"if you should go to venice..."

north field trip

     early wednesday morning my five interior design roommates and i ventured to termini train station once again. (this time we took a bus rather than making the 45 minute walk). we arrived in milan around lunchtime so we grabbed some grub and then walked through the city. our next interior design project is to design a store window, so we walked and window shopped at all the stores that we will never be able to afford. (which is okay with me anyway).  later we visited the "triennale di milano" which is a huge exhibit of the most fabulous industrial italian design from Fiat's car the Panda to Alessi's espresso makers. oh, we also saw the duomo in milan which is the third largest cathedral in the world.

the duomo in milano

 

inside the teatro alla scala (nose-bleed view)

     wednesday night we went to the historic teatro alla scala to see the ballet "giselle." the theater was a great experience. we were in the nose-bleed section, but that was good since we were extremely under-dressed for the ballet.
     on thursday we visited the personal studio of Achille Castiglioni. He is one of Italy's  most legendary industrial designers and my current idol. Achille and his brother Pier-Giacomo designed together in their studio in Milan for the entirety of their careers. Now, Achille's daughter runs the studio and offers tours and insights on the great history within the studio walls.

gondolas in venice

     late thursday night we took a train from milan to venice thus, we arrived in the sinking city in the dark so we didn't get to see much at night. from the moment i woke up and saw the flowing water streets i couldn't stop singing the song my mom used to sing to me as a child.

"if you should go to venice, you'll find a magic town. the streets are flowing rivers and the boats go up and down..."

the next morning we visited a few major tourist areas such as the piazza san marco and doge's palace.  we also went to a large art exhibit at the arsenale which is part one of venice's "bienale". it was very interesting, but very cold since the entire museum is basically outside. we also took a boat to the nearby island of murano which is known as the the prime location for glass blowing. we went to the school of glass, Abate Zanetti where we saw amazing glass blowing demonstrations by a master glass blower. later, we had a delicious four course meal with amazing seafood such as octopus, squid, angel fish, and shrimp. desert was a bite fo cheesecake and chocolate mousse with cayenne pepper. delicious.

apetizer of octopus, squid, scallops, and shrimp. yum!

another gondola

 

saint mark's basilica

 

campanile di san marco

     on saturday we went to  the second part of the Biennale called "giardini" which is a space where there are multiple pavilions designated for different countries. inside each pavilion are art installations specifically commissioned for the Biennale. The weather was beautiful on saturday & the rest of the day we explored the city, saw leonardo da vinci's vitruvian man at the Academia museum. Our classmates departed from venice in the early afternoon, but my friend tina and i stayed an extra night to see a little more of the magical city. we stayed in a fun, character-filled hostel where we met lots of other students and twenty-somethings who were traveling italy. we had a great time conversing with people from all over such as poland, australia, london, vancouver, and michigan. rather than spending ours on a train tina and i decided to fly back to rome. unfortunately we were greeted by freezing rain when we got to rome, a great start to a busy week. i'm glad to be back in roma, and i'm looking forward to my upcoming events- a cooking class next week and peter's arrival the following weekend!