rob(E)+geno(V)a: 2007-03-25

St. Mark's square

St. Mark's square flooded during high tide

Main canal at night

Glass blowing on Murano

View of Venice from the islands

Carlo Scarpa cemetery

I must first state that Venice has been my favorite place in Italy thus far. The city is amazing, the streets are winding, and canals greet you at every turn. The food was great, I ate one amazing meal of clam pasta, a great break from the sandwhich making. St. Mark's is the beautiful square and church we stayed near, and it even flooded for us on the last night-an event that occurs 100 times a year. The first day we were there some of us went to the island of Murano and experianced the famous glass culture of Venice- glass blowing was a tantilizing art that I'd love to try sometime. The other parts of the trip were more academic based-but we did visit a Carlo Scarpa Cemetery(one of my favorite architects) in Brion. In Vecenza we were assigned a tour of Palladio's architecture which was very stately. Now I must buckle down and finish my project before Independent travel, and next week Mom, Dad, and Laura visit me here in Genova!

>>VILLA WINE TASTING

The Sicilian wines

our wine complementing foods

Sara, Me, Jennie

Before departing for Venice our proffesors hosted a villa wine tasting in honor of Virginia's birthday. The feast included a full wine tasting tutorial on proper tasting,smelling,swirling, and other techniques for identifying the quality and character of different wines. We began with two different red wines and concluded with spumante. The spread of delicious foods included crudo, buffalo mozzarella, 7 kinds of bread, an herbal cream cheese, and Parmaseano Regiano cheese. The Parmaseano is the highest quality available and is of such high quality that it's value is more constant then gold and is often kept in bank vaults and used as a barter item for large loans! The night was alot of fun- a good excuse to dress up, eat good food and learn something really valuable.