the rejoinder to my title is, “and how its color improves with the changes in the angle of the sun……….
It occurs to me often these days that I am either autodidactic (more than generous) or, probably more accurately, the biggest simpleton of all time, having been largely asleep at the switch or on autopilot for most of my first 60 years of life – for, I am awash in thoughts and occurrences heretofore unexperienced. What does this mean? Well, anyway:
The words “decay” and “improve” seem to be on opposite ends of the spectrum, don’t they? And so, can you think of something you can say for sure improves as it decays? Compost comes to the forefront. Followed by perhaps mulch? Perhaps Gorgonzola? No, that would be “age”. What precisely is the difference between “to age” and “to decay”. This question became paramount as I stirred around in my memory of this visit to Venice. This and the profound effect of colors. It is curious to me that as a person who plays around with the camera constantly to get the right light in a picture of say, a flower, can be as surprised as I am about the profound effect of this very same thing, as in, say, on the overall impact of a city. Curious. Makes perspective and shades of difference all the more relevant, doesn’t it. Ok, so I missed Photo 101, Color 101 and Light 101.
After our last trip to these three cities in July 2011, I was most smitten with Florence and I still am very much so. But, this time I think I have to say I was most smitten with Venice………….
I have read many articles and commentaries that try to capture the essence of the beauty of Venice. Many of these include various forms of the words, “decay”, “sinking”, and even “stinking” (so unfair). Being that every living creature and venue on the face of this earth is in some state of decay, I suppose that comments such as this are all relative. We do all know that the beauty of many things does indeed improve with age and hence the word, patina.
I have to admit that I had never thought about the fact that the beauty of something or some place changes depending upon the angle of the sun, but of course it does. And, this was indeed quite evident to me immediately as we set off from the dock at the train station.
I enjoyed visiting Venice the first time I went in July 2011. My memories seem to be all bathed in the white hot and bright sunshine commensurate with the first week of July, just about 2 weeks past the Summer solstice. At the time I did not realize this. This time I found the essence of Venice to be slightly deeper and richer – it was something I noticed right away and it took me awhile to realize what I thought it was – I assume this to be due to the approximate 8 week difference in the angle of the sun as it rode along each and every canal, alleyway and vantage point. I saw it if not understood it immediately. I would even love to come back in early October to see more of this effect. (And now, of course, I have to do a little experiment for myself and see if I notice this in other places, like New York.) Would I be an educated artist, I would of course, have been instructed on issues such as this and now as I write this, it seems more than quite obvious a phenomenon. But, I have to say I never “saw” this before as I did here.
We took the train from Como back to Milan and then went onto Venice, arriving late on Friday. Our hotel was in a great location right adjacent to St. Mark’s Square. But, the impact of my arrival began before we arrived at the hotel. It began when we stepped down into the taxi and the throttle was pushed forward slightly as we slowly moved through the Grand Canal.
George was unprepared for the absence of cars and limits on the modes of transportation. He just never had thought about the complete absence of cars here I don’t think. But, of course this is one of the primary charms of Venice, all new and wondrous for him, – and, for me, it was all about the colors – vivid, electric, romantic, heartwarming:
I had listened to Rick Steves’ episodes on Venice quite a few times. This is one of the things I do when I am homesick for these places. He emphasized how great it is to get out of the center of Venice and explore the outer neighborhoods. We tried to do this and I agree. While St. Mark’s Square is magnificent and important, much of the real beauty is away from there.
As I look through my collection of pictures, it occurs to me that inspiration is something that may be the equivalent of a great array of thoughts, memories, impulses and ideas all intersecting or ricocheting off of one another until they coalesce into a pinpoint of something – sort of like something you saw in Ocean’s Eleven in the museum scene where the beams of the alarm system are all crossing one another. Why bring this up? Because, as I said yesterday, I have a difficult time trying to imagine the people who conceived of all of this. All I can say at this point is that I am homesick to return to Venice now and yearn to be surrounded with all of this creative genius.
So, if you have to pick, here are some of my favorite pictures from Venice. I seriously hesitate to bombard with this number of photos in one post as it seems so degrading to the experience. However, I can’t keep writing posts about this trip forever, can I now?
Two quintessential frames of Venice:
At the enchanting Hotel Flora, where we had tea and chatted with a lovely couple from Copenhagen who were on their 19th visit:
Maybe I have more in common with George Clooney than I thought?
By the way, if there is such a thing as jet lag, is it possible that there is such a thing as season-lag? If yes, I am indeed suffering from it. I can see now that I lost somewhere between 2-4 weeks of Summer in my 9 1/2 hour flight home. It is so much darker here than in Italy – and cold. I just put on a pair of wool socks. Ugh! I am hoping this is but a momentary aberration and we will return to warm, sunny weather ………….
Traffic management, the gondolas and food photos of Venice tomorrow.