I had to take a final exam last week on eighteenth century literature. The entire thing took me two hours and involved writing two essays--one on Fielding and one on Johnson. That was my final exam for school, but this is my real final exam.
I'm am writing from Venice on the first full day of a two week tour of northern Italy. For seven days I'm going to be traveling alone in a country where I don't speak the language, living in hostels and
eating as much gelato as humanly possible. After that I will be joined by a friend from school (she spent the semester studying in Mali, and is now doing a tour of Europe. We're meeting in Pisa.), but until then I am
embarking on what I consider to be my real final exam. I get to find out what I've learned about finding my way around a foreign country and relying on my own resources. I'm a little frightened.
I arrived in Venice yesterday, on a flight that took off from Stansted airport in London at six thirty in the morning. Stansted is about an hour and a half outside of the city, so to ensure that I arrived with enough time to check in and make it through security I had to catch a three thirty am bus from Victoria Station. I find it difficult to sleep on buses and planes, so by the time I reached Venice I was a bit of a basektcase. Still, I wasn't going to waste a day Venice, so tired as I was I headed out into the streets
to explore.
Venice is very difficult to navigate. The streets and canals don't seem to move in a straight line, and right angles are almost unheard of. I spent a good deal of time wandering around yesterday, only to end up back at my hostel. The city feels very touristy; I seem to hear French and German spoken as much as English and Italian, but it has an undeniable charm. To begin with Venitians seem to be much fonder of dogs than the British, and they don't feel the need to put them on lead. The dogs follow their masters in the various cafes and tratorias, and seem to be incredibly well trained. The ubiquity of the dogs means that the integrity of Venice's sidewalks suffer a bit, but it makes the city feel cheery.
I'm ending my trip in Venice, so I'll be back. Thus, I'm taking my time to explore the city because I don't feel I have to do everything at once. I saw San Marco square with it's gorgeous Basilico, which I didn't go into, and the grand Doge's palace, which I did. The Doge's palace was amazing, filled with paintings and frescos by the likes of Titian, Veronese and Tintoretto.
I know next to nothing about Italian art (I have a hunch that will change after this trip,) but I loved looking at the large canvasses. The palace also included a tour of the dungeons, which can be reached over the "bridge of sighs," so called because prisoners crossing it would sigh when they caught their last glimpse of the outside and freedom before being locked away for good. I can't say I blame them.
The area around San Marco is incredibly touristy, and hence incredibly over priced, so I tried to see other parts of the city. I went to another museum the Accadamia, which also included many works by Veronese, Tintoretto and Titian (I'm sensing a theme.) I loved the art, though, although they could
probably open another museum just for all of the madonna and child paintings alone.
Italy is famous for its churchs, but I have yet to go into a church. Instead, I went to the Jewish section of town and took a tour of the four synagogues. Venice has the oldest ghetto in Europe. I learned that the word ghetto comes from the Italian word for foundry. When the jews were sequestered in the fourteenth century the old foundry was turned into a living area for them. Now if I can find out what a foundry is I'm going to be all set; I think it has to do with building ships. Anyway, the jews had to live in the ghetto and could only leave during the day if they were wearing a yellow or red badge if they were male, or a yellow scarf if they were female. Nowadays they've gotten a little more casual. Apparently some
of the first skyscrapers in Italy were in the ghetto because they had to fit a large community--between three and four thousand people--into a small space. Nowadays only around three hundred jews live in Venice proper, but I think it has to do more with property taxes than persecution.
The time at the internet cafe is going to run out soon. Tomorrow I leave bright and early for Verona. Till then, ciao.
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