Saturday in Verona

Ten travelers, all alike in dignity,
In fair Verona where we lay our scene
From Venice school break to new scenery
Where city card makes students' wide eyes gleam.
From forth the rocking train the student goes
Where pair of star-cross'd lovers took their life
Whose misadventur'd piteous overthrows
Did with their deaths bury their parents' strife.
The pleasant passage, with the sun above,
And exploration without guide book's page,
To arena, tower, and house of love
Was the few hours' traffic of our stage.
To which if you with patient ears attend
What here shall miss, my blog shall strive to mend.

On Saturday morning, all ten of us set out on our first weekend trip, a one-day excursion as sort of a pilot to all of our trips to come. It's about two hours by train from Venice to Verona, and there are plenty of attractions in a small area, perfect for a short trip. Once there, we split into two groups. Purely by luck, my group discovered a wonderful thing called the "Verona Card," a ten-euro day pass that grants admission to a whole list of places- the Roman arena, the Casa di Giulietta (House of Juliet), museums, churches, and so on. Despite our limited time, we managed to visit six of the locations on the list.

Our first stop was the Chiesa di San Fermo, an awesome church with another church underneath.
Down another street, we (practically literally) stumbled upon some Roman ruins, and after that we found our way to La Casa di Giuletta, where we posed for pictures touching Juliet's breast (for good luck) and standing on her balcony. Of course I realize Romeo and Juliet is a work of fiction and La Casa di Giuletta is nothing but a tourist trap, but it was fun.
Next, we visited the Torre dei Lamberti and braved lots of stairs for a great view of the city.
The view from the tower was also a great way to orient ourselves and decide where to go next and how to get there. Next was the Chiesa di Santa Anastasia and then the Complesso del Duomo.
Our final stop was the Roman arena which offered more photo opportunities and an unobstructed view of a marching band performing in the Piazza below. We just happened to be in the city during a festa.

(Oh yeah, by the way: Purdue beat Ohio State!)

It was a long day, but a nice break from our busy schedule. And, now that we've negotiated the trains and another Italian city on our own, we're ready to travel more in the weekends to come...

Pick a campo, any campo...

When given the task of choosing a campo and seeking out its architectural features, I saw it as a chance to venture out on my own for some more personal exploration of Venice. I wanted to go somewhere I hadn't been before, so I wanted a campo that was far from the Piazza San Marco and in the middle of the city, but should still be easy to find. My choice, after opening up my map of Venice, was the Campo Nazario Sauro. To reach it, I took the number one vaporetto to the Riva de Biasio stop, and from there it was just a short walk.

(above images are from Google Maps)Campo Nazario Sauro turned out to be a very small campo without a church, so at first I was disappointed that I wouldn't find much. It didn't help that it was raining when I ventured out. However, once I started taking pictures and really paid attention to detail (which, of course, was the point) I began to notice things.

In this first picture alone, I found eight of the architectural features listed on our terms page. This building features a pediment at the top, balustrades along the roof and string courses below, stilted arches over lunette windows, two circular exedras on either side of the topmost window, and corbels supporting that window's balcony. At the bottom left and right of the picture, you can see lintels over two of the other windows.
The middle window, shown in the bottom center of the previous picture, features a balcony with a balustrade, and, again, corbels.
This building is also a wealth of architectural features. Starting at the bottom, there is an aedicule around the door, with an arch around the lunette window supported by pilasters. There are lintels above the door and first floor windows, and the spandrels above all of the arches have been raised for a decorative effect. The center floor appears to be a mezzanine, and there is an entablature along the roof.
Here's a closer look at that door.
This door isn't quite as ornamented, but it also has a lunette, and above there is an oculus.
This building has a birfotate window, in addition to an entablature, a square and circular exedra, and corbels supporting the balconies.
This building has a balustrade, windows with lunettes, stilted arches, and a decorative exedra. To the side, somewhat hidden, is another rectangular exadra.
Here are more pediments, entablatures, corbels, and stilted arches.
My favorite part of the Campo Nazario Sauro was this window, a Gothic lancet window.
No two campi are the same. The Campo dei Tedeschi, which was basically attached to Campo Nazario Sauro held many more biforate windows and oculi.
The nearby Campo S. Giacomo da l'Oro is a very large campo with a church and a campanile (bell tower).
I walked through it on my way back to Piazza San Marco, and I nearly changed my mind about Campo Nazario Sauro because it had so many interesting features. However, I decided that it's not the size of the campo that matters, but the features that make each one unique. I walked through several campos on my way back to the San Zaccaria vaporetto, and it would be impossible to pick one I didn't like.

The Lido, Mario, and the ghetto

Yesterday we visited the Lido, the large island that is the main barrier between Venice and the Adriatic Sea, to spend some time on the beach. Even though it's October, it has been hot and humid, and the water was fine. There were shells everywhere, and it was possible to get very far from shore but still have shallow water. The waves were small and gentle, and overall it made for a nice, relaxing beach experience. I definitely plan to go back at least a few more times before it gets colder.
As a note of interest, since the Lido is so long, it's the only one of the island with roads for vehicular travel. A ferry takes cars there from Piazzale Roma, the main hub where the busses and trains arrive in Venice.
Later in the evening, we made our way to the Campo Santa Margarita, which is where students usually hang out in the evening. While there, we met an Italian guy, Mario, who was born in Venice and is currently a student of architecture. He came up and asked us where we're from, and we chatted for awhile. He took Sara, Audrey, and I to the Due Dragoni (two dragons) bar and bought us prosecco, a kind of sparkling white wine which is apparently a typical Venetian drink. When we parted for the night, he gave us the Italian kiss on both cheeks, which was a little awkward because Americans just don't do that. But overall it was a cool authentic Italian experience.

This morning, we had a tour of the Jewish ghetto, which is just the area where Jews were allowed to live before Venice opened to them. They probably wouldn't have been allowed to stay in Venice at all, but they were able to lend money, something the Christian population couldn't do because it was considered a sin. The Venetian ghetto was the world's first; the word "ghetto" comes from the Italian word for "foundry" because the ghetto was built by foundries. There were five public synagogues (and some private synagogues built by wealthy families) of which we were shown three. It was forbidden to take pictures inside, but here are a couple of outside pictures.
You wouldn't know what you were looking at unless someone told you, because the buildings look basically the same as the rest of the buildings in Venice. They are not typical synagogues, which would have been built at ground level. Because space was (and still is) at a premium in Venice, especially in the ghetto, the synagogues share space with apartments and shops. It is forbidden for anything to be built above a synagogue, so they are all on the top floor.

This is a monument to victims of the holocaust, who were taken from the ghetto to Auschwitz or other concentration camps.
To end on a lighter note, if you're planning a bar or bat mitzvah, Venice is apparently the place to be.

Gondole!

Today was an incredibly busy day, but I think we accomplished more than we had thus far the entire trip. We started with a visit to the Ca'Foscari library. After that we stopped at a nearby supermarket, Billa, to pick up some necessities. We also acquired Billa club cards, so now we really feel like we belong here. After that, there were several more stops, and we ended up running a little late, so rather than go all the way back to San Servolo and have to rush through lunch in order to get back for our Italian class on time, we decided to get lunch at an authentic osteria- a small, famiy type restaurant. In an osteria, everything is displayed in a case up front; you pick what you want, and they make you a plate. I wasn't quite adventurous enough to try the squid in black ink sauce this time around, but I did have bacala, a traditional Venetian dish- basically a spread made with cod. After lunch was Italian class, in which we made a huge leap; we now know enough to compose some actual sentences. But our day was not over yet; in fact, the best was yet to come. Professors Allen and Felluga had us at their apartment for a wonderful authentic Italian dinner, complete with antipasti (appetizers), a first and second course, and dessert. Between the antipasti and the main course, we were divided into pairs and given instructions for a scavenger hunt. Each pair received a piece of paper describing their particular mission, which we were not to open until we were outside. We were required to speak only Italian, and forbidden from showing anyone else the paper. Audrey and I had to get directions to Campo Santa Marina and pick up a cake Professor Allen had ordered earlier. Before we could eat it, though, we had the main course; salmon, polenta, and zucchini, and then a surprise. The surprise was a night gondola trip, which was absolutely amazing. Earlier in the day, we had been discussing taking a gondola ride, because that's basically the tourist thing to do in Venice, but I think tonight's trip turned out even better than anyone could imagine. It was a nice, cool evening, and we were rowed down quiet canals, along quiet streets, and under quiet bridges. Much of the time, the only sound came from the oars in the water. It was incredibly peaceful, which was a nice change from our busy schedule and the bustle of the tourist areas during the day, and being down in the canal like that, I really felt close to Venice. That is how you should see Venice. It's not just something fabricated for tourists; it's the way Venetians have traveled the canals for centuries. During dinner, part of the conversation centered around our favorite and least favorite things so far. It was easy to pick least favorite things, because there were so few negatives from which to choose, but I couldn't decide on a favorite thing at all. Now I have one. So far.