Return to Venice

About a week or two ago, amid the hectic midterm time, I visited Venice again to be with my Mom, Aunt Patty, and Grandma Dottie. It was a busy week and it put me way behind on the blog. Im gonna catch up now. It was tough balancing studying for midterms (which we got our teachers to let us take early so we could fly to Paris for super cheap), with spending time with family, and still adventuring. It was tough but Ali and I did it.

              I was unsure if I was going to be able to go to Venice because my workload was so heavy. Ali straight up just said she wouldn't be able to go after her photo teacher dropped another huge midterm project on her and she wanted to visit her mom (who was doing a 2 week ceramics workshop at a small medieval town called, "Certaldo" in Tuscany).  I wanted to catch the train to Venezia Santa Lucia on thursday so I could be there on Friday to catch Dino Rosin and see the REAL hotshops of Murano (which are only open on weekdays and sometimes on saturday mornings). Besides, I heard from some friends that there was a train strike happening on Friday and I really wanted to go to Venice. First I had to get some stuff done......

  Among the work I had to get done was letterpressing some cover pages for a book I am working on.

I got the work done, packed up my bags, ate a quick snack and went to the train station where I got a ticket for the 5:30 fast train to Venice. This trip to Venice lets me study for my midterms as well. It sounds like an excuse to go to Venice, but I really did get to study a bunch. On the train I made flashcards to study irregular italian verbs and I even got help from an Italian girl from Rome who sat across from me on the train.

When I arrived in Venice it was already dark and I went to buy a vaporetto ticket and the lady said, "there is a problem. There is a strike tomorrow." I didn't think the strikes affected the boats too! This would make getting to Murano tomorrow near impossible! Discouraged, I started the search to find my hostel.

I walked through many campos with nobody in them and many dark alleyways before finally stumbling upon the door where my hostel was. "La Pescheria Backpackers", it was called. It was my first time staying in a hostel and It wasn't bad. My small error in booking the rooms showed me that the customer service wasn't the best, but for 35 euros a night, I couldn't really complain too much. It was not in any tourist part of town, yet I was only a few minutes walk away from the Rialto Bridge and I didn't know it when I first got there, but I was super close to an awesome market with an amazing fish market. The hostel was a little uncomfortable at first sleeping in a room with total strangers but it really wasn't bad and they give you a key to unlock the door so you can come and go whenever you want. I dropped my stuff off and headed to Piazza San Marco to try and find my Moms hotel, The "Westin Europa, Regina". 

 Piazza San Marco was alive and ultra classy as usual. The major bars and restaurants all had really good bands playing. Here is the Florians band and setup. I don't know if I mentioned the Florian in the last Venice Post. The Florian is one of the oldest bars in Italy. It is 300 years old and all of the furniture on the inside is original! It costs money just to get into the door and sit down. For a spritzer (basic drink) and some chips it will cost about 50 euros! It is VERY classy and VERY expensive. I wont be eating there anytime soon. Possibly on another trip to Europe when I am not staying at, "La Pescheria Backpackers".

Across from the Florian on the other side of Piazza San Marco there was another bar that is very similar to the Florian. Its band was very good with a really good clarinet player. It attracted quite a crowd. 

After a long time of searching and lots of asking for directions, I finally found my Moms hotel. It was tucked in a small back alley campo in a high fashion store part of town. I couldn't find my mom but I left a message at their room. The Westin was much nicer than my hostel (no surprise). This was the lobby. I used their fancy bathroom and filled up my water bottle. I couldn't get a vaporetto ticket, mis-booked a night at the hostel and I couldn't find my mom or anyone. I was discouraged and I missed Ali so I headed to bed.

           The next day I woke up early and got out early. I quickly stumbled upon "Al Mercato Rialto" (the Rialto bridge market) and I quickly discovered what gave "La Pescheria Backpackers" its name- this fish market was awesome! Al Mercato Rialto also connected to a big, canalside vegetable market and there were small local stores selling breads and cheeses around the campo.

 You can see the well for the campo as well as a "water fountain" between the two arches. In Europe, water fountains are very public and just constantly spew out water that it drinkable. It is very strange to drink out of one at first because they don't exactly look clean but the water is clean and its great for intellectual, euro gypsy, traveling, adventurers like me who need to refill water bottles for free.

 Check out that Angler fish! This fish market certainly had a bit more variety than Florence's markets. If only I had stuff to cook here in Venice! I wouldn't know where to start with that thing!

How about a Ray? Or what about that fish behind it? You could cook up some pretty crazy seafood here! Its all gotta be super fresh too, Like in Florence, these markets only stay open till about 1 (although Venice has other street stalls selling fruit and stores selling cheeses that stay open later). I came back later and much of the fish had sold and they were cleaning up. 

 While heading to the Rialto bridge, I found a place that sold my favorite muffins here in Europe, the same muffins that are sold at our favorite bakery, "Vechio Forno" in Florence, for 1€70. Thirty cents cheaper than at Vechio Forno. My luck was already starting to turn today!

 On my way to meet my mom at her hotel. She called me before I fell asleep the night before and we arranged to meet early at her hotel. High tide in Venice is pretty neat. the water is soooo close to the sidewalk! It even splashes up onto the sidewalk at times. Way cool, I love Venice!

I found my mom at here hotel and we had a nice american style breakfast with eggs and bacon on the side of the grand canal. My Moms room was MUCH nicer than my hostel with fabric walls and a very classy, decorative room that you would find in Venice. Even my hostel was decorative but not like this. Venice is a very decorative and classy city, I like it. We spent most of the day walking around Venice. I wanted to show them Venice and between my mom looking at tights, Grandma Dottie looking for dolls, and Aunt Patty looking for glass things and masks, we probably stopped at every tourist shop there was. They enjoyed shopping around however and seeing the city and I gave them a little tour of Venice. We walked around a bunch and by the afternoon, grandma Dottie and Aunt Patty were feeling really tired. I wanted to go to this art exhibition that was right down the street from the hotel we stayed at last time but I didn't get to go. It was supposed to have amazing immersive, interactive, generative art and that sounded right up my alley. I saw something about it at the Biennale last time. We walked on over to the Academia neighborhood where the exhibition was and everyone could enjoy walking along the water near the mouth of the grand canal. 

The view from on the bridge to Acadamia.

 On the way to the, "Officina Della Zattare", where the, "Metamorphosis of the Virtual" exhibit was going on. By this time, Aunt Patty and Grandma Dottie had found a spot to sit near the water and were too tired to go on too much further. I tried not to push them too hard especially with grandma but it is hard when your so used to just walking everywhere and you want to show everyone these amazing places. Last time I was here, Lorenzo told us that there was one repair shop that repaired and every once and awhile would build a new gondola. The gondolas are designed to last at least 2 generations of gondoliers and they are all mahogany! This means that they never rot but are VERY expensive. I believe this place that we passed is a gondola repair shop, possibly the only one in Venice.

 The "Metamorphosis of the Virtual" exhibition didn't have nearly as much as I thought it did. It didn't have the super cool, wrap around, immersive, plasma screen displays, or the giant interactive projection walls, that I saw in the catalog. They did have some neat stuff in their, "Hack lab". This elaborate set up made noises. My mom and I walked around the "Office" (really a gallery) and saw a few of the other exhibitions going on there and I got the small book that had info on the artists that were doing the really cool art with the huge displays. I want to find out more about them.
          After the gallery, we met back up with Aunt Patty and Grandma Dottie and headed back to get ready for dinner. My Mom, Grandma Dottie, and Aunt Patty all had complimentary dinner coupons that they didn't get to use last night after their gondola ride tour. They were gonna try and use them tonight and I was invited for dinner as well. I stayed in one of the fancy lobby side rooms at the Westin to study some art history flashcards I had made, while my mom and them got ready for dinner.

 Dinner was really good and very relaxing. Aunt Patty stayed at the hotel because she was too tired. I had a really good Almond cake for dessert that I really liked. Apparently the night before, my Mom, Grandma Dottie, and Aunt Patty all ate cake for a dessert at the restaurant/bar across from the Florian and they sat there for awhile enjoying the band. I must have just missed them. They said they spend over 100€ on just 2 little cakes and some coffee! Once in a lifetime! Apparently, Aunt Patty got an almond cake like I got. We both like Almond cake. On the way back from dinner, my Mom and Grandma Dottie and I talked about how Venice (and it seems much of Europe) has a sense of classiness  and fanciness that isn't really found in America. There seems to be beauty all over the place and quality that you just don't see in America. I think it has something to do with the rich history that is everywhere in Europe. Buildings that are hundreds and hundreds of years old are all around and it isn't uncommon for them to uncover thousand year old ruins whenever they dig (especially in Florence).

 I walked with my Mom and Grandma Dottie back to their hotel. Some of the "fanciness" of Venice can be seen in the window displays of the high fashion stores. I think they are arranged better than anywhere I have ever seen. You can tell the store owners put a lot of time into making them look just right.

Of course, everything at these high fashion stores is very expensive.

Along the way back to my hostel, I decided to look at some of the touristy glass stores at San Marco. Some of them have some neat things like these neat cold shopped, Murrine, hot air balloons.

 ALL of the tourist glass shops (they are everywhere) sport the, "Murano Glass" sticker on their window and everything has a "Murano Glass" sticker on it. Most of it really isn't from Murano and some of it really isn't even glass, (I even saw the stickers on some little bracelets with plastic beads on them). Ali and I think that they import the glass from China to somewhere in Murano and then they put the stickers on it at Murano and it becomes, "Murano glass". Or they just get it straight from China. Whatever it is, it is putting a lot of Murano glass shops out of business (and high gas prices). I still like seeing all the glass shops even if they do sell crappy glass and Im glad people can buy cheap little glass trinkets and be happy with them. There still is a lot of glass coming out of Murano though.

 I also stopped and looked in the windows of the Venini glass store at Piazza San Marco. The stuff in here I KNOW is from Murano. I always think about Fred's big Venini binder at Alfred.

The Venini glass is really beautiful.

After a relaxing walk home, I got back to the hostel and slept well.
     

 In the morning I woke up early to meet my Mom for breakfast at the hotel before they all headed out back to Florence. The Rialto bridge is almost empty at this hour and all the super touristy stalls are closed. The city is asleep. I love waking up early while the city is asleep, its peaceful. All the canals are very still when its early too.

Piazza San Marco was almost deserted.
        Breakfast was very good and we talked about possibly meeting back in Florence for a dinner with Ali's mom and Ali. I would then just have time to go to Murano and then I would go right to the train station.

After breakfast, I went back to return my keys to the hostel and I bought a 1 hour, 1 way vaporetto ticket. I hopped on the Vaporetto to the train station stop and then I waited in a long line of tourists for the vaporetto orange line to Murano. When I got to Murano, it was still high tide.

 First I went to Roberto Dona's house because I wanted to see if Dino Rosin's shop would possibly be open (even though it was Saturday). The door was closed and it was still about 10:30 so I didn't want disturb him or anything. I wanted to see some sort of glassblowing, so I went to see the tourist glass shops.

 I found one glass shop where they were making little cups. Nothing special. After about a minute, a lady came up to me saying something about me needing to pay 3€  just to watch them blow glass! I explained to her that I do this and I know how to blow glass and she just insisted that I pay 3€. I took this photo and just walked out.

Here was another tourist shop with a "Special Demonstration". There was a loudspeaker explaining about how glassblowing worked. The guy was blowing on his own and making a long neck bottle that didnt even look that good. He had a few people watching already and when he noticed I was watching, He said something about the 3€. I stayed a bit and after yelling at me a few more times, I took a photo and left. There was no way I was gonna pay 3€ to watch these guys make things I already know how to make. I wanted to see the REAL Murano and I was getting discouraged because it was Saturday and I didn't think any of the real shops would be open. I decided to wander a bit. I passed apartments and took a few paths nobody was on before coming to a bridge. On the other side of the bridge it looked like an industrial part of Murano with a power station and kind of a junkyard. It didn't really even look like there was much of a sidewalk. I debated to myself if I should cross the bridge. I crossed and I sure was glad I did! As soon as I got to the other side, I heard the sound of a glassblowing torch, tools clanging on the bench and the steady, low, noise of a furnace. It sounded like they were coming from what looked to be an abandoned building to me. I walked on through the unkept yard with junk and weeds in it and peered into the broken window. Inside they were blowing glass and I tried speaking with one of the guys when he noticed me and It seemed that he only spoke Italian. He ushered me over to the door that faced the canal (not the dirt sidewalk/street) and let me in.

Inside, there was a messy hotshot and these two guys were making a big solid horse I tried explaining to the guys who were blowing glass that I know how to do this but they only spoke Italian and my Italian was not good enough to convey what I wanted to convey. They seemed very friendly. Im not sure if they understood me much or not. 

I was looking around some at the shop and I found what looked to be a garage. I thought it was a garage until a lady started pulling things out of it and then handling them with her bare hands. I suppose it is an annealer. This is definitely a production shop as there were many of the same things in there. In another box, there was touristy solid glass sailboats. It seems like they make really cool things and touristy glass things.

 As I walked back further, I came across a huge and messy coldshop with belts running. There was all kinds of glass in here including cool looking chandelier parts. They make all kinds of stuff at this shop. I talked with the man who was working on the belt and explained to him that I was an american student and can blow glass. He said his name was Giogio. Giogio only spoke Italian and he kept saying, "artista americana, artista americana.....". I followed Giogio out of the shop and met Judi Harvest. Judi was coming in by a boat and she is an artist who is working with Giogio on a project about the disappearance of Bees. I followed Giogio and Judi around for a bit and talked with them. Judi is an American artist who is based out of New York City. She is a global artist working all over the world. I couldn't believe I was getting to meet her. Both her and Giogio were so nice.

Judi showed Giogio some pieces of glass. There was a big 3 kilo bag of orange glass powder on the desk. Judi explained to me that Giogio lives here with his wife and his two sons, Miguel and Marco. They run one of the last real glass shops in Murano. I explained to her that I was a student and I blew glass and I was so happy to be here.

 Giogio showed Judi the progress that her garden was making. Judi explained to me that this area used to be full of weeds (a junkyard like Giogio's front yard) before she converted it into a flower garden for her bees. She got flowers, plants, a 200 year old pomegranate tree from some island, an olive tree, strawberries, and many other neat plants from all over the place and she planted them here to make a garden for these bee boxes. They are getting honey from these bees and using it in her exhibition going on right now in Venice.

Here is Judy's garden. It was so great to meet Judi. She is the type of Artist we are learning to become at Alfred. She knows how to blow glass and can blow glass. Instead of her making everything, she has people who are masters at their craft like Giogio make her work and she provides the idea. Judi has a really great website and now that I realize how lucky I am to have met her and how I arrived at just the right time at Giogio's shop. Here is Judi's website.....

http://judiharvest.com

Hopefully, one day I will be like Judi.

 We talked for awhile longer and Judi asked me if I had any projects I would like to do here and I was totally caught off guard. I said I would love to have the opportunity to blow glass in Murano and that I and Ali would love to volunteer and work for free for Giogio. We would do whatever he wanted even if it was just bringing him glass bits. The Opportunity to blow glass on Murano would be amazing. Judi told Giogio and he seemed to like the idea. Judi made sure I got one of Giogio's business cards and said to call Giogio next time I go to Murano. I couldn't be more thrilled and I was so excited to meet Judi. She would be a good person to stay in contact with as well as Giogio.

Eventually, Giogio said that he was closing up for the day (shops are only open in the mornings on saturdays if they are open at all) and I told him I would call him in about a month or so when I was able to return to Murano. I was so thrilled! I called Ali up as I was crossing the bridge and told her about my new contacts and the possibility of being able to blow glass in Murano. She couldn't believe it!
        I then went to talk to Roberto Dona. After ringing Roberto's doorbell, he happily greeted me and let me inside. I told him about my new friends on Murano and he said that Judi makes, "very important art". Roberto said that Dino would be closed today and again to come back on a weekday. We talked for awhile longer before I left.

          After leaving Roberto's, I saw that I still had a few more hours that I could spend on Murano so I decided to go to Glasstress

Glasstress is one of the art festivals held at the same time as the Biennale for glass art around the world. I believe there are 3 locations of Glasstress this year, two in Venice and one on Murano. There were many super cool glass art pieces in this exhibition. I will include some of my favorites. This one was an engine that they poured red glass onto. 

Neon fighter jet.

 The exhibition was held in an old hotshop. I believe I remember seeing photos that Aric took when he went to a glasstress exhibition that was here two years ago. I would like to see this hotshop when it is running.

This neon piece was supposed to say, "ARTIFICIAL". It was really cool and its a bummer the other half wasn't working.

  The neon in the lightbulb is really cool.

 These were a series of water droplets captured on high speed camera and then made in glass by Venetian glass maestros. I thought they were really cool.

 Way cool!

 Quite possibly my favorite piece of the whole exhibition was this big moving sculpture of a chandelier.

 The thing was constantly moving and changing. It was like a giant robotic sea creature. You can see its plastic arms deflate in these three photos. It had a micro controller (a bit more sophisticated than my arduino) that controlled a bunch of LEDs and computer cooling fans that spun around and inflated plastic spikes.

 It was way cool and it was very relevant to the things that I do. I spent some time looking at it and I tool a few videos of it clicking and clacking on and off and moving around. It was way cool and a good piece to end the exhibition on and leave Murano.

 On the way out I saw a Ton of "blocks". This hotshop is definitely in use when Glasstress isn't going on.

I also saw these neat glass ducks on the way out.

Ducks from under the water. Pretty cool.

After Glasstress, I took the boat back to the ferrovia, (train station) and found a train leaving in about 10 minutes that I caught. 

          I got back to Florence with plenty of time to get some work done and hang out with Ali and her mom and see how Certaldo was.

 While Ali's mom was in Certaldo, she visited the studio of famous Potter Terry Davies. He introduced high fire reduction ceramics to Italy, where the traditional, "Majolica" firing dominated the scene. I think I had heard some about him in the states.

 We found my Mom and everyone at the Hotel and took them to Mimmos and it was great.

Dinner was so good and it was awesome to have everyone sit down together. We all talked for so long. It was a great last night with everyone. We had 2 jam packed days of working and studying and then on Wednesday we finished our book arts books, took our midterms and headed out to Paris.