WPC – Fun

Posted on August 15, 2016 by Mama Cormier

….where to begin with this great topic, FUN?

The first photo, although not the best quality, brings a smile to my face because of how gullible people can be. While watching this guy, my husband sarcastically commented on how this trick or optical illusion is done with magnets and he said it loud enough for a few people to hear. Soon after I hear the same people, who had been standing close by, proclaiming that magnets are the explanation for this feat.

I can laugh now but at the time I didn’t think it was so funny when this guy wanted to charge me 10 euro for posing with me. He accosted me and we used my camera for the pictures. Boy did I feel duped. In the end I gave him 5 euro and learned a big lesson.

Sunday Trees – 248

Posted on August 14, 2016 by Mama Cormier

….Italy is known for wine and olives

In Assisi we were told by our cab driver that the wine in the region of Umbria was good but the olive oil was great. Every farm had olive trees.

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For more Sunday Trees check out Becca Givens’ blog

Peggy Guggenheim Gallery in Venice

Posted on August 14, 2016 by Mama Cormier

….one of my favourite art galleries in all of Italy

I guess I shouldn’t have said ‘all of Italy’ when I’ve only seen a small portion of the country. I had never heard of Peggy Guggenheim before this trip. Of course I knew of the famous Guggenheim Museum in New York but I had no idea that there was another Guggenheim in Venice.

Peggy Guggenheim was an avid collector of modern art and in an eight year period she amassed a collection of art by Kandinsky, Jackson Pollock, Picasso, Calder, Henry Moore, Motherwell and Max Ernst, just to name a few, who represented Cubist, Surrealist and Abstract Expressionist movements in art.

She moved to Venice after WWII and set up a gallery of her collection at Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, on the Grand Canal. In the summers she opened her home to the public and when she died in 1979 she left her estate to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation on the condition that the collection would remain intact in Venice and would be recognized as hers. The Foundation assumed responsibility for both the collection and for Guggenheim’s palazzo.

In 2015 a movie of her colourful and controversial life was made. Here is the trailer.

Peggy Guggenheim

I think I enjoyed this collection so much because it was full of modern artists that I admire very much. The Palazzo itself was light and airy and the outdoor sculpture garden was serene and calming. Being on the Grand Canal added another element of vitality and I could just imagine Peggy sitting on the balcony with her dogs observing the gondolas and small water crafts making their way through the green waters of Venice.

Riding the Trains in Italy

Posted on August 13, 2016 by Mama Cormier

…..I love travelling by train but I’m not so sure I would buy a rail pass again

Travelling by train can be very relaxing and is less stressful than driving a car throughout Italy. Our travel agent booked first class rail passes for six days for us ahead of time. Our first trip from Venice to Florence in first class was wonderful but half of our trips didn’t even have first class compartments. We probably could have saved a lot of money buying tickets as we needed them.

One of the things we learned about travelling by train is that you have to have your tickets validated at the station and you must fill in the dates you travel on the passes. My husband had been filling in the wrong portion of our passes and one kind conductor handed him a pen and instructed him to fill it in properly. He could have fined us each a 100 euro. On our last trip to Rome our son, his new bride and her parents didn’t know that the tickets that they purchased from a machine in Assisi had to be validated in another machine. Unfortunately the conductor on this train was not so forgiving and charged them. They tried to explain that they didn’t read Italian and no one told them about this extra step when purchasing tickets. He thought he was being generous when he reduced the fine to 33 euro but when my daughter-in-law was not happy with the compromise he became quite angry. In the end they paid the fine but we couldn’t help but think that the money was being pocketed by the conductor.

Sunday Trees – 247

Posted on August 7, 2016 by Mama Cormier

….I love these Cyprus trees

It’s a tree that I’ve only ever seen in paintings and photos but in Italy and certainly in the outskirts of Florence and in the hills of Assisi they are everywhere. Thanks to Becca Givens for hosting Sunday Trees.

WPC – Morning

Posted on August 6, 2016 by Mama Cormier

….in Italy, mornings start with a coffee and a sweet

In Florence we found a famous baker from Vienna who made 20 different croissants every morning to serve to his customers. We first discovered his shop late one afternoon, just as they were about to close but they invited us in and made me a special ice coffee. Apparently ice coffee and coffee cream are two things that you don’t normally find in Italy. I didn’t know this but the baker was more than happy to whip up his own version of ice coffee for me. I also tried to order cream for my husband’s Americano and the baker was about to top it with whipped cream but I stopped him. It was then that he explained that coffee cream was a German and Viennese thing and in Italy only milk was used in coffee or served black.

That afternoon we enjoyed our beverages and some of the best pastries we’ve ever tasted. As we were leaving the owners of the cafe encouraged us to come back for breakfast so that we could try some of their special croissants.

A couple of days later we took them up on their offer and stopped for breakfast before heading out to the leather market down the street. Sure enough there were numerous croissants to choose from. I decided on the most unusual looking one. It was completely black because it was made from ash and it was filled with prunes. It was absolutely delicious and complemented my cappuccino. The only downside was that it left black flecks between my teeth that were difficult to remove.

For more ‘morning’ photos check out WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge

Cee’s Odd Ball Photo Challenge 2016 – Week 31

Posted on August 5, 2016 by Mama Cormier

….Cee’s Odd Ball Photo Challenge can be any photo that doesn’t seem to fit into any other category

I have no idea what possessed my sister to kneel on the ground like this. I’m pretty sure she’s not praying. Her husband took this shot somewhere in Italy.

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This smiling face greeted people in front of the store in the town of Lucca.

Venice Architecture Biennale 2016

Posted on August 5, 2016 by Mama Cormier

….featuring different aspects of architecture from around the world

One of the must see venues in Venice for my family on our recent trip was to take in some of the Venice Biennale exhibits, mainly the the Victoria and Albert contribution curated by our son.

For those who have never heard of biennales let me explain. A biennale takes place every two years. They are large international art exhibitions dealing with contemporary issues around art, music and architecture and take place all over the world. The Venice Biennale was founded in 1895 and highlighted city marketing, urban regeneration and cultural tourism. This year’s theme is titled REPORTING FROM THE FRONT, and is curated by Alejandro Aravena. The show runs from May to September and the exhibits can be found at the Giardini and the Arsenale.

The exhibit our son curated in agreement with la Biennale di Venizia and the Victoria and Albert Museum out of London, England is titled A World of Fragile Parts and focuses on how the production of copies throughout history and today has aided in the preservation of cultural artefacts.

This exhibit highlights the new technologies that make it possible to fabricate copies of historical artefacts that are ravaged by war, tourism and environmental factors. For more information about the exhibit go here.

Old technology using plaster casts.

New technology using digital scanning and 3D printers.

Unfortunately while we were there our son was not so to prove that we actually went and saw the exhibit we posed in front of the sign for A World of Fragile Parts. Even the baby got involved by pointing out her uncle’s name on the list of credits. A week later Brendan did go back to Venice to give a talk and teach a class on the exhibit.