Dear Dad, I'm learning, I swear!

What a long day!  We started our morning off with a lecture about the origins of Venice.

Summary:
Romans tried to escape from the Barbarians.  They fled to Torcello, an island north of Venice.  Roman culture was over taken by the Byzantine empire so the only true Romans left were those who fled to Venezia.  There has been a constant parade of invaders since the 4th century.  Northern Italians fled to the lagoons.  Tribes left them alone because it was essentially the Meadowlands.  Stinky, mosquito infested, and impossible to navigate.

Venice is cleansed by the Adriatic's tides.  The reason why it smells is because the surrounding farms over fertilize.  It seeps into the earth and then in turn, pollutes the water.  The local algae thrives off of the chemical and creates the smell (on top of the over population...)

The lovely unpopulated island of Torcello
In 639 AD, the first cathedral was built.  It's incredible.  During the 11th century they starting constructing the mosaics that fill the church.  The cathedral is a long rectangle.  The back wall is about 3 stories high filled with Byzantine style mosaics.  Everything was overwhelming.  From the pieces of small marble on the floor that created an elaborate pattern to the grandiose scale of the mosaics, I wasn't sure where to look.  There was a crucifix of christ with a skull in a few rocks at the bottom towards the front of the church.  I had never seen that before.  I asked the professor of the significance and she said that it was symbolic of where he was crucified.

The main Basilica.  That big wall is where the mosaics are.

I am not a practicing catholic, however, I was confirmed.  The church has come a long way since the 11th century, but I understand where it's cold mannerisms stemmed from.  The way this church was set up, there was where the congregation gathered, then, there was a partitioned, half wall, then there was the alter.  In the alter, there was a section where important members of the parish gathered to watch the service.   It wasn't exactly the most inviting place for people to worship...

Back to the mosaics.  Our professor did her thesis on these so it was quite a treat to listen to her speak about them.  Prior to the mosaics, the walls were covered in frescos.  There still is some remanence of the frescos, which is super cool to see the evolution.

Anywho, the mosaics are just breathtaking.  The light reflects in all different directions.  The back wall is a depiction of the final judgement.  There's a hell of a lot going on in it.  On the top there are two big important dudes looking down on everything.   From there, there is christ.  Each level has something different going on.  From christ, there is a trail of fire which leads to hell.  There's certain levels and depictions of what could happen to you.  It makes me want to reread Dante.  I read it in highschool and I can't exactly remember all the different levels and such, but the catholics did a great job of really messing with your head.  Sinners are not having an easy after life!  Profesora brought of the analogy, think of each piece of sand of world representing 100,000 years.  Multiply that by all the grains of sand and that's eternity.  Makes me want to be a good girl, thats for sure.  They also considered gluttony to be the equivalent to adultery.  That means taking an extra piece of bread at dinner is worse than cheating.  Wowzer.  There was a whole lot of other stuff going on in the mosaic .  There was an angel who was holding a scale which signified weighing of soles.  Pure soles were weightless so they went on to heaven while corrupt went to hell, there were some devils who took them to hell.  It took over a hundred years to complete this artwork (with a destructive earthquake in the middle).  After this cathedral, we went to the museum to view original ruins from some of the mosaics that were recovered from the earthquake.  We then viewed a lot of artifacts from an archaeological dig.  I felt kind of stupid.  Being an anthropology major, I know absolutely nothing about archaeology.  FAIL.

We explored a bit more.  If I had to compare it- Venice is like midtown Manhattan.  Hustle, bustle, tourism, etc.  Torcello (about a 45 to an hour boat ride) is like the LES.  It's the true locals, and great stuff.  New York in it's rawest form.  Underdeveloped and true.

There were a lot of children on field trips here.  They didn't look American, they were slightly less than well behaving and all had matching hats and ID around their necks.  They weren't exactly slim, but were still smaller than American kids.

The boat ride required that we switched in Burano which is known for lace.  It was amazing (I need some new adjectives).  It sort of reminded me of Curacao in the caribbean.  Houses were painted in extremely bright fun colors.  Plants graced each window sill.  I did make one purchase.  :)  Kelly and I ate lunch outside at a lovely little restaurant.  We had risotto del pesche... but i couldn't find the fish....  I hope someone could enlighten me.  Was it a fish broth?  Regardless, it was scrumptious.  We were also introduced to the Italian surcharge.  I hope I'm not supposed to tip on top of that... I didn't.

Once we got back, Kel and I went and took a nap.  I'm beat.  I haven't stopped moving.  A few girls knocked on my door around 9 at night saying they were going to dinner.  I was in a coma.  Kel and I met them at an open air cafe a bit later and we had some quick sandwiches.  The rest of the night was uneventful but fun.  We saw a "jazz club" on the way back from the north end of the island.  We stopped in and it was cool.  They had predominantly American jazz and bras covering the ceiling.  My what seemed like a litre of hoegarden was tasty and I met a couple from the LES/Connecticut who were on their honeymoon.

There's so much happening I wish I could keep track of it all.  I keep comparing everything to home, but I guess that's human nature.  Torcello and the silt deposits remind me of the jersey shore/meadowlands.  My biggest task/objective for this trip is to rid myself of judgement.  I look at everyone and I have to stop obsessing over the fashion of the women who is wearing the extremely stylish Ferragamo shades with the knockoff Moschino overbearing dress (and fake Fendi).  It's a process and I think I'll be a happier person once I rid myself of it.

As for now, no gelati tonight, perro, bueno noche.  Ciao!