By:  Elizabeth

A huge benefit of having an extended stay in Italy is we don’t feel the need to ‘fit it all in’ in a condensed period of time. It’s been wonderful to take the train in and spend the night in Venice, take in some of the many and varied offerings and then come back to our cozy and quiet apartment to recharge and gear up for another hit of stimulation from the plethora of of sights, sounds and smells that fill the Italian Riviera.

Several nights ago took us to a beautiful gothic building in Venice to listen to I Musici Veneziani where a vibrant chamber orchestra performed Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. The musicians where dressed in early 1700-period costumes to add to the festivities of the evening, which was truly enchanting. The next day we started out early to visit the infamously famous Venetian Art Festival — Biennale.

In case you’re not familiar with it— the Venice Biennale (La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice by the Biennale Foundation. It has been organized every year since 1895, and is the oldest of its kind. It was closed during World War I and II and also took a hiatus for covid. Biennale alternates every second year between art and architecture (hence the name Biennale). Besides art, there are many other events organized by the foundation during this time including theatre, music, and dance. The Venice Film Festival takes place at the Lido.

We started at the first venue with the biggest pavilion, the Giardini, set in a beautiful park and also where the international pavilions are located. Countries from all over the world feature their artists in these architecturally representative buildings. [The Russian Pavilion was dubiously closed this year] We then ventured to the second largest venue and the original site, Arsendale, had a delicious lunch, and viewed the show there. One of the most interesting things that stood out for me was how much of the art was audio visual with artists making and sharing stories, movies and photography. Many of the statements were about controversial social and political events. I guess there is nothing new here, just the art form artists are now using to get thoughts, ideas, expressions and opinions across. This year majority of the artists in this years exhibition are women and gender non-conforming. I highly recommend you reading the 2022 vision statement that I have photographed and included below to get a sense of the world view of artist and curators during these important times, and then enjoy the art!

In other news we’ve learned that it’s just not acceptable to live in Italy and have a last name that doesn’t have at least four vowels. Italians depend on vowels in all their words, so to make it easy on them we’ve changed our name to Gosselini. It makes it so much easier to make reservations!

Sidebar: Many of you have asked about the covid situation here in Italy. It’s difficult for us to judge as we aren’t really socializing with anyone. It is an enforced requirement for everyone to wear a mask while traveling on any type of public transportation. Because we have a car we minimize any bus travel. We’ve been eating outside whenever that’s available and it is available most of the time. Also, some establishments require you to wear a mask and we do see people wearing them in supermarkets, drug stores, hair and nail salons. We’ve tried to figure out what the Italian health department reports but . . . It’s all in Italian! So far, we’ve stayed healthy.

Ciao

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By: Michael

Yesterday marked the halfway point of our European travels. We have been gone for 39 days and we will be back in 39 days. We have been staying in the same apartment in Italy for three weeks and starting to get into the rhythm of life here. Except for a couple of cloudy and rainy days it’s been hot here, mostly in the 90’s. It has confirmed our mutual dislike of hot weather so we will not be considering any thoughts of retiring in the desert someday.

Small cars (we call them baby cars) are the norm in all of the places we have visited but particularly so in Italy. Yesterday we went hiking in Euganei Regional Park which is in a grape growing region of northern Italy. We were both reminded of Napa and Sonoma in Northern California, but visibly missing were all the big expensive cars and SUVs. Admittedly, “Panda Panda” is fun to drive but we both worry about the safety of it. Seems like virtually every car in the US is loaded with safety features we take for granted, like backup cameras, crash avoidance systems, automatic drive, GPS, air bags, etc. Not here, our Fiat Panda has seatbelts and mirrors, that’s about it.

We have written about the Italian concept of riposa, similar to the Spanish concept of siesta. Virtually all businesses close from around 12:30 until 3:30, the exceptions being grocery stores, and department stores. This causes streets to be strangely void of vehicle and pedestrian traffic. Another strange concept to us is how many businesses, including some of the nicest restaurants, we have encountered that are closed for “ferie” or vacation. It would be hard to imagine a business in the US shuttering the doors for two to four weeks in the busiest time of the year to go on vacation. Obviously, we as Americans have a very different perspective on making money, working with a minimum of vacation time, etc. Don’t know which system is best, but we gotta believe workers are a lot happier and less stressed here.

About the church bells. Virtually every town, city and even the smallest villages and have a large church, usually located in the center of town. And they love to ring their bells. We seem to have often booked accommodations close to these churches and are adapting to them, but it is a little disconcerting at 6:00am or 11:00pm.

With the exception of some of the meals we have eaten in our apartment, we eat in restaurants. In the US a tip of 15-20% or more is the norm, regardless of the level of service. Here, tipping is not expected even when the service is good. We have learned that wait-people are paid standard wages and that a tip is always appreciated but never expected. We oven tip 5-10% for great service but it takes some adjusting to the idea and not feeling guilty about leaving anything less than our standard 20%. In addition, tax is always included in the stated price of the meal. A $10 pizza is $10 tax and tip included. A $10 pizza in California (if you could find one!) would cost you closer to $10.80 and another $2.20 for the tip totaling $13.00…that is essentially 30% more. Crazy.

It’s been wonderful to learn about different cultures and customs and consider different ways we bring joy and happiness into our lives.

Collaboration by the two of us!

The Dolomites (also known as the Italian Alps) have been on our bucket list for a long time, in fact, one of the reasons we chose to stay in northern Italy for five weeks was to visit and hike in the Dolomites. Last weekend we escaped from the heat of our little apartment in Dolo and went on a road trip in ‘Panda Panda’ (our tiny Fiat rental car) and drove to Castlerotto, stopping in the impressive town of Verona on the way.

There seems to be two driving options between major cities in Italy, regular highways or the Autostrada. The Autostrada is similar to the German Autobahn which means fast and furious. Left lane is for passing and for the more powerful cars. Little Panda-Panda was no match for these cars but managed to hold her own in the ‘slow’ lane at 130kph which is about 70mph.

The Dolomites have a long history going back to a time when the Germans dominated the area. All the menus are in German and Italian. We’d really never thought of a German / Italian cuisine. It’s a very interesting mesh, taking the best of both with meat and potatoes and pasta and cheese!

Thanks to incredibly beautiful weather we were able to hike around the bottom of the ski lift for a while and then ride the ski lift up to about 4000 feet and hike around. When we got off the lift we were welcomed by large groups of Germans and Italians frolicking around the lake and enjoying a day in the mountains. We hiked around for a while and visited the friendly goats and then decided to descend the mountain and hike to where we would have a little bite to eat. As we hiked down we came across a restaurant that was a little odd because it was so noisy (Michael and I both agree that we love the European way of eating in relative quiet and hushed voices without load music pulsating through the sound system.) As we made our way onto the terrace we realized it was overlooking a tennis court and soccer fields and buzzing with families celebrating a summer camp win — coaches and parents drinking beer and wine at lunchtime!

After a 7+ mile hike we got back into town where we thought we’d walk around. However, once again, in the Italian tradition it was riposa (resting time) so we came back to a very beautifully appointed room (see pics of the bed and out our balcony) over looking the picturesque dolomites. We fell into the local tradition and reclined into our own riposa.

Then we geared up and went out to walk around the town and visit shops and have a lovely Italian /German dinner. After two days in Castelrotto we drove to the eastern side of the Dolomites to the Fanes-Senes-Braies Natural Park. Upon arrival at the gate to the park we were greeted by a park employee asking us if we had a ticket? “No, of course not.” We were turned around to the on-line lot to order one and buy a parking pass and get back in line. It was worth it as we were able to visit the beautiful Lago di Braies or ‘the emerald of the Dolomites’ where we did the 4 mile loop around the lake. We considered renting a boat, but so did everyone else so, we settled for taking pictures of other people that had rented boats.

We spent two nights in just south of Cortina (the bigger city on the east side of the Dolomites) in Vado di Cadore where we had a small apartment. This was the second time in our travels that our accommodations were right next to the piazza and the Church where the bell tower loomed over us. Now we understand why there are literally no clocks in hotels or B & B’s. Italians use the bell towers to tell time on the hour and half hour and sometimes even more when mass will begin in 10 minutes!

Arrivederci

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