Siena and Venice

Right now, my bags are packed, all except for my computer, and I am going to the airport in an hour to return to the States after being gone for over 10 months. I don't have dates on this entry because I already packed my journal into my carry-on and, ha, I'm feeling a little too lethargic to retrieve it. I meant to write this entry a week ago, but that's all right. Just know that after I get back, I still have Ravenna, Bologna, and Assisi to tell you about.

Siena is a small town we visited a week ago, but unfortunately, it had high prices to get into things. In the spirit of staying with the group, I sat in the main piazza and sketched one of the worst done sketches I have executed the entire trip. At the very least, it had some good gelato and the various churches were lovely from the outside.

Venice, on the other hand, was absolutely magnificent. I had always heard so much about it and wanted to visit it, and it did not fail to meet my expectations. Taking a water taxi on the Grand Canal, I was enchanted by its many bridges, its unique buildings, and the little water alleyways off the canal. It amazes me how people can live so surrounded by water. Our first stop was the Peggy Guggenheim Museum.

I'm usually not much of a fan of modern art, but I did find some of the Jackson Pollock paintings in there mesmerizing. Even if they are just paint splatters, there's something captivating about the texture to it. The painting I sketched, though, was this beautiful work called "The Substance of Fog" which described its scene in very few lines, with nothing but simple shading. It killed my blue colored pencil, which was the first colored one to become shorter than my soft lead sketching pencil. That was amusing.

Afterwards, we stopped for lunch and shopped at a mask shop next door. I love Venetian masks, and had always wanted one. Looking through the brilliant collection of vibrant colors, feathers, and sparkles, I was like a kid in a candy shop. Then, when we reached the Piazza di San Marco, my mind was blown away by its astonishing beauty. It's hard to describe the way the light falls on the cathedral there--the soft blending of gold into the facade full of winged lions, the symbol of St. Mark. His bones are said to be in there, smuggled to Venice at the height of its power.

We visited the Bridge of Sighs, which was where prisoners condemned to death or life in prison would walk to get their last view of Venice and sigh. The gondoliers, of course, say that if you kiss under the bridge, your love will last a lifetime. I did not take a gondola, as they cost about 100 euros per trip, but I'd heard the superstition before. Apparently, there's only one female gondolier in all of Venice, the first one ever. Sadly, we did not see her at work. There were plenty of gondolas in the canals though. They are truly elegant crafts, with their long, black tapered ends and gold designs.

Then, we entered the cathedral of San Marco. It is curious, how the floor is wavy. This is from years of the water moving underneath it. Venice sinks a little more every year, and in the piazza, they just keep on rebuilding the floor, making the pillars on the portico shorter and shorter all the time. There are also many lovely Byzantine mosaics in the cathedral, too much for the senses to take in. We heard mass sung in Vietnamese, which was a bizarre but lovely experience.

We walked back to the train station from there, over the Rialto bridge. It was a long walk, but well worth some of the local sights, like seeing people load their personal motorboats like one would a car and leave. There were also many fascinating shops we never entered, but boasted of eye-teasingly beautiful wares as we passed them.

At any rate, a lovely day. As for now, less than an hour remains before I get to go to the airport. I'm so excited! Thanks for reading all year long, those of you who have. I really appreciate it. Many hugs from Italy, soon to be in America again!