To Venice

You are a labyrinth interwoven with water. I don’t even try to find my direction since reading a map is both useless and unnecessary.

I understand the very charm of you is not in those famous landmarks. The best way to appreciate you is by wandering, like in the bookloft.

I can’t explain my fascination with water and anything standing in the water. But I do know why I love the intricate network of narrow alleys - a reminder of the hutongs in Beijing. You happen to obsess me with both. How can I step away from you?

I want to leave my footprints on every street and every bridge of you. Three days seem too short! Wish I can walk in you endlessly, never ever stop. I would lose my way forever, like the protagonists in Last Year at Marienbad…

Surprise in Ancona

I didn’t expect much of Ancona before the trip, as Google Image only came up with some unattractive photos. However, when I walked deeper and deeper into the city , I discovered some unpretentious but interesting buildings.

One of the surprises is this contemporary apartment building among the classic blocks. It sits on a slope with its roof sloping in the same direction. The form of the building is not uncommon, a popular method of carving into one big block. A balance between individuality and unity is achieved by providing each unit a good amount of character.

Walking along the stepped street in front of the building was interestingly pleasant, as I observed the changing face of each window and various plants along the street or on the balconies. As I walked up the steps, I saw another building with a similar look further up the slope. But I found this one more appealing because of the terraced garden on the back.

The landscape design is so modest but charming, just like Ancona itself. I especially enjoyed the various paths leading to different levels and directions, and the rich texture of the paving bricks...

Thanks to Google Earth, I not only located the building, but also got to see the overall plan. The aerial photo even reveals some interesting designs on the roof terrace.

SMART Parking

Old Maps

I love old maps for their richness. They are usually very artistic and narrative instead of being purely technical like most maps today. On our way to the Sistine Chapel inside the Vatican Museum, we passed through the gorgeous Gallery of Maps. Besides the 40 large topographical maps of Italian regions, there are also several graphic maps depicting important cities. I was so excited to find three places I just visited -

The most noticeable one is the map of Venice at the end of the gallery. If you look closely, you will find captivating details of the Piazza San Marco.

The most noticeable one is a map of Ancona. I find it much less successful since the sail boats are too dominant whereas the city itself is hard to read.

The following one doesn’t show the name. My best guess is Lucca, judging primarily from the shape of the city wall. But I'm not sure about the pentagon at the bottom left corner.

I later found out that the maps in the gallery were commissioned in the late 1500s by Pope Gregory XIII. It took friar and geographer Ignazio Danti three years to paint. Although made 500 years ago with ancient instruments such as the Astrolabe, the maps are said to be amazingly accurate. I found an article discussing the accuracy of Danti's maps, very interesting:

http://goeurope.about.com/od/travelphotography/ig/Travel-Pictures/Vatican-map-Garfagnana.htm

Footprints in Eastern Mediterranean

My first trip to Europe was almost perfect

10 nights on land, 7 nights at sea

Each place has its own charm -

Rome is POWER

Vatican is DIVINITY

Florence is ART

Venice is ROMANCE

Siena is EXQUISITE

Lucca is WARMTH

Pisa is FAME

Ancona is UNPRETENTIOUSNESS

Athens is ELEGANCE

Santorini is SCULPTURE

Mykonos is FESTIVENESS

Corfu is PICTURESQUENESS

Dubrovnik is PERFECTION

I left my heart in Venice, Santorini and Dubrovnik. Will blog them in detail when I have time!

Fellini's Rome

Being an enthusiastic film location hunter, I was inquiring the possibility of a movie tour of Fellini’s Rome. After reading a little bit the book The sites of Rome: time, space, memory, I found out that his Rome was mainly constructed in studio 5 at Cinecittà, including even landmarks such as St. Peter's dome and the Colosseum. I wasn't aware that he preferred set shooting so much, quite the opposite of Antonioni's situationist style. Even though I'm still gonna see the famous Trevi Fountain in his La Dolce Vita.

As discussed by Elena Theodorakopoulos, Fellini's films may be said to visualize Freud's much-quoted idea that:
Rome is not a human habitation, but a psychical entity with a similarly long and copious past - an entity, that is to say, in which nothing that has once come into existence will have passed away and all the earlier phases of development continue to exist alongside the latest one.

In Fellini's own words: Tramping around from ruin to ruin doesn’t mean anything to me. My Rome is from the movies of my childhood.

If Fellini's Rome is a cinematic spectacle inspred by his collective childhood memory, then Tarkovsky's Italy is a mirror which reflects his deep Russian nostalgia. My favorite scenes in Nostalgia were filmed at Bagno Vignoni, a small village famous for its thermal baths. It's about an hour's bus drive from Siena. But I probably won't have time for it as I have only one day in Siena. Anyway I'll see Michelangelo's Piazza del Campidoglio, another distinct filming location of Nostalgia.

Tetsuya Ishida

Several douban friends recommended Tetsuya Ishida's paintings. I thus came to know this talented Japanese painter who died in 2005 at the age of 31 (probably a suicide). His surreal self portraits remind me so much of Frida Kahlo. His own body is frequently presented as part of a machine or a built object, tragically trapped in the suffocating urban surroundings. Through his desperate gazes, we sense his deep loss of freedom, identity, emotion, nature, childhood joys...

View his complete works at: http://www.tetsuyaishida.jp/