take it out of the oven nonetheless and enjoy a rather soupy but still flavorful cobbler.
Since we had all decided to stay in Venice we ended up meeting with some Americans hailing from both Duke and BC later that night at a pub near the Rialto Bridge. The following morning Kelly and I took full advantage of Casa Artom's two gratuitous passes to the Peggy Guggenheim Museumr. We spent the morning and early afternoon at the museum completely stunned by the collection and the palace that was Peggy's final resting place. Peggy's ashes lie in the courtyard of the museum alongside her most beloved, her dogs. When we returned to the house, our whole group and the Lubins decided to watch Nine which dovetailed our film lesson of the week as it was a rather gloomy day and no one really wanted to leave the confines of our palazzo. To continue with our arts collection of the weekend, we hit up the Stanley Kubrick photography exhibition right across the Accademia bridge at the Instituto Veneto di Scienze. The palace adorned with incredible Murano glass chandeliers which were equally as impressive as the exhibit itself.
One more week before our 10 day break touring Spain where I can actually speak the language!

Island Hopping and Beyond

This past Thursday after we finished our conversation Italian class at 10 we had all decided to island hop. We caught a vap from a side of Venice we had yet to see which was across the canal from the famous Venetian cemetario where it apparently costs $30,000 or so to be buried although your body would later be moved to the mainland at Mestre. We arrived in Murano and met up with Livio Seguso who is a prominent murano glass artist. As he is a friend of a friend of the Lubins, he graciously gave us an in-depth tour of his workshop and gallery. We were able to the progression of his many decades of work, as he seemed to change mediums to compliment his glass over the years. Although he had initially worked with colored glass like many of the glass blowers of Murano, he explained to us that the simplistic style of his clear glass work conflicted with the gaudy colors typical of Murano glass. He has worked with stainless, carrera marble, and now most recently wood with is sculpted to perfectly unite with his glass. He left us all with booklets and a signed book to bring home to Casa Artom. Before leaving Murano we walked around taking many a picture of the artwork that was interspersed along the many canals. We got a quick sandwich before heading to Torcello which is the actual location of the very beginnings of Venice. The church on Torcello hosts some of the most magnificent artwork in all of Venice dating back to the Dark Ages. In fact we have studied the mosaic detailing the last judgment in our Venetian art history class but because of professor was accompanying a collection of Titian paintings to Turin, Mrs. Lubin assumed the role of her understudy and we enjoyed a detailed description of the architecture and fascinating mosaics that adorned the jewel of Torcello.

Following our art history lesson of the day we caught a vap to Burano, which is famous for its handmade lace and brightly colored homes of the Burano fishermen. Unfortunately the former has become a lost art in the past century and most of what is sold is manufactured in China, however some nice shops feature old women performing the intricate work and we played the tourist card and got a quick pick.

We made our 2 hour journey back to Casa Artom to begin preparation for our second family dinner. Mrs. Lubin had stopped at the Rialto market that morning to pick up the beans and bacon used to make pasta fagiole, and the beans pods were so colorful we used them as a centerpiece after they were shucked! Dinner included the fabulous pasta fagiole courtesy of Mrs. Lubin, fresh arugula salad and pears and a unique array of cheeses for dessert.
Day Trip a Milano!
Friday morning we got up to catch a train from Santa Lucia to reach Milan where we were to spend the day before catching a regional train to Genoa. Before arriving in Milan we had decided we wanted to climb the 165 steps of the Duomo which is the 4th largest cathedral in all of Europe. We realized that all four of us were in shorts and were therefore prohibited from entering the cathedral in such attire. Luckily we were equipped with a weekends worth of clothes in our backpacks and scoured through to find shirts and sweaters that would sufficiently cover our legs and after many failed attempts to stroll in the carabinieri guards eventually allowed us access. The church boasted over 3200 statues and was decorated with some of the most elaborate and vibrant stained glass I have ever seen. Much unlike St. Marks, the Duomo was a Gothic cathedral that took 5 centuries to build and the architect Visconti who began the structure in the mid 14th century built it to house a congregation of 40,000 which was Milan's population at the time. We splurged on the 5 euros to climb it to the top which was quite a feat combating fellow tourists going the opposite direction on the stairs and hoisting our backpacks in front of us. The view was certainly worth the hike as we were able to see the Alps and what we were told was the border of Switzerland!

We toured the Galleria of Victor Emanuel which housed the home bases of haute coutoure Prada, Gucci, and many others. We also stopped in the Renascente which was the most beautiful department store. Before jumping on the metro to go back to the Mussolini-esque Stazione Principe, we walked by the Teatro alla Scala. The Scala was the main venue where the Venetian Giuseppe Verdi premiered many of his operas and the museum adjacent the theater houses musical relics including a strand of Mozarts hair!
Genoa, Camogli and the Italian Riviera!
We arrived late to Genoa that night and after finally finding our hotel around 10 we walked down the street and grabbed pizzas, yes, the cook made us all an individual pizza after the restaurant had already closed. The next morning we got up early and after eating an Italian breakfast at our hotel we ventured to the bus stop where we took a bus to the train station, though not the same one we had been the night previous, and took another bus from that stop to Rocco. Rocco was on the water and about a 30 min walk up the mountain to Camogli, a fishing brightly-colored village on the Mediterranean that Frommer's had claimed to be the favorite spot on the Italian Riviera. And it was by far the most beautiful place I have ever seen. 

After enjoying lunch in Camogli and taking many a picturesque shot, we took a ferry across the water to the next stop on our itinerary, San Fruttuoso. This was a 14th century abbey built along a beautiful lagoon only accessible by foot or by boat. The Saturday we were there it was quite a popular destination for local bathers. And yes, did I mention that I don't believe we saw any Americans this whole trip, besides for Milan. Camogli and then Portofino were both like undiscovered treasures that only the Italians frequented.

Once we walked around the perimeter of San Fruttuoso we decided we would brave the 2 hour hike from the abbey to Portofino. The hike, and literally it was quite a rigorous hike, went straight up the mountain from the valley to display some of the most gorgeous views. We arrived in Portofino around 6 and thankfully before nightfall albeit we were alittle discouraged throughout the duration of the long hike but were aided by the map of a nice German couple that were fellow hikers. Portofino exuded the ritzy quality of the Italian Riviera that we had gladly bypassed in Camogli. But of course by the time we finally made it to Camogli we only had enough strength to people watch the gorgeously clad Italian families strutting from yacht to fancy restaurant. We caught a bus and then train back to Genoa and had dinner at a restaurant along the main street where outside a festival entitled "La notte bianca" was going on. 

The next morning we explored Genova starting with the aquarium along the "Porto Antico", or old port. The museum is said to be the second largest in the world, behind one in Osaka, Japan. The aquarium demanded 2 solid hours of exploration of incredible species. The location of the aquarium was next to a few of architect's Renzo Piano's structures that were built, like the aquarium, in the early 90's to re-gentrify the birthplace of Christopher Columbus. We caught the regional train back to Milan which we barely made after getting lost in a rather industrial part of Genoa. Although we made the train by the skin of our teeth, we were stuck in the very back of train (as no seats were left) sitting on the floor alongside bikes and were joined by four other girls who were Italian and with whom we all tried to converse. Their English of course was far superior to us four and they ended up doing homework as we were reading our book for class this week. Once in Milan we successfully caught the high speed train back to Venice, where we were luckily guaranteed seats. 

As the third week of classes comes to a close...

Tuesday was a rather whirlwind day of classes as we were in class from 9-12:30 and then again from 2-7 concluding the day with our second De Sica film, "The Bicycle Thief" after watching "Shoeshine" the night before. Needless to say we didn't venture out to the city very much other than buying our ticket for tonight's premiere on the Lido of Ben Affleck's "The Town". The movie was a typical American thriller, and it was a nice break from heavy foreign films that have consumed our week (as we have been averaging like 2 foreign films a day). The Palabiennale theater was packed and the a-list cast did a fine job, especially Jeremy Renner who had perfected his Boston accent. Following the premiere we caught the "vap" back to Salute and ended up meeting up with the some of the other housemates on our way to the Rialto area where I had my first Bellini. Way better than a spritz.
Tomorrow we have a big day of island-hopping planned as after we finish our conversation Italian class the whole group and the Lubins are heading to Murano where we are meeting up with an artist friend of the Lubins, then to Torcello to see the famous cathedral and end up in Burano to check out to vibrantly colored buildings and traditional lace. We will end the day with our third group dinner before we all head out in various directions for the weekend. A few of us are training to Milan and then on to Genoa for Friday and Saturday night. We plan on touring Genoa (birthplace of Christopher Columbus and Genoa salami) and then exploring Portofino on the Italian Riviera!

Soooooo Venetian

This Sunday we had collectively decided we wanted to go to church in Venice as it would be one of the few weekends we would all be here and have an opportunity to experience one facet of the Venetian way of the life. A group of us opted to go to San Marco while Kelly, Nancy and I chose to go to an 11 o'clock mass at a church right down the canal from Casa Artom, the stately Santa Maria della Salute. Although the mass was entirely in Italian, we were able to pick out a few phrases from the homily and were awed by the magnificence of the church and the artwork . The priest at the end reassured us that the fire that had occurred the previous week had caused only minor damage and all artwork including the Titian was actively being restored. On our way back home we popped into a few high class Venetian glass jewelry stores and took a look around the Hotel Excelsior, an exclusive 5 star resort which was preparing for the big event of the day.

(Santa Maria della Salute is the large dome in the far left of this pic I took from the Accademia bridge)

This Sunday was the famous annual Regata Storica di Venezia which is an historical regattta  like no regatta I have ever attended or participated in. As a member of the crew team back at Wake, the Venetian regatta was so far from what I have ever experienced. First of all, the Venetian rowers don't sit but instead stand while rowing their ornately decorated and vibrantly colored gondole. Their is a parade that initiate the race and goes down the Grand Canal, so naturally as our house had a prime viewing location of the races, the Lubins had invited over a handful of guests to join us at Casa Artom for the big event. 

We all dressed up and spent the morning at Billa buying hors d'oeuvres and various refreshments for the afternoon. The parade began around 3:30 so after getting all fancied up the housemates joined the festivities out on our dock where we had a glorious view of the procession of boats. The Lubins had invited their Venetian friends, many of whom are ex-patriots and involved in the arts scene of Venice. One woman is an opera singer and she brought along her 7 year-old daughter, Anna, who joined us downstairs and entertained us for the the afternoon. She was quite fond of the boys who wouldn't deny her playing a guessing game she had thought of time after time. 

We eventually went upstairs to join the adults and introduce ourselves to the rest of the guests. Mrs. Lubin had asked us piano players to entertain the crowds so after making our way around the parlor I played a few tunes. Artist Fred Wilson also attended our soiree who has agreed to make another trip back to Casa Artom to sit down with our class and tell us more about his work and life as a world-renowned contemporary American artist. We also had the pleasure of meeting some Casa Artom alumni, one of whom actually lived in my room over 30 years ago! 

Monday was our first visit in our Venetian Art History class where we toured Saint Mark's Basilica. We were privy to a specialized tour thanks to our professor (and Countess) Dr. Chiari. She led us to the middle of the church which is sectioned off to other visitors where she went step by step through the various mosaics adorning the church and the history of how St. Mark's body came to end up in Venice.  We journeyed to the balcony to view the original horses that adorned the outside of the basilica which have now been replaced.

 Following our visit and class, our weekly meeting, and a film showing of an Italian post WWII film entitled "Shoeshine", a few of us had decided we wanted to see the "Film Sorpresa" or Surprise Film of the Venice Film Festival. We had heard rumors that the film might be "The American" starring George Clooney, as he is apparently one of Italy's favorite American actors. The film was showing at 10 pm on the Lido so following dinner and a mad rush to finish as much homework as we could before the we had to leave to secure seats, we jumped on the vaporetto stop from Santa Maria della Salute. We had found out that the film was "The Ditch"by Wang Bing before we got to the Lido which was a Chinese film based on labor camps in the 1960s. Raw and absolutely chilling. 

Though the film was perhaps the most disturbing one I have yet to endure, we were joined in the theater by head judge, Quentin Tarantino who literally walked past us as he entered the theater and sat down in the row directly across from us! The director and main actors of "The Ditch" were also in attendance. Following the film, Tarantino walked right by us again and Cory was able to shake his hand. It was yet another night at the film festival that I will forever cherish.

Out to the Villas

Today we ventured to the villages of Mira and Dolo to visit a masterpiece of Italian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio, the villa Malcontenta constructed for two brothers of the Venetian Focari family. In order to reach our destination we met early this morning to make the hike to Piazzale Roma where we hopped on the 8:45 bus to Mira. Arriving in Mira we walked to the location where we were to rent bikes. After being fitted for our city bikes, we stopped in at a local cafe for a brioche and cappuccino which Mrs. Lubin graciously treated us all to. Finishing our Italian breakfast we began what would be a 15 mile bike ride winding out to the villas of the famous Venetian traders that would relax by taking their boat out to their villa. Mrs. Lubin described the villas out in Mira and the palazzos lining the Grand Canal as bookends as the nobility of Venice would always own both types of residences. The villas provided a nature perspective with the abundance of greenery that was lacking in Venice. It was about a 20 minute ride to the Malcontenta which is only open to the public twice a week, so we were lucky to make the brief window on Saturdays that it was open.
Mrs. Lubin acted as our personal tour guide of the villa as well as fresco extraordinaire. We learned that the many frescoes that decorated the interior of Palladio's work had been cut off by the Austrians and therefore the remaining art was merely a faded version of the original artwork. The villa was constructed perfectly symmetrical so as to divide the house for each brother. Though the interior sported beautifully ornate marble fireplaces and terrazzo floors, the exterior appeared to be marble but was in fact simply decorated stucco.  We biked another half hour to a town called Dolo where we ate at a Mulino, or water mill, which had been constructed in the mid 1500s.

And let me pause to interject that this was my second time riding a bike, without training wheels. I would say that I have probably only biked about a mile or so before today. A baptism under fire experience if you will as I combated Italian drivers, tractors, and the continual distraction of the overwhelming architectural marvels that were sprinkled throughout.
Lunch consisted of an assortment of tramezzini overlooking the canal before we left to make the trek back. And by that time, not only was I incredibly sore from my bike's seat but also a little weary from such a work out. Dr. Lubin stayed back in the rear with me thankfully throughout the day as a confidence boost and though I definitely had my doubts at times, we all made it safely back to our bike rental stop with no injuries, minus a scrape on my leg I made at the very beginning of the day and a slight dent to my bike's basket.
Tonight we are off to yet another premiere at the Film Festival for the showing of Sofia Coppola's "Somewhere".

A Timballo Treat

As a tribute to finishing our second week of class, Mrs. Lubin had offered to orchestrate a family meal that was traditionally Sicilian to commemorate our completion of Lampedusa's "The Leopard". After classes and going to get my official Italian residency permit, we began the timballo preparation under the instruction of Mrs. Lubin. Timballo is a grandiose and therefore labor-intensive dish which we made by first grilling eggplant which would serve as the lining of our dish and outer crust when we flipped the timballo upside down to serve. We then made a home-made tomato sauce of which I was in charge. I began by sauteeing diced celery, carrots, and onions which Mrs. Lubin explained was the staple of any Italian sauce made from scratch. I then added the tomatoe paste, peas, and seasonings to taste. Meanwhile, some of my fellow housemates had boiled the pasta and once the sauce had cooked we added the sauce with the pasta sprinkling fresh basil, cheese, and hard-boiled eggs to the mixture. This was assembled on top of the grilled eggplant and baked for 45 mins. (We of course made a separate tiny casserole dish sans parmesan for me.)

The Lubins had wanted to show us what they believed to be the quintessential film shot in Venice, the 1973 psychological thriller "Don't Look Now" starring Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland. We began the film in the parlor adjacent to the kitchen upstairs as our timballo baked. It was such a pleasant and enjoyable night in Casa Artom and Mrs. Lubin quipped that she had always wanted 10 kids and an au pair, in reference to our graduate assistant Kim.
Dinner was served in the dining room. We feasted on the timballo, fresh baked bread, arugala and fresh greens which we ate European style, following the timballo. The Lubins had mentioned a great wine bar in Dorsoduro that dispenses wine to its customers in recycled water bottles at a fair price, so this too we had to compliment the meal. We discussed the movie, the film festival, and life in Venice thus far.
Some trivia about the house: Wake acquired Casa Artom for a quarter of a million dollars in 1974, a year after the debut of our film "Don't Look Now". A recent appraisal of the palazzo concluded that the current value of the property is nearly $15 million. Additonally, we found out that Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie (who was joined of course by Brad Pitt and their fam clan) filmed their upcoming thriller in Venice this past summer and shot a scene at the Guggenheim museum next door on their balcony. The curator at the Guggenheim had told Dr. Lubin that because of the influx of crowds and paparazzi, the scene was shot at 3 in the morning and afterwards the two stars were given a private early morning tour of the famous collection.
We followed the rich dinner with an assortment of Sicilian pastries that Mrs. Lubin had procured from a local Sicilian bakery. And let me tell you were they good, out of this world good. The pastries were lemon, almond, pistachio flavored and I sampled each one. Honestly, I have never had a cookie quite so delectable. When all 13 sets of dishes were cleaned and put away, (yep that means no dishwasher for us in Casa Artom), we returned to finish the movie. Though labeled a psychological thriller as was "The Black Swan" from the previous night, their was a clear delineation in the style of the movie, albeit both were wildly entertaining.

Today was a quite a leisurely day as well and we stayed in doors due to the slight rain for the first part of the day then ventured out to Piazza San Marco in an attempt to get tickets for tomorrow's showing of "Somewhere", a Sofia Coppola film. We found out that we cannot get tickets for films showing in San Polo square in Venice until the day of the film. Instead of returning to the house, Kelly and I opted to walk around the art galleries featuring none other than Murano glass. We happened to hit up the extremely nice galleries at first so once we ventured into the more tourist locations we opted for our other favorite medium, clothing. We hopped into many high end designer boutiques (many of which we couldn't pronounce) before finding Coin, the well known Italian department store. I would compare it to the Corte Ingles of Spain or perhaps a smaller version of Bloomingdales in the states. We moved right up to the women's sections and found my personal favorite Spanish brand, Desigual. We wandered until closing where we were then ushered out of the store but through a different exit that our entrance. Because of this we were slightly disoriented and perhaps took a wrong turn that would lead us to two hours of wandering Venice in search of our home in Dorsoduro.
We could check off a notch off our bucket list as we had officially gotten lost in Venice. We got lost, but enjoyed the outcome of our error. We were able to explore parts we hadn't yet seen and made many a friend while asking in broken Italian where the Ponte Accademia was on our exciting trek back to Casa Artom. At one point we had gotten so far from our destination, a waiter we had stopped and asked for directions simply laughed at us. An older couple on their way home attempted to help but we couldn't make out the Venetian dialect, as it differs greatly from the standardized (Florentine) Italian. It's true, you haven't really explored Venice until you find yourself  not knowing which side of the Grand Canal you actually are on!
Off for a long bike ride tomorrow to see some villas on the mainland.

Venice Film Festival

September first marked the opening day of the 67th Venice Film Festival held on the Lido. I remember our late professor Brunette's description of the event, as it would have certainly been a highlight of our experience studying under such an internationally acclaimed film critic. Following our rather lengthy day of classes yesterday, we left Casa Artom around 4 pm when we got out of our meeting to apply for our residency permit. We hopped on the vaporetto at the Santa Maria della Salute stop and viewed the incredible multi-million dollar yachts that were anchored in the lagoon, which we suspected belonged to attendees of the festival. We arrived in Lido 20 min after to walk the 2 miles or so to the general location of the festival. The Venice Film Festival is second only to the Cannes and it was such an incredible experience to be apart of such a vivaciously artistic environment. After wandering through the "cinema village" we eventually found the box office and were able to secure tickets for the 8:30 premiere of "Black Swan", a American psychological thriller staring Natalie Portman in which she has been predicted to receive an Oscar nod. Albeit as we had arrived only 3ish hours before the premiere began, we were given seats three rows directly in front of the screen, but we were thrilled to have gotten them nonetheless. We sauntered down the main walk facing the beach and chose a cafe where we had a light dinner and enjoyed the brilliantly dressed passerbys before returning to find the Bienalle which was the location of the film. We entered the tent that probably held nearly 2000 audience members and grabbed an ornate fruit-filled pastry before settling in to enjoy the film. The movie was perhaps the most poignant and explosive movie I have seen yet, and being merely 20 feet from the mega-screen certainly added to its intensity. What a memorable experience!

                                                    (The girls right in front of the red carpet)
We opted out of the double feature of a kung-fu movie as The Black Swan was over 2 hours long and decided to hit up the Blue Moon beach access before heading back on the vaporetto, which was hosting a continuation of the festival that night for college students. It was quite an interesting atmosphere as it appeared to be a Communist themed party and the band continued to play American rock-n-roll from the late fifties and early 60s. Although we just missed Natalie Portman and Tarantino on the red carpet the night was one I will most certainly never forget!