You get a Honeymoon, and you get a Honeymoon, and here’s one for you…

Waking up in our flat in Florence for the past few days, I’ve had wild, detailed dreams. We came to Florence after parting with Kim and Michael.  I am not sure if my wild dreams are from the noise of partyers on the street seeping into my subconscious, detoxing from no wine after day after day of indulgent dinners, or the darkness of the room bringing my body into deeper rest.

Many friends tell us Florence is their favorite city in Italy. Florence is in Tuscany, and yet I don’t feel this is “Tuscany.”  I’ve come to associate Tuscany with a living dream of a farmhouse in the countryside. But first: how we got to Florence.

Taking Time Alone with our Sweethearts During the Couples Trip

Kim and Michael went to Florence for a few days while Thomas and I wrapped up our stay in Venice.  We stayed with them in Florida last year and have a tradition now, since we live so far apart, of coming to stay with each other. Michael brought his great-grandmother’s ring (they were married 50 years) to Italy. He polished it up after it had been locked away for a generation in a safety deposit box. He presented the ring to Kim on the rooftop balcony of their Florence flat the day before we all met in the countryside of Tuscany. He wanted to start the next chapter of life, have babies together and spend his life with her. They shared tears, committed in their love and are now engaged to marry each other!

The four of us had planned to travel together before Thomas and I called this our honeymoon. This being a month-plus of travel post-wedding, Thomas and I decided this is our honeymoon. We are doing work and visiting friends so it’s a honeymoon-like vacation, but it’s become a funny joke that Kim and Michael say they “crashed” our honeymoon. In that spirit, Thomas and I are standing by to book our tickets for theirs.

While Kim and Michael committed in love to each other in Florence, Thomas and I lingered for our last few days in Venice enjoying our time together. We met with the arts residency friends to explore the Basilica di San Marco, as well as a few other amazing cathedrals. A few stand out moments were the horses and the views from the San Marco balcony.  No one knows who made these gilded copper statues. Replicas overlook the square from the balcony, but these originals live upstairs inside the basilica.

We took an opportunity to enjoy photos from the top of the basilica. I’ve always wanted to be in 2 places at once, and Thomas found a way to make that happen overlooking the Piazza San Marco via the magic of iPhone photography!

With the throngs of people below, we were ready to go to the countryside for some nature and quiet!

Across the square we found the Correr Museum.

I can’t load the video of Thomas and my ballroom dance together, but imagine it: us lilting across the floor while Thomas hums a waltz and I’m laughing. An amazing place to move!  Here’s my ballet move, for example.

The old Correr home has rooms furnished in period style from the 1600s. Each has a different feel, and art and old coins from the many doges ruling Venice.

The old world style is alive in Venice!

Lucca, My Love

The four of us, two couples, met up together to go to Lucca. We rented a farmhouse outside Lucca, gratefully without internet on our laptops. The universe wanted us to soak in the countryside before returning to the city rather than do work!

This home was founded abandoned by a worldly and artistic family. The mother is writer and daughter of nationally renowned novelist, Rosetta Loy. The husband, Nicola, is a painter and Buddhist. They renovated these homes over many years, and have created a Tuscan paradise.

We enjoyed our time, two couples celebrating love in Tuscany!  Kim, Michael, Thomas and I dined on the patio looking at the countryside, and I meditated with the buzzing bees nosing into the blossoms surrounding me.

The farmhouse is perfect for stepping back and seeping into nature.The home had a fireplace which warmed us in the cool evenings. The family greeted us and let us enjoy the rich olive oil that comes from the property. Thomas and I plan to return, perhaps for a novel-writing adventure on this auspicious property. The piece of land surrounded by farms is a Tuscan dream, and we’ve been thoroughly spoiled for the rest of Italy!

Lucca, the nearby town, is a walled city  and the only one to not have been invaded in the region.  We all had our first tandem bike experience coursing the walls overlooking the city and countryside and enjoyed checking out the Pisa town.

On a day when Kim and Michael went to explore Cinque Terre for a day, Thomas and I did yoga in the grass with the birds chirping, ate a leisurely lunch and took a hot bath in the pristine water .

We wandered at sunset through the olive groves and found a path carved into the hill called “Percorso della Beata.” The sign had the image of a saint on it, and the path was lined with lights. We saw a footbridge and a spring coming from the hillside. We touched the water flowing from the hill into a basin, and held hands as we walked the path. I felt we truly were walking the path of the blessed, calling in the nature and healing from the country to our minds and bodies.

I have been reading and writing about receiving energy and guidance, and have experienced many beautiful coincidences and moments confirming intuition. Coming upon this path appears to be another lovely and sweet gesture from the universe gracing us with the love and beauty of the natural world.

Firenze

Writing now from our Firenze flat

“Firenze” is “Florence” in Italian. Now that we are here, Thomas and I have been enjoying time to decompress. We’ve been in Florence for nearly 3 days and have only gone to the grocery store and the Galileo Museum. Between phone calls for work, time to sleep eat and write, we talk and read. On our first day, the rain streamed outside our window.

The Galileo Museum provided quite a look into the deeper connection between mathematics and art. Part of me felt like one of the fourth graders wandering the exhibit lost in the idea that mathematic calculations could be mapped onto a moving, gold instrument carved with images of constellations and ships.

A person who crafts a tool like that has an eye to reflect reality in images and lines. The ship and images are well-drawn. And further, the time-space-energy relationship between stars, moons, planets and rotation of the earth must be seen so clearly in the mind for a globe, or astrolabe, to show your thinking. Such a person was Galileo.

 

Thomas has a mind for this. He loves math, and sometimes calculates thoughts according to equations and natural law, in scientific, astronomical and mathematic terms. We were absorbed in both the profound understanding Galileo had of the world around him to create instrument after instrument measuring properties of the galaxy that many of us haven’t ever had a single thought about. The globe to the left shows the complexity of many axes and planes working at once to reveal a celestial globe, meant to measure the movement, timing and spatial relationships between planets and stars.

What’s wild to me is Galileo was busting up the comfortable ideas of our place in the world through his quest for knowledge. He invented new theories about how the stars, planets and earth related. He was  I had the beautiful song by the Indigo Girls, “Galileo” in my head:

Galileo’s head was on the block

The crime was looking up the truth…

Galileo was found by the Catholic church to be a heretic for the work, inventions and discoveries he brought to humanity. He was arrested and locked in his home until he died.  The lyrics of the song seem to understand that he was a visionary, calling on the “resting soul” of Galileo, the “king of insight” to “reach that kind of light.”

Reaching the Light

Today as we go out to venture in Florence, we eat again at home. Here’s what happens when you’ve overdone it with the rich cheese, wine and pasta of Italy day after day (note that Thomas’ salami and our cheese still appears in order to pair with green olives and Marcona almonds):

Secret Venice

In Venice, the alleys and walls, the art and the people have layers upon layers.  Like a living museum, the city retains its ancient function amid modern hubbub. For example, the gondola ride used to be a way to get around in 16th century Venice. No longer is this a way to get across town: this quintessential Venice experience is just for the tourists.

Gondolas took on a different meaning when I saw them in an ancient light this evening. Our artist residency hosts screened Shakespeare’s “Merchant of Venice” at their home, reviving a sense of Venice in a different dimension. Being a period film, Venice and the canals in the 1500s invigorated the imagination. The merchants and party-going Venetians felt like real people here with us from another time.

When we took a gondola ride, I had the moment several times, “we’re doing this!” For some this is a silly tourist attraction – for me it was a moment in a timeless age. Gently rocking on the canal, our boat coursed through the veins of Venice. We saw algae-covered canal walls and the decaying steps to private alleys and homes. We were backstage at the production, seeing the place at its grimy roots, behind the shiny facade of shops and souvenirs. Here being newly wed, feelings of marriage and love come alive within the spirit of romance on the canal. There is love.

We are sharing love being enjoying sights with our friends as well. There is a special joy in having your close friend whom you share so much memory and longevity with. To see a new place together forges a deeper connection and different perspective.

The memories of the acting studio and her experiences in the acting world invigorate creative passion in me that I don’t experience with many people.

 

Kim brought us to one of the most fascinating places in Venice. This prosperous and debaucherous city-states was ruled by dukes at one time. They ruled from a waterfront monument containing the most majestic courts – Doge’s Palace. Not surrounded by moat or surrounded by walls but part of the city. We went inside – I have never been surrounded by more depth and opulence in my life. The height of the ceilings of gold and endless oil paintings.

We noticed that on one wall, the paintings had hinges. That means they swing open. I have to know: what is behind there?!  I have researched a bit about the possibility of secret passages in the Doge’s Palace and the best I can come up with is the Secret Itineraries tour. The tour explores “the rooms and chambers where the delicate work of some of the most important bodies in the Venetian administration was carried out.”  I think that’s a nice nod at secret spaces in the palace, yet something tells me there’s lots left unexplored there. One look in the haunting cells of worn stone and iron bars cast a darker tone to the inner workings of the palace.  We don’t plan to take the secret tour, which is fine. The imagination is sometimes more powerful than real experience. Plus, the experiences we’re taking rom the trip have many layers of their own.

A Gift

I am not one for souvenirs.  I like bringing home art or an item I can wear to remind me of a place… so I do like souvenirs. I am not into “stuff:” keepsakes that gather dust. Give me a functional item for the kitchen or in daily life, and I’m interested.  Being so inspired by the art in Venice I can’t imagine what I would take home that would remind of this.

We’ve visited so many sights and experienced the most profound art. I wept hearing Vivaldi’s “Le Quattro Stagioni” (Four Seasons) by Interpreti Veneziani in the San Vidal church the other night. The beauty pulled a vulnerability out of me. Part of me recognized itself in the adagios and the musicians. They let their violins sing to them so beautifully. Their faces, nestled against the body of the violin, torqued and smoothened in deep listening. I remembered what passion is. What that really means – I felt it in me. I remember acting, and being so in tune with my instrument. To feel moved to tears to live fully in expression of life, to feel emotions without resistance and to share it so that others may feel it too.  I shared with Thomas I feel inspired to remember what art feels like again. I guess Venice does that. I have within me the love and fascination with drawing, dancing, painting, making music, throwing ceramics, acting, writing.  “Do you think you can dedicate yourself to art again full time?”  My mind meets this thought with serious contemplation and a drive to commit and expand in art.

Seeing others in their craft certainly inspires the drive to make art. We visited the quiet and crisp island of buried families, a cemetery whose inhabitants’ lives were summed up in some cases by a crumbled tombstone. Some artists rendered paintings here, the greens of grass and trees and the greys of sky and stone.

The sights awaken the senses and imagination. Making memories are like souvenirs. And they inspire creativity. When it comes to creating ourselves, we found a chance this week. A Venetian artist, Marina, offers a journal-making workshop to the artists in the residency. I wouldn’t have thought much about it without the positive reviews by John, the organizer, and his descriptions of how meaningful the journal is for him. That did it.

Making journals is meaningful to me because I am such an avid journal-writer.  Buying a journal from Venice didn’t occur to me – taking one home that we made had special significance.

I took step-by-step notes with diagrams to retain the nuances of the technique. Surely the Venetian approach to making journals has its own approach that define it.

Thomas and I loved the process. We began by working with nice Fabiano water color paper sheets. The paper was to be cut and folded by hand (or by knife but never scissors, in order to preserve the rough edge). We used needle and twine to sew English Cross stitches to bind the booklets together. We made paste and bound the booklets together with parchment. We handcut the leather. The attention to detail, care for the materials and the fine points of measuring led to a beautiful experience inside the journal itself. In addition to gaining an especially personal souvenir and creative experience, we are empowered with a bit of knowledge and skill.

Oddly, this photo of us upon completion shows the colors of our journals and somehow the colors of us.  Thomas with his transporting blue eyes chose the one that reflects him. I was in the back room before the workshop and passed the leather shelf. The red strip partially hidden under folds of leather on a shelf spoke to me. The material stopped me in my tracks and I had to touch it. I didn’t know this was the leather we were to work with and yet I claimed it when I learned there was only enough for one journal. We were meant to be together. I couldn’t be more in love with the journal, and with the ability to share the process of making one.  Thomas and I agree of journal-making workshop would be a wonderful souvenir gift for our friends when we return to the U.S.!

If you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely. – Roald Dahl

A friend posted this quote: I keep realizing how true it is… it’s not hard to do in Venice!

Art and Life

Good thoughts arise constantly surrounded by beauty and in the company of the person who inspires feelings of love. Thomas and I agree Venice is unlike any place we have ever been. There are so many layers to it. Everything is old, almost frozen in time from a thousand years ago. The place hasn’t been updated since. In fact, next to me Thomas is browsing real estate here (someone’s fallen in love with Venice!) and the flats with modern updates are gratefully few. Those alley-facing apartments whose stone arch doorways are filled with glass may be a modern take on Venice but they stand out and don’t do justice to the natural beauty of the architecture.

We’ve been on an art tour and haven’t stepped foot yet in a gallery or museum. Why? The art is all around us. I can share a few types of art that I’ve seen.

Food as Art

In the student district of Dorsoduro outside the art store, we crossed the bridge where casual people engaged in conversation. In pairs of two, from art students to businesspeople to Italian grandmothers, they lounged on the canal parapet eating cicchetti and sipping wine.  We went in to Al Bottegon and did the same.

The famous cicchetti is pictured here with me insanely excited to eat!  Nettles & brie on one baguette slice, tuna salad on another, cream of pistachio, smoked trout and deviled egg with mushroom to name a few. Take the white wine with you in a plastic cup.

Surroundings as Art

On the way to the vaporetto (the “city bus” canal boat), this sight arose. I felt a haunting familiarity feeling when looking back into the inhabited water between these houses. Like a novel with characters I know, like a story I’ve read before. These moments surround a person as you move through the city.

 

 

The Torcello Cathedral on Torcello island nearby has a different kind of art. These are murals are one of the most ancient in the area.  The art here took my breath away.

In this mural of Jesus with archangels Michael and Gabriel, I felt a resonance. This was in the transcept chapel to one side of the main area. It spoke to me because the archangels signify much in life – specifically these two.  I had a sacred moment, and like art will often do I felt the mural conveyed meaning and purpose. The visit to the cathedral generated conversation problematizing organized religion and examining the spiritual life that type of art may yet inspire.

There are stories too in spiritual places like this. Like the legend about Attila the Hun’s throne: whoever sits in this chair will soon be pregnant with child. Our group leader, John, found great amusement in sharing this story with us- after seating me in the chair.  Knowing Thomas and I are newly married and hope to raise children together, this brought joy and laughter to us all.

A different island, Burano is historically a fishing village. The houses are registered by color and cannot be changed without a permit. Collectively they bring a different kind of joy. Thomas and I shared a moment of joy that our friend Mary caught.

Walking home from the day, we took the long way home. Winding through the streets, our steps stopped upon hearing a beautiful sound. High-pitched tinkling like raindrops streamed from this man’s water-glass instrument. He had us spellbound. Gaining new spectators, the man started a new song:  “Yesterday,” by the Beatles. The sounds rose into my heart and raised the strings of vibration within me. Pure music affects the heart.

Artists’ Art

Lastly, the artists on this residency have come here to be inspired. Venice supposedly has more art here per capita than anywhere in the world. For the visiting artists, they can receive some of the inspiration and genius in their own work. Hans has carried the camera backpack everywhere we go, and propping a wooden plate on a stand in front of various structures. Tonight, he shared a few works with the group via email since we were curious about his use of what I now know is a pinhole camera. These are by Hans Silvius.

As a university photography professor, he seemed trustworthy in his approach to taking photos. I saw these photos just before writing this post, and I am grateful to gain his perspective on the compositions and objects of his creation. Now I know what he is looking at and for, as we tour around places looking at – and making – art.

Mary Claire Moloney is a painter and a former kindergarten teacher – like a disproportionately high number of other people on the tour (my going count is over 20%).  She likes to paint en plein air (outside). A painting of hers that she will install in the Venice show is below.She told me tonight as the two of us listened to musicians and enjoyed a glass of wine by the canal that she thrives on the social experience of art-making and wished to create in the company of others. Since the fellow artists here have their own focus, she searched for inspiration. Having once been avid in water-based oil paints, I felt a call to join her. What better way to enjoy art in Venice than to paint by the canal? We have a date to paint together next week that excites us both!