IT WAS THE BEST OF TIMES ...

October 25, 2019


It was the worst of times.

“Message, Spock?”

“None that I am aware of.  Except Happy Birthday.  Surely the best of times.”

Okay, that recap from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan should give you a clue into our day today.  But as stinky as part of it was, as Michael says, “That’s a First World problem.”

After breakfast – a ham omelet for me, and a bowl of cereal with sliced banana for Bonnie, plus toast, juice and some other stuff – we walked across the Academia Bridge to visit the Peggy Guggenheim Museum.  There is a temporary exhibition on display featuring cubism and other strange works of art.  Think Picasso after he went to the Dark Side and you get an idea of the pictures.  It was neat looking around, but definitely not our cup of tea. 

Here’s part of the description from Picasso’s “The Studio.”  “Picasso has created an image which tempts us with our need to link images to things we know in nature without surrendering the artist’s liberty to paint what he wishes.” 

And another from Piet Mondrian’s “Composition No. 1 with Grey and Red 1939: “Mondrian hoped to provide a visual equivalent for the truths that inhabit nature but are concealed in its random, flawed manifestations.”

In other words, these guys are going to paint what they want, a dab of color here, a squiggly line there, and people will pay a fortune for it.  It works for them.

After we had broadened our cultural appreciation, we lunched on pizza (we’re in Italy – what else is there for lunch).  Mom had pepperoni and I had, wait for it, a pizza with sliced hot dogs on it.  Remember those good old days?

We popped into another display of art in a small church.  This one by the Russian artist, Zorikto Dorzhiev.  Looking at the works, I knew I did not know his region, but the Asian features on his subjects clued me in that he was from the eastern part of Russia where the Mongols and the Tartars once held sway.  Beautiful pieces.  I’ll show you some pictures when I figure out how to get them from the cell phone to the computer (and it looks like that will be in mid-November).  There is a concert in that church on Sunday, “Back to Bach,” and we are thinking about taking it in.

Well, all of that was good, including the goofy pictures, but then we decided to go back to Piazza San Marco to go into the Basilica of San Marco.  Big mistake.  Really big.  Huge.

It started off nice enough.  Free entry.  We rented audio guides and went in.  Problem was, none of the things we were to look at and listen to had any direction as to where we were.  After the fact, I complained to the woman who rented them, and she said, “Well, they were in another area that you had to pay to go into.”  I asked why she didn’t mention that at first, and she answered with a shrug. 

The worst part of the whole excursion into the Basilica was the total lack of organization.  It was easy to see that this oldest church in Venice, dating back some 600 years, is absolutely fascinating.  But parts are covered by plywood – repairs? – and others well hidden.  Outside are rules pointing out this is a church, proper dress is required (we saw several people turned away for wearing shorts and/or tank tops) and silence is to be maintained, because this is a church.  Well the building was full of tour guides talking to their customers and, oh well.  First World problems.

We then went to another museum, and with the help of a kind lady were able to get free tickets (I bought tickets for museums, churches, and transportation before we left and I still haven’t been able to get the transport and the museums – she called her supervisor who said he would contact the company involved and get us a new PIN – if that doesn’t work what’s in my wallet will be contacted).  That was a great museum.

We stopped for club sandwiches on the way back – piled high with ham, cheese, and tomatoes, washed down with cold water.  Then it was back across the Academia Bridge for gelato, and now we are in for the night, having covered over 6 miles today.  Tomorrow we are going to slow down.

And now hereeeeeeeeeeeees Bonnie!

TTFN

Hey there everybody!!

Well, today was long. It was 58 when we got up and I took my sweater with me. Mistake. I didn’t need it or wear it, just carried it. So tomorrow no sweater. I did take my water bottle carrier and got a bottle of water when we got our pizza so that made the day better.   I enjoyed the walk over the academia bridge and the walk to find the Guggenheim museum was nice and we saw a church and another small museum on the way. The shops are really fun to look into. So far I have bought a pencil. I want a t shirt but haven’t found the one I want yet. The G museum was way too much like the Picasso museum. I am just not high brow enough to enjoy it. To many lines and odd shapes that look like nothing. There was one painting there I swear Tate had drawn. There was another that looked like a blackboard and someone had used chalk to make rows upon rows of loops across the board. Most pictures of women emphasize their bare upper torsos, totally misdrawn. The only recognizable things are their boobs.  There was one statue of a man riding a horse that was really obscene. I will not show you that picture.  After pizza and walking back across the bridge we came to our room and got rid of some stuff and decided to go back to St Mark square and church. The church is beautiful outside but they have the inside so roped off and areas covered so you can’t see unless you pay an extra fee for every room that you really can’t see or appreciate anything. They should just charge a flat fee and let you see it all.  The second large museum that we saw was much better. We spent about 2 hours looking around. They had everything from art work, to huge globes from the 1600's, a whole room of all size cannons, a room full of coins, a huge room with floor to ceiling  book cases filled with books, statues of all kinds, guns muskets and swords. There was just too much stuff to see it all or tell you. Everything was very well displayed. The only hard part was finding the way to “uscita”, that is exit. It was almost harder than getting into it.

We found a little sandwich shop and decided to have a ham, mozzarella, lettuce and tomato Panini. They were very good. Washed them down with a bottle of natural water, no bubbles. Then we found a store to buy a couple of 1.5 liter bottles of water for our room. Since we had not had any gelato yet we went in search of some. One store we had been to on the first day was closed, so we found a second one. By this time it was very dark and the streets were crowded by young people in the areas around small bars.

Well, tomorrow our hotel offers a free taxi ride to the Murano glass factory which is on an island. So we are going to take it to the factory and maybe buy something. Then, we will have a ferry ticket to take us to some of the other little islands and eventually back home. It is absolutely fantastic weather here and the strike today didn’t seem to slow anyone down.  We are having a great time. Both of us are sleeping pretty good. We got our room assignment for the cruise ship today, so that is all set to go.

Well, a little more relaxing and it will be time for bed. Love you all.
Mom, Granny and Bonnie