unforth | Day 16 (...and probably the last post!)

Well, this is it: my last full day. Sure, I'll still be in Italy all day tomorrow, but tomorrow will be spent taking the train from Venice to Rome Termini Station, then a cab from Rome Termini Station to the Hilton Airport, which is so close to the airport that it's connected via moving platform, with no sightseeing, shopping, or museums to speak of, so I feel like it barely counts. And then on Monday, we head back to the states; I should be home by about 3 PM NYC time (9 PM Italy time), and then I'll just have to stay up until 9 or 10 PM. And come to terms with the Mets season being over. And below .500. Again. (cry!) (though actually, there is something in this that's exciting, as all expectations are that we'll firing our entire management staff and probably trading and/or not resigning some of our most important players, so there's a lot of anticipation going in to this off season, and I'm just hoping they don't trade David Wright, cause if they do I'll cry and have a lot of trouble ever watching them again...while I'm mentioning those I hope will be spared, I've gotta mention Chip Hale, and Ike Davis, Jon Neise, Mike Pelfrey, Josh Thole, Angel Pagan, Hisanori Takahashi, Dillon Gee, Jose Reyes...but I can part with any of these guys, as long as David is still on the Mets...) (and I know, no one reading this cares, but I care passionately, so that'll have to be good enough. ;) )

Right. So. Today. Venice. Mom is definitely sick, in case I didn't say that explicitly, so there was no objection to my going out and doing a few of the things I most wanted to do but hadn't yet. (and, just to mention it right to begin with, today was another day where every where I went didn't allow photography. I've come to the conclusion that this part of the "Venice is one enormous tourist trap" phenomena, if they don't let you take pictures, you have to buy the postcards or the book...) The top of this was a visit to Ca' Rezzonico. This former patrician palace has been made up to look like...a patrician palace, from the 18th century. It sounded pretty awesome, and it entirely delivered. Man, I LOVE how ridiculous Baroque and especially Rococo furniture can get!! The museum is three floors. The first two are made to look a lot like they would have (not entirely, but close) - as far as I can tell all the furniture and paintings are authentic, though some of the textiles are accurate reproductions. Some of the items were originally in Rezzonico; others come from similar palazzo's from around the city. Each room had a descriptor, and everything was really spectacular. I took my time through the two floors, and it was worth the effort. Like the room full of lovely glowing pastel drawings of members of the family (especially as children). Or the chairs with wooden arms and supports, everyone carved with different human figures on the rests and holding up the arms. Or the huge cabinet made entirely from walnut root. Or the room with all the vases and different figures carved out of wood holding each one up (like Leda and the Swan), culminating in the must ridiculous vase holder - for holding five vases, mind you! - held up by a large Hercules and bedecked with other figures, including 3 entwined "African" figures carved out of ebony. There was a lovely secretary desk inlaid with ivory, and many of the rooms had very intricate murano glass chandeliers, some with ornate, ludicrously colored flowers as part of their decoration. There was a lovely room made up as the bedroom, which had a very darling little babies crib. There were more, too, but those spring to mind - I'm sure I'll finish writing this and think of more. Oh, right, like there were two very interesting chinoise (sp???) chest of drawings, each "lacquered" with different Asian motifs that were very interesting. The first room I stepped in to was the ball room, and it was easy (and enticing!) to close my eyes and imagine waltzing the night away. Most of the rooms had at least some paintings, and some of them were quite fine, like the pastels, or a set of genre scenes by a guy named Longhi that weren't interesting alone but taken as a group they said a lot about society of in Venice in the 18th century. There was one room that had a very beautiful painted door (also chinoise); and one wing, instead of being made up, had been reconstructed to preserve a number of Tiepolo frescoes that were almost stolen from a villa by some French folks who wanted to sell them. Some weren't that interesting, but there was one that I loved that showed what appeared to be an ogre trying to bash in the head of a satyr girl being rescued by a centaur. Felt like it was right out of a D&D game. (can you tell I REALLY, REALLY tried to remember things today?) Oh, and then there was some more of the ridiculous Rococo type things, two busts, one of Lucretia, the other of Cleopatra (a common pairing), each with such over-the-top expressions of angst and woe that they were comical. There was another chest of drawers all painted in outdoor scenes, and almost every room had (old and very unhappy looking) mirrors, and I could almost imagine just how much light there would have been back when everything was fresh and new.

On the third floor, there was a painting collection that started off very unpromising but ended up impressing me a lot. It had been assembled by a scholar, and it was almost entirely works by Venetian artists. The man hadn't been wealthy, so he'd gone out of his way to pick his purchases carefully and select that which had been over looked or undervalued. The result was a collection with very few masterpieces, but taken as a whole it was a very impressive and interesting sampling of the kinds of works that were being produced, and some were very fine indeed. The two that stand out best to me were by...er...I don't remember, but they were both religious; one was an angel from an Annuciation, and the other was a monk and something religious-ish going on, and both had lovely, pure colors. There were a number of fine portraits (especially, and inexplicably, of heavier women), and there was a strange head of an old man that was pretty awesome. Probably the piece I remember best was a Diane that I wanted to pluck off the wall and present to moonartemis, because I thought it was just about perfect for her, it had a lovely pallet of light colors and the Diane was sitting in a crescent moon! (or at least it sure looked like that!). All in all, I left with such a positive impression of the collection that I kind of wished that I could buy a complete catalog, but sadly it didn't end up being an option, so I made due with a book of selected works.

My next destination - after making sure that mom hadn't had enough of a recovery to want to go out again) was the Grande Scuola of San Rocco (Saint Roche). The Scuola are uniquely Venetian institutions which very roughly equate to modern day non-profit organizations: they were primarily concerned with charity for various groups (Saint Roche is the patron saint of plague victims...), and there were something like a dozen Grande Scuola and about 400 regular Scuola in the city at one point...until Napoleon banned them. Now there are still a few that revived (San Rocco still operates, for example). However, none of that is why San Rocco (or any of the other former Grande Scuola) buildings are worth visiting. No, like everything else in Venice, membership in these became a status symbol, and decorating their main buildings became an important sign of prestige, so money that should have gone to the needy went to decking out the building in grand style: in this case, three rooms (two ENORMOUS) covered in paintings by Tintoretto (who was a member of the Scuola). This made for a damn impressive effect. The room on the ground floor was not the finest, but it had the best paintings (probably because they were completed latest in Tintoretto's career). I'm now officially prepared to say that Tintoretto is probably the greatest artist that no one has ever heard of, and a personal favorite. And why hasn't any one heard of him? Cause he must have spent 90% of his career paintings buildings in Venice!!! So many places have so many HUGE works by him, it's enough to fill 10 careers (and probably did, of his assistants...). Anyway, on the main floor there was a truly spectacular room, with the upper part of the walls by Tintoretto, the ceiling done by various other artists (I think...) and the lower walls covered in wood every inch of which was carved. All of it was amazing, and on the ceiling was probably my favorite painting here, a depicting of the "Manna from Heaven" miracle which looked like it was raining stars. In the third and smaller room, there was a really amazing (also by Tintoretto) Crucifixion scene, which was flanked by equally amazing (and strangely ignored by the people around me) scenes of the Road to Calvary, the Ecce Homo, and...er...crap, I can't remember what the third was. And I was on such a role!!! Anyway, There were a lot of panels that were really wonderful; I particularly remember the Miracle of the Mana I already mentioned, an Annunciation scene, a Rest on the Way to Egypt that seemed very tender, and lovely Adoration of the Shepherds which had great coloration, and, well, the list just goes on and on. Yeah, I bought the book. :)

Just across a narrow street to the Church of San Rocco, but there was a service going on, so I just looked a little from the back and then left again. The next - and intended last - stop was the Frari, which is one of the main tourist churches here (you have to pay to get in) and is also right behind San Rocco. However, when I arrived there, there was a wedding going on, so I had to wait a half hour; I killed the time by doing some more Christmas shopping. Inside the church was not as impressive as the other two sites for the day had been. The alterpiece by Titian was lovely but not as big as I had expected. The highlight for me was a sculpture by Donatello, not because it was particularly impressive - it wasn't, really - but because it means I have FINALLY complete my collection of ninja turtles. I don't think I'd ever seen a Donatello before, but even if I have, I've now seen all four turtles on this trip! Another favorite here was a Bellini-painted alterpiece, a clock which had a really intricately carved wooden case (capped by what looked like a dude riding a unicycle, no idea what it was supposed to be), the rather absurdly large and ridiculous commemorations to the graves of Titian and Canova, and the central seating area for the wealthy, that was entirely carved out of very fine wood and had multichromatic wooden inlays that were lovely and interesting (two or three shades of wood were used, to create architectural scenes). It wasn't as amazing as the churches I saw in Rome, but it was still very lovely, and I was glad I stopped.

On the way back, I ended up buying myself a rather expensive gift in the form of a goth-style dress that I fell in love with at first sight and which looks pretty good on me, and then I headed back to the room. Mom was still feeling like crap, so we went for a short walk in the neighborhood, got our second batch of gelato from the amazingly delicious gelato place we found, did what will surely be the last of my Christmas shopping from this trip, and then came back to the room. I'm now completely done with my Christmas shopping for, like four people, and a good chunk of the way there for a bunch of others. While doing this here has made for an expensive trip, I just keep reminding myself that the cost will be made up for in November and December when I have hardly any shopping to do. :)

And so here I am! Soon I'll get the hell away from the computer and do the bulk of my packing, and tomorrow and the next day will all be traveling, and then we'll be home, and life will get back to the mundane. :) There's something both nice and sad about that...