trip day 12

 Trip Day 12:  Bienalle Giardini

I woke up naturally at 6:30 and went for my run.  It was gorgeous out.

Today's schedule was to visit the Biennale Giardini and so I decided to run in that direction to explore.  I found a couple of really cool sculpture gardens and decided we needed to come back to see those later. 

We had plenty of time to get coffee and breakfast and the coffee definitely made us happy.  It's so much easier to get reliably good coffee in Italy.

We gathered as a group and took a photo.

And I proudly displayed my artwork for the Biennale.  Maybe eventually I'll get an official invitation.

We started at the Central Pavilion and this was a completely new experience to Violet, Kennedy and Alayna.

I accepted the fact that I could not photograph everything that was interesting.  I tried to be present and really see the art.  It was tough.  Some things like these recycled Xray vinyl records just had to be photographed.  I needed to be able to show this to Blue back home.  

This was one of my favorite experiences from the entire Biennale this time.  In keeping with our lucking into things, we saw what appeared to be a ballet practice mirror and bar and a note indicating that there would be live performances at a few specific times during the Biennale.  We just happened to be about an hour away from the next one.  What luck!  We looked at a few more pavilions and then went back to watch.  The beautiful ballerina Oksana Serheieva performed a part of Swan Lake while we marveled.  It was a really moving and rewarding experience.  

The Biennale is like a marathon of art.  You just have to keep pushing through to get to the end.  I'm sure it shouldn't feel like that as an art appreciater, but it does.  You have a limited amount of time to take in the exhibits and you have an even more limited amount of head space to offer it. Eventually your senses are worn down and you can only respond positively to things that really grab you.  Things like color. 

Jefferey Gibson's vivid, colorful exhibit grabbed my attention.  

I had to keep my phone out for most of that pavilion.  

This exhibit was based on the death of a giraffe in captivity.  Very cool.  

I have no idea what this one was but I liked it.

After several hours of arting, this is how an artist feels.  We were beat.  

I found this behind a vending kiosk outside the Giardini and it could have easily been part of one of the exhibits. 

We all went to the apartments to rest.  After a good nap, we were refreshed and ready to explore.  I was the only on in our group who had been here before, but I didn't do much guiding.  We wandered over to St. Mark's and meandered while taking photos.  

This display promised hugs but did not deliver.  I walked for more than a 1/4 mile.  No hugs.

But I enjoyed every minute exploring with Violet.  She mostly kept me out of trouble.

We walked past this place but did not go in.  Pretty sure I got the gist of it from the door.  We found a cool pizzaria.  We had more limoncello (Alayna was my dedicated limoncello buddy) and of course we had gelato before turning in around 10 pm.  I had an early alarm for the next day.

trip day 11

 Trip Day 11:  Florence to Venice by train

I was grateful to sleep well and to be able to sleep in a little.  I woke up naturally at 7:30 and felt great.  I got my last Arno run in and there were lots of runners out.  One guy kept threatening to pass me and kept me fast.  Blue says I look like a skinwalker in my running photos.  I guess I need a run and a coffee to look normal.  

We finished packing and walked with the group to the train station.  We got on our train and found our seats.  Again, Violet and I were saved by Hope's mom agreeing to switch seats so we would be together.  Violet was sitting among a bunch of loud Australians and one of them "had his dogs out". 

Of all the ways we traveled on this trip, and we did travel most of the ways, I enjoyed the train the least.  We had to sit backwards and stare at strangers, but looking out the windows messed with my brain.  I tried to focus on drawing.  I had given out all of my Greek "you are beautiful" drawings and needed to make a bunch more Italian ones.  

There was a kid sitting behind us who brought some loud games onto the train.  One of them was a manual game that clicked loudly when he pounded the plastic pieces.  Most of the ride was "click click click click click click click click click click...." and my travel nerves were wearing thin.  I appreciate that various games kept him from screaming so I tried to be positive and ignore the sounds.

I love Venice.  Love it.  We arrived and had to regroup outside the station by the water for a while.  The sky and water was refreshing.  

The seagulls were not.  These guys are a different, evil breed in Venice.  Within the first 15 minutes of being in town, our group lost two sandwiches and a couple of slices of pizza to the gulls who would literally take it out of your hands.  I respect the hustle.  

Violet was a bit nervous about taking boats everywhere but she quickly saw that the vaporettos were fine.  We got to our stop and had this not so great sculptural landmark to orient us.  Pretty but just not great.

A short walk away was our little square.  We stayed at the Doge Residential apartments near the small church were Vivaldi was baptized.  I was pretty sure immediately that our place was haunted.  

The levels of exhaustion were hard to describe.  We were 11 days into an epic trip and our minds were tired from seeing lots of things, people-ing for 12 hours each day, not sleeping well and from some pretty intense travel situations.  Still it was tough to not be happy and have a good time.  We just had fun while being exhausted.  We found a cool little place to eat dinner just a few steps from our apartments.  Our waiter was Kamrul and he was a treat.  He was very nice and he goofed around with us like we were old friends.  He even brought us all free Limoncello before we left.  

So in Athens, there were these annoying kids with drums who would stalk you on the street.  They'd run up to you drumming loudly while staring into your eyes.  You basically had to pay them to leave you alone.  We ignored them.  While we ate, this dude with a cool accordion did the more mature version of that.  He looked classy and the sound was very Italian, but you basically had to ignore him or pay him to go away.  

I had spaghetti with meatballs and Violet had gnocchi.

After dinner I had to walk to the canal to see the view.  I love Venice.  

trip day 10

 Trip Day 10:  Violet's Birthday!!!

I don't always sleep well away from home.  Trips like this especially stretch me beyond my daily rituals and comforts and even when I'm exhausted, I can have trouble sleeping.  I'm sure that's normal-ish when you're a half day out of your regular time zone, but I was grateful for the hours of sleep I did get.  Nevertheless, I was awake at 5 am and soon I was out running along the Arno as the sun rose on Florence.  

I'm not even going to complain about the views.  And  also, there was some excitement to keep me awake.  It was VIOLET'S BIRTHDAY!!!!  I love celebrating other people's birthdays but I was sort of limited here.  I couldn't flood the place with balloons and make a big banner like I do at home.  After my run, I stopped by the coffee shop and grabbed some sweet treats and coffee for Violet.  Then I burst into the room singing happy birthday.  Pretty sure I scared her.  

Violet was in good spirits, despite my wake up call, and we quickly met the group and set out for a walk back up the river to the Uffizi Gallery.  We saw David last night, but today we would see more Michelangelo along with some Da Vinci, Botticelli, Caravaggio and more.  It was going to be a good day.

I was on portrait duty for the whole trip but I also made a point to get lots of selfies with Violet.  

I'm decidedly not a photographer, but I can take a decent photo.  Violet admitted this begrudgingly.  

It was a real treat for me to be in Florence, Italy with Violet on her birthday.  It was also really cool to have so many of my current and former students and my peers be so kind and loving to Violet on her birthday.  It meant a ton to her when my school people complimented her and showed her kindness.  Kennedy and Alayna chipped in to buy her some nice earrings and Sandy gave her a cool journal.  She was really happy.

I was happy too.  Of course because of her birthday, but also because...."Spring"...

"The Birth of Venus"...

Da Vinci...

and Caravaggio.  The Uffizi was a bit confusing at times and we had trouble locating the Medusa.  When we found it, we sent this to K and A.

and 5 minutes later they sent this to us.  Good times.

I look at art like an artist.  I look in wonder at some things, but mostly look to see how things were physically done.  Then I move on.  I don't stay in museums too long.  Violet was happy about this.  She was also very generous with time and patience when I wanted to go look at something again or take extra long with something like The Birth of Venus.  She kept saying that it was fun to see me so excited about things.  After we escaped the art, we walked a bit farther away from the hotel because I overheard someone saying that the Michelangelo park/garden thing offered the best views of the city.  

It also offered some good birthday photo opps.  Oh and there were baby ducks and fish.  

But yeah, they weren't lying.  Great views of the city of Florence.  We also had really good skies and clouds for this whole trip.  I think it sprinkled on us just once for about 5 minutes in Athens.  Otherwise, we had perfect weather.

This was the first place we found the REAL gelato.  The kind covered up in metal bins and not in a pretty display case.  Also a really good tip provided to us.  Definitely better quality gelato.

We lost K and A at some point walking around in the city but we found some really cool places to visit.  Apparently this is a store Violet has always wanted to visit and we had no idea there was one here.  We just happened upon it like all good things from this trip.  

Freakin' McDonald's.  Violet joked about McDonald's since we walked through the first airport.  I hate fast food and I haven't been to McDonald's in several years.  I told her there was no way I was going to eat crappy food in Greece and Italy.  There was one not far from our hotel in Athens and somewhere along the way, K and A told her they would make sure she got McDonald's for her birthday.  Fine.  It was a weird experience.  She got her happy meal and I ordered a doughnut.  K and A got cheese fries and pizza pockets.  Very strange.  The doughnut wasn't terrible. 

As we continued exploring, we were shocked to find an Alexander McQueen store.  We went to his exhibit in Columbia last year and Blue, Violet and I all love his work.  

The ladies inside knew we were not there to buy but they were very kind and conversational with us.  We talked about the exhibit of his work and she shared a lot of information about the current and future directions of the company.  

Violet got some Tik Tok recommendations for restaurants and we let her pick where she wanted to eat.  She chose Le Cappelle Medicee, just outside of a beautiful church.  It was nice and the food was good.  

On our walk back to the hotel, we found a cool little hang out spot and we sat on the loft and people watched.

The sky was gorgeous and this was our view walking back.

But did you even have a good birthday if you didn't get kicked out of a private garden party?  The guy with the tie is telling us we have to leave.  Maybe you shouldn't leave doors open if you don't want people to come in.

Another beautiful sky outside our hotel window before packing up and going to bed.  Tomorrow we leave for Venice.