Part of our goal for the trip is to develop our artistic appreciation and eye.. here are our beginning attempts...
Rick drew this at a cafe in the Jewish Ghetto.. My attempt at capturing the vibrancy of the boats on the Canal...

Rick drew the above at a cafe near Piazza San Marco..

We were having dinner near Piazza Roma and I just loved this spot so tried to capture it during dinner (Rick was thrilled)...

Rick and I sat down on one of the canal edges and drew buildings.. this house was right on the water..

Sept. 28, 2009

It has been a whirlwind few days.. I keep saying that don't I.. well we haven't been letting any grass grow under our feet..

My sister asked me if we've gotten lost yet.. I think the more appropriate question is when have we NOT gotten lost.. the maze that is Venice is... amazing.....

On Friday, the 25th, we headed back to the train station to take a tour of the Grand Canal .. with Rick Steve in our ear it gave us a wonderful orientation and then it was onto St. Mark's Square where we purchased our musem passes and caught our first gander of it all.. we splurged and sat in the square people watching and listening to the restaurant's orchestra play.. There were too many people to fight to get into St. Marks so we decided to get lost.. and that we did.. for the next several hours we just wandered from alleyway to campo, to church to canal. We did stop for awhile to sketch and then continued on our way.. We must have wandered for about 5 hours before we ended up at the train station which is the main gateway for most visitors to Venice.

We have been trying to draw and or paint a little every day.. you will see from the photos a little of our progress.. Rick is doing studies in pencil and I am venturing forth into ink and water color.. Everywhere we look there is something we want to capture... (actually, we'll post art photos in the next blog,,,

Have I mentioned Rick Steve's yet? Do not plan a trip anywhere in Europe without one of his guide books.. we have yet to stand in a line for anything because of his tips!! Anyway, I digress.. on Saturday we got up very early to visit St. Marks Cathedral (1100 ad) and the Doges Palace (1370).. The Cathedral is a mishmash of styles showing an attempt to keep up with the Jones' even back then! They have an Ottoman influence, Greek and who knows what else. The inside shimmers with gold.

The Doges palace was where the grand poobah of Venice lived and held government. I had forgotten that Venice wasn't part of the Italian state until the late 1866. The family apartments were nothing to write home about but the government rooms are amazing.. the art and decoration.. the floors and ceilings.. not sure about the obsession with ceilings, but they are impressive..

Venice is definitely in transition.. they loose about 1,000 people a year- and with a population of only 60,000 that is nothing to sneeze at.. especially since the population is older. The fear is that eventually Venice will become Disneyland for adults.. already there are huge billboards and I mean humngous advertisements of companies helping with restoration of various buildings... it is quite a disconnect.. (Disney is no where to be found)..

By the afternoon we were peopled out and so caught a vaparetto out to Murano island.. reknown for its glass blowing. If the heart of Venice is on speed, Murano is laid back central.. where in the heart of Venice there are barkers calling you into restaurants and shops... in Murano you might have to wake the shopkeeper up from their nap.. The buildings are also shorter so there is a feeling of more space and breath.. it was a lovely counterpoint and we enjoyed visiting the Glass Museum.. My Nana always said that the perfect woman could do anything but pee in a bottle.. at the Museum they had bottles for the toilet from the 1st century and I wondered if this was an early attempt to test the theory. We couldn't figure out what else they were for..

Yesterday, in honor of the coming of Yom Kippur we spent in the Jewish Ghetto, where there is a debate whether Jews have been here since 1100 or 1300.. either way... it's a long time.. There are three synagogues dating back to the 1500s, and two other that came along a few hundred years later. Unlike the area churches, the synagogues are all but invisible from the outside, with the only demarcation being five windows of slightly greater size than the others near it. To imagine this small community of over 2,000 confined to this teenie space is incredible.. and yet again a tribute to the spirit of the Jewish people. It was actually Napoleon who brought down the ghetto walls and decreed that there would no longer be a ghetto.. Go figure.. There are only 500 Jews left in Venice but you can feel the Jewish presence wherever you go.

It hasn't all been idyllic, we flooded the bathroom when we tried to use the washing machine and the apartment looks like I don't know what with our laundry all over the place.. and then of course people have been stopping us on the street wanting to play connect the dots with the mosquito bites all over our faces.. the mosquitos have actually declared a national holiday and celeberation in our honor..

Naples is our next stop.. for some reason the link isn't copying..

just google, Hotel Excelsior in Naples, Italy...

Sept 24th

Yesterday was a great farewell to Rome.. After viewing the mosaics and beauty of Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore, we headed off to spend the day visiting the Jewish Ghetto, the synagogue and Jewish museum and then spending three hours with a guide who is working on her doctorate in art history. After spending so many hours in Rome's beautiful churches, I admit to feeling a bit of relief getting back to my own roots.

The bad news is of course, the persecution.. dating back some 2,000 years, when Jews were slaves, forced to build some of the glories in Rome.. knowing that when we were dining in fabulous Piazza Navona, that Jews used to be raced down the center and stoned for entertainment's sake.. that the Jews, among others, endured the Inquisition and lost their lives in the Campo di Fiori- the Camp of Flowers.. the Jewish Ghetto, where some 12,000 Jews lived in an area about the same size as the inside of St. Peter's... And the markers of exactly where Jews were seized to be sent off to Nazi Concentration camps.. Indeed I found myself murmuring the Mourner's Kadish throughout Rome..

The sweet side is that what was once the Jewish ghetto is now the Jewish
quarter, with kosher restaurants, shops and schools.. and an area that is enjoyed by Jews and non-Jews alike.. hearing that through the worst of the Holocaust Romans tried to hide Jews and came to their defense...and now today celebrate the community as a special part of itself..

It was a meaningful juxtaposition to a rather amazing week...
And then today.. hoping onto the Eurostar and traveling to Venice in but a few short hours.. Then catching a Vaparetto (water bus) and of couse getting lost, because how can where we are staying possibly be down this teenie weenie alley.. and yet, it was and is.. and is charming in a building that is hundreds of years old.. with exposed beams and tiled floors.. and with one bathroom the size of a shower stall and in that bathroom is a toilet, sink, washing machine and a shower head.. mind you without a shower, just the head stuck in the wall of the bathroom..

We aren't exactly sure how everything works, but oddly we are more comfortable here then we were at the modern apartment that was tres cool.

Here's the link ...
http://homeexchange.com/show.php?id011310

Many more experiences to come..

Sept. 22nd

We're back at the Vatican so Rick can climb the Dome of St. Peter's. I'm sitting at the 8th column in from the end on the left if your facing St. Peter's.

Things learned so far in Rome:

1) The city is amazing- There are so many antiquities that if they couldn't build up to and into the antiquities they'd have to move Rome some place else. Literally, they have brand new apartment buildings built into 2,000 year old ruins!

2) Sitting at an outdoor cafe, listening to music and enjoying a city that truly doesn't sleep is wonderfully invigorating. Two nights ago, we had dinner at the oldest restaurant in Piazza Navonna. We dined while listening to an outdoor Spanish concert. We then wandered to the Pantheon and listened to a wonderful opera performance. It was topped off by a stroll by the Trevi fountain to throw in our coins..and stopping near street musicians for a gelatto. It was after 10:00 pm and there were so many people on the streets you would have thought it was a Saturday afternoon.

3) The Vatican is truly awe inspiring. Everything is on such a huge scale. We spent 4 1/2 hours here yesterday and there is still so much more to see. The priests have definitely learned a thing or two about commercialism as there is a shopping kiosk in every nook or cranie.. but not so much about preservation. They could use a little advice on temperature control and atmosphere..

And what can you say about Michelangelo.. holy bajoley.. did he churn out work.. except for his little snafu putting those horns on Moses, he really was extraordinary!

4) Romans are very big on ceiling art--oy our aching necks.. We can't even imagine how it was done.. we got dizzy just looking at the art, let alone painting it!

5) The Borghese Gallery is a treasure of art and they know from preservation... the contrast in colors and definition of art done at the same time as that at the Vatican.. well they should be taking the Vatican in hand...

6) I find myself fascinated by the Mosaics created 2,000 years ago... how intricate they are and how the colors endure, how dramatic the effect..

7) We are pleased to report that at least 25% of taxi cab drivers are honest and do not pad the fare by taking you meandering around the city.

8) The pasta here is terrific no matter where you eat. The chicken is fine as long as you bring your own saw to cut it with.

9) Almost everyone speaks some English, but if you even try Italian, faces light up and you become family..

10) Within the past three days I've spoken English, French, Spanish, Hebrew and Italian... Rome is truly universal!

11) The Pope is useless in doing anything for hot flashes..

12) The CIA has undertaken a new spy tactic... I swear I've seen Leon Panetta all over Rome..

Rosh HaShanah - 2009

My head is spinning!  We've had an amazing few days...

London, Tuesday, Sept. 15th...Rent-a-Mum

     On Tuesday, Rick and I visited with Thelma Ruby Frye, our Rent-a-Mum.... In 1976 when I spent a year in Israel, a colleague of my father's contacted  friends of his to let them know that a young American would be staying on a kibbutz outside of Jerusalem.. Thelma and her husband Peter invited me for a picnic and it was love at first meeting.  Peter and Thelma promptly wrote to my father to ask if they might "rent" me for the year.  Dad was thrilled to have them looking out for me.  Throughout the year I'd spend weekends with them or they'd scoop me up for an adventure.  Since then we've stayed in touch and the rental agreement was long ago extended to a lifelong arrangement..

    Our visit with Thelma was wonderful.  We had a fabulous lunch and laughed our way through the afternoon, watching amazing home videos of the extended rent-a-family dating back to 1917.

London...Wednesday, September 16th...John Burgess

    On Wednesday, we visited with John, a dear friend that I met by happenstance in the mid-80's...He and his family have been members of ours ever since.  He lives in the London neighborhood of Golders Green with son Paul, wife Yanni and their kids Luca and Maya.  He's doing great and looking forward to an extended visit to the states this fall.

Thursday, September 17th...Viva La Roma!

http://homoeexchange.com/show.php?id=62900   

Finally, after months of planning, we arrived in Roma!  Our exchange apartment is amazing.. the link above is actually the apartment next door to where we are staying.. ours is just as nice without the piano..  We are near the central train station which is in the heart of Rome... On our first day we had planned to take it easy, but of course we ran right out and took a tour of the entire city...ancient next to modern, fountains next to obelisks and churches next to churches... some 900 in Rome alone!

     First meal:  Pizza!

On Friday, Rick ran us ragged... which he swore he wouldn't do.  We spent the morning at the Coliseum, where I swear he counted every brick.  Then after lunch we went over to the Forum and Palatine Hill, the Palace of Vestal Virgins and the Arch of Titus.  It was appropriate that we visited the Arch of Titus on Erev Rosh HaShanah.. as the Arch was built to commemorate the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD.  I knew about this piece of history and that Jews weren't allowed to walk under the Arch until after WWII.  What I hadn't known, was that Titus brought back 50,000 Jewish slaves with him to Rome from Judea since the Jews refused to bow to Rome.  The Jewish slaves built both the Arch of Titus and helped in the building of the Coliseum.  As I chanted Kadish  (the mourner's blessing) for those long ago ancestors, I was amazed at the connection through the years.

By then the tooties were aching so Rick went off to crawl along every inch of the area while I sat and spent some time putting those art lessons to practice.  Michelangelo doesn't have anything to worry about, but it certainly adds an entirely other dimension to the experience.

After a quick bite, we hooked up for an evening tour with one of the Rick Steve's recommended guides...a young man* with a Masters in Roman art history from Yale.  He gave us a speed tour through Rome, including the Pantheon, the Piazza where Mussolini made his famous speeches, the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps (which, as it turns out, were actally built by the French).  By the time we got back to our apartment, the feet were screaming and my hair felt like gum from the humidity.  

*Recommended Tour Guide- Jason Spiehler... toursofrome@hotmail.com 

Yesterday, Saturday, September 19th, Rosh HaShanah.. while I was chanting in Hebrew, Rick was chanting with de

ad people in the Catacombs.. He also traveled down the Appian Way and visited one of the Roman Aquaducts.  I slept, one of my favorite Rosh HaShanah activities.  I always celebrate the holidays in unusual ways.  This year was no different.  We wandered around the old Jewish Ghetto and sat in a nearby piazza drawing different aspects of the area.  It was beautiful out, perfect for enjoying the day with pencil and paper.  What a different perspective we are able to enjoy when we not only get to view the treasures of this amazing city but when we spend time capturing a piece of it through out eyes and hands. We topped the evening off by having dinner at a restaurant in the Ghetto, Giggetto's, enjoying Carciofi Judaica- a traditional Jewish artichoke dish. Sunday, September 20th Today, we ventured out to the National Museum of Rome - or Museo d' Wackem and Slashem.. a veritable treasure trove of ancient sculptures and mosaics.  My only question is where are all of the wacked off appendages (penies and schnozolas)... and I'm delighted to report the sighting of the original shmata worn as a headscarf' from some 2,000 years ago. Actually the mu

seum is really wonderful..  I was particularly fascinated with the mosaics... here we are trying to draw and they were doing it with itty bitty pieces of stone.  The artwork from 2,000 years ago, especially the statues are breathtaking.

More later...

Best Laid Plans

So of course, we have a whole epistle written, but the internet is not working in the apartment and the internet cafe can not read the document!

In the meantime, here are as few photos from London, with great friends Thelma and John and from Rome....With more to come..

We are having a fabulous time... running around and just marveling at everything.. We will post the original blog when we can.. Access is dodgy!

We are happy and healthy and wish everyone a happy Rosh HaShanah!

The Wedding

What a weekend! Whew! What is it about family that is so amazing. Born in NY, my family moved to Calif. When I was 3, for which we thank my Mother regularly. My New York relatives are nuts and we credit New York with their craziness. And yet we absolutely & totally adore our cousins. I am amazed by how close we all feel to one another.

We watched as over the years as my cousing Lisa and Don fell in love and became as necessary to each other as breathing, as Don became an integral part of our family unit. I was reminded of this today as I was hugging him goodbye and told him how happy I was that he was legally a part of the family - but also noted that if he ever hurt Lisa he’d be found at the bottom of the ocean. Without a pause he said, “Be careful what you say, with how neurotic your family is, there are days I might choose the ocean!”

I was reminded of the first time Rick was going to meet the entire family at nephew Maceo’s graduation from Yale. I kept asking Rick to find someone to marry us on the way to the airport. I was worried that he’d back out after meeting the family. But as he always says, “You had to come from someplace.”

So - back to the weekend. What more can I say than that I cried for three days. First and foremost for Don and Lisa who are so happy and who have reached such an incredible place in their life’s journey. We waited a long time to dance at Lisa’s wedding - and it was so worth it….their happiness and joy, the love we have as a family….the strengthening of bonds across miles and generations…the treasuring of our older generation and the shriek of the next generation.

I sometimes get asked why Jews have such huge parties for Bar & Bat Mitzvahs. “It’s like a wedding.” Celebrating these rites of passages celebrate each other, our love for family and ensures the ongoing bonds from generation to generation.

Lisa & Don - Here’s to you!!

5 more days!

We leave in 5 days for New York to start our trip. We've been finishing up art classes, figuring out what we can't live without and furiously trying to fit in as much work as possible before we leave...

This is Tracy's latest drawing. Virginia, our drawing instructor looked at this and said, "There is NO way you could have done this two months ago." It's amazing how much you can learn when you get over your fear of the blank page.

So now, all that is left to do is our run through packing (to make sure we have everything); celebrate Roshann's Birthday- the birthday is tomorrow but the party is Monday in beautiful downtown Elmira. We'll be 26 at the party and its only family members! And then figure out how to fit into the suitcase everything that won't fit.. we are committed to taking only carry on luggage- so forgive us if every photo has us wearing the same outfits!

Now Tracy is off to go prepare herself for the onslaught of neurotic relatives!