venice, day 3 (july 24)

george and paola inside ducale palace in venice


today we planned to go to the academia gallery, and then to the arsenale space for the biennale. we started with the academia. there was a lot of venetian art from the 14th century on, and it was good stuff (it was in a gallery, after all), but i think that both of us were too art-ed out, and we couldnt really appreciate too much of it; there is only so much art that one could look at within a short period of time (especially art devoted to christianity). that being the case, we decided not to go to the arsenale, since it would only be a lot of contemporary art that we would almost certainly not appreciate much (and i believe that many people wouldnt, except maybe the artist’s mothers, who still wouldnt understand it).

so we decided to walk around venice, and see what there was. at first, one is overwhelmed by all of the different roads and such, and it is famous for being easy to get lost in. however, there are main pathways, that although are not marked, are easy enough to figure out if you actually think, instead of relying on a map. the problem is, though that most tourists are on this road, so it gets quite a bit congested. in any case, we ended up walking around the whole city, and it was neat enough. in fact, i did get a bit bored when i realized that everything looked the same. now certainly, at first, one is charmed by the look of the city and the character that such portrays (after all, it is only the architeccture by which one could get an impression of the character of this city, since it is so overrun by tourists that it is quite difficult to get an sense of the character of the city from the people living here (nonetheless, there are little pockets that we explored, off of the main path where we saw real life (as opposed to tourist life))). it was the same effect as looking at so much art: one can only see so much of the same sort of thing before becoming tired of it. however, there were a few interesting buildings that did break the monatony. one was supposed to be san maria gloriosa dei frari, which from what i could gather was either late rennassaince or neo classical style (based on the otherr stuff around the city, i would guess neoclassical style because it seems that this city is actually rather modern). however, maybe becuase there were concerts scheduled to be played there, or because someone wanted to be a jerk, there were patio roofs constructed over the side walk, obstructing a decent view of the building. to be sure, there is a lot of cleaning of old buildings, and thus a lot of scaffolds and such (which usually obstruct the entire wall or section of a building), but this was not a scaffolding. after finally having a chance to see something different, and having it obstructed like this, i got upset, and started voicing my opinion rather loudly, making sure that anyone within the vicinity was certain to know my opinion on this patio roofing. (like i said before, venice is overrun by tourists, mostly american, and others who know english, so i was pretty sure that people understood my profanity.) i tired to get a few pictures, but it was hard, so i gave up. by this time, i had given up on taking pictures, anyway, since it all seemed the same.

by this time, we went home and took a nap, which has been our pattern for any city in which we stay for three days. we then woke up and went out to eat dinner. on our way back, we took some night pictures that seemed to look neat, so my spirits were raised a bit. we stopped over one of the bridges over a canal, and took some experimental pictures. but that is not the interesting part.

there were two girls there (from their manner of speaking, i guess that they might have been from southern california). they were art students, drawing the picture of the canal (as everybody does). they seemed to be halfway decent, and took a lot of time with their drawings. in any case, then a gondolier floated by with his gondola and remarked ‘two artists; i cant believe it!’ (of course being sarcastic since there are so many artists in venice drawing, painting, or photographing the same thing; but the sarcasm was in good fun, and the girls sensed it.) one of the girls had the courage to ask, ‘how about a free gondola ride?’ at which the gondolier answered, without much deliberation, ‘sure, come on.’ the girls got excited, gathered up all their art stuff, and jumped on. (by the way, these gondola rides cost about 65 euros (80 dollars), without the customary tip). in any case, i felt happy for the girls, and for humanity in general. you see, it seems to me that most people dont feel that people are generally good and nice to each other. however, i disagree, and certainly give individual people benifit of the doubt. i remember one the train ride from florence to venice that there was this couple ahead of us while getting on the train. the woman got on first, and the man was still making sense of how to manage all the baggage to step on the train, and so he let another woman ahead of him. then the wife put her baggage in the special place for baggage, and the second woman put her stuff there as well, taking up all the space for baggage, and not leaving any for the husband. in any case, the wife called the woman a bitch for having cut in front of her husband. her husband stopped her and told her that he had allowed the woman ahead. i dont know how the wife felt, but she should have felt like crap, having jumped to a negative conclusion before considering a positive one. i hope the girl learned the lesson. i try to take individual people, and assume (at least) decency, knowing that we are all trying to get to the same place. that said, the only people i dont assume decency for are the employees at airports, who only work against humanity to stiffle the possibility of a comfortable transit.