lollardfish (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
lollardfish) wrote2008-08-17 10:39 am
lollardfish) wrote2008-08-17 10:39 am
Long post from Venice
Things have been very good in Venice and we have, mostly, settled into a little life here.
Nico:
Our apartment remains fine, though we keep discovering more hazards for Nico as he finds his way into new corners. His sleep has been terrible for really the first time in his life – a combination of a new environment, new internal clock, possible growth spurt, and lots of lots of stimulus. It’s hard when he wakes up at midnight, is up until 2, and then sleeps until 5, takes only one nap, and wants to pass out at 5 the next afternoon (when he’ll sleep until midnight and repeat the cycle). We have no crib, although we were promised one, but we’ve turned two cots into a quite lovely toddler bed (mattress on the ground by the wall, other mattress a buffer, furniture to hold things in place, etc. It works). It just doesn’t hold him when he’s awake, not asleep, but should be asleep. He can’t rock himself down. Instead, he comes to find us. On the other hand, the hunger strike (there were a few days when he ate only fruit, yoghurt, and plain pasta) is well and truly over. He’s eating all kinds of things, including gelato and breadsticks. This latter is thrilling as he can hold onto one end and gnaw on the other, a skill that had been eluding him (he would take a bit and drop the rest).
He’s a delight. He’s “walking” better and better every day, still only with us holding his hands and only sometimes (he can be stubborn and drop that bottom to the floor), but much more steadily. He stands so easily now, and sometimes is happy or excited or clapping and neglects to notice that he’s free-standing and not holding onto anything. He’s “talking” more, both with signs and word-like sounds, and is showing lots of fine-motor and other cognitive developments as well. This trip, as friends and family predicted, has been tough on him but wonderful.
Food:
We love living 2 blocks from the market and are doing some serious cooking and serious food writing as well. Last night was langostines (whole) in a caper/wine/garlic/anchovy sauce over linguine. Tonight I’ll make gnocchi di zucca and have some goat-cheese stuffed zucchini flowers as a side dish. Tomorrow we’re planning to make ragu di cavallo con polenta, assuming the right butcher is open. Our kitchen is adequate and we brought our best chef’s knife, which was a great call (Shannon’s call).
We also have veggie people now, chosen because they great our son with cries of love – “Ciao’more!” (Ciao amore) Ciao’more!,” as well as bananas, cherries (so good, from Trentino, juice as dark as blood), local plums, and whatever else they might give him to earn a smile. Not that Nico’s smiles are hard to get, but they are so worth it. So far, interestingly to me, no one seems to have a clue that he has Down’s, something I watch for. You can see a little glint of confusion at the “year and a half old, can’t walk yet,” but maybe they just think Americans baby their babies or something. Anyway, their veggies and attitudes are spectacular.
Internet:
One of my friends from last time, a Philippino who lives here with his wife and two children (she’s a maid in a hotel), now works at the internet point where I am currently at. It’s good to see him, though irritating that he hasn’t visibly aged a day.
Books:
There’s a bookstore over which I lament every time I am here, as I could spend, literally, thousands of euros there. I did find a copy of “La Isola e Cenobio di San Giorgio Maggiore,” a book from ’69 which I’ve probably requested via ILL a dozen times over the years. I’m glad to own it now.
Research:
Lastly, the raison d’être of my trip. It’s been great. Yesterday I worked with a 17th century handwritten book on San Giorgio Maggiore (the monastery), written by a man who published a half-dozen or more important “humanist” texts on Venetian history (Fortunato Olmo), but never finished this one. It’s got fun little drawings, scribbles, marginal notes, whole sections crossed out, and, importantly, editions of texts that are now lost or destroyed – hymns to saints, etc. Each day brings me new treasures, as this is more of a “get the sense of the next archive” trip, rather than the detailed analysis of a single mss type of trip. I’ll get microfilms of a few pages here and there though, as rates are reasonable.
More fun, the reading room of the Biblioteca Marciana is one of my favorite spots in the world. It has great natural light, comfortable-ish tables and chairs, a large bust of Petrarch, power outlets, not entirely non-helpful staff once you get past the brusque exterior of some, and pretty much everything I want to read. The reading room itself has a large collection of important reference materials on Venice – church, state, archives, art, etc., plus complete editions of the 4 or 5 important historical journals published in Venice for the past 150 years. I love it there. I want it to be in my backyard forever. It’s also where I wrote the first lines of my dissertation, where I had epiphany after epiphany, where I would have to race out of the library and across the Piazza into San Marco in order to compare thought to image, and so forth. It’s one of the four or five most meaningful sites for me in the world, I think.
So that’s the news.
Next week we’ll take a side trip to Ravenna, as I need to see fragmentary mosaics of the Fourth Crusade. Then Avignon, for which the paper is nearly done.
We've taken lots of pictures but have little time to upload them, alas. I wrote this post at my kitchen table, then uploaded it at the internet point. So, photos later!
Nico:
Our apartment remains fine, though we keep discovering more hazards for Nico as he finds his way into new corners. His sleep has been terrible for really the first time in his life – a combination of a new environment, new internal clock, possible growth spurt, and lots of lots of stimulus. It’s hard when he wakes up at midnight, is up until 2, and then sleeps until 5, takes only one nap, and wants to pass out at 5 the next afternoon (when he’ll sleep until midnight and repeat the cycle). We have no crib, although we were promised one, but we’ve turned two cots into a quite lovely toddler bed (mattress on the ground by the wall, other mattress a buffer, furniture to hold things in place, etc. It works). It just doesn’t hold him when he’s awake, not asleep, but should be asleep. He can’t rock himself down. Instead, he comes to find us. On the other hand, the hunger strike (there were a few days when he ate only fruit, yoghurt, and plain pasta) is well and truly over. He’s eating all kinds of things, including gelato and breadsticks. This latter is thrilling as he can hold onto one end and gnaw on the other, a skill that had been eluding him (he would take a bit and drop the rest).
He’s a delight. He’s “walking” better and better every day, still only with us holding his hands and only sometimes (he can be stubborn and drop that bottom to the floor), but much more steadily. He stands so easily now, and sometimes is happy or excited or clapping and neglects to notice that he’s free-standing and not holding onto anything. He’s “talking” more, both with signs and word-like sounds, and is showing lots of fine-motor and other cognitive developments as well. This trip, as friends and family predicted, has been tough on him but wonderful.
Food:
We love living 2 blocks from the market and are doing some serious cooking and serious food writing as well. Last night was langostines (whole) in a caper/wine/garlic/anchovy sauce over linguine. Tonight I’ll make gnocchi di zucca and have some goat-cheese stuffed zucchini flowers as a side dish. Tomorrow we’re planning to make ragu di cavallo con polenta, assuming the right butcher is open. Our kitchen is adequate and we brought our best chef’s knife, which was a great call (Shannon’s call).
We also have veggie people now, chosen because they great our son with cries of love – “Ciao’more!” (Ciao amore) Ciao’more!,” as well as bananas, cherries (so good, from Trentino, juice as dark as blood), local plums, and whatever else they might give him to earn a smile. Not that Nico’s smiles are hard to get, but they are so worth it. So far, interestingly to me, no one seems to have a clue that he has Down’s, something I watch for. You can see a little glint of confusion at the “year and a half old, can’t walk yet,” but maybe they just think Americans baby their babies or something. Anyway, their veggies and attitudes are spectacular.
Internet:
One of my friends from last time, a Philippino who lives here with his wife and two children (she’s a maid in a hotel), now works at the internet point where I am currently at. It’s good to see him, though irritating that he hasn’t visibly aged a day.
Books:
There’s a bookstore over which I lament every time I am here, as I could spend, literally, thousands of euros there. I did find a copy of “La Isola e Cenobio di San Giorgio Maggiore,” a book from ’69 which I’ve probably requested via ILL a dozen times over the years. I’m glad to own it now.
Research:
Lastly, the raison d’être of my trip. It’s been great. Yesterday I worked with a 17th century handwritten book on San Giorgio Maggiore (the monastery), written by a man who published a half-dozen or more important “humanist” texts on Venetian history (Fortunato Olmo), but never finished this one. It’s got fun little drawings, scribbles, marginal notes, whole sections crossed out, and, importantly, editions of texts that are now lost or destroyed – hymns to saints, etc. Each day brings me new treasures, as this is more of a “get the sense of the next archive” trip, rather than the detailed analysis of a single mss type of trip. I’ll get microfilms of a few pages here and there though, as rates are reasonable.
More fun, the reading room of the Biblioteca Marciana is one of my favorite spots in the world. It has great natural light, comfortable-ish tables and chairs, a large bust of Petrarch, power outlets, not entirely non-helpful staff once you get past the brusque exterior of some, and pretty much everything I want to read. The reading room itself has a large collection of important reference materials on Venice – church, state, archives, art, etc., plus complete editions of the 4 or 5 important historical journals published in Venice for the past 150 years. I love it there. I want it to be in my backyard forever. It’s also where I wrote the first lines of my dissertation, where I had epiphany after epiphany, where I would have to race out of the library and across the Piazza into San Marco in order to compare thought to image, and so forth. It’s one of the four or five most meaningful sites for me in the world, I think.
So that’s the news.
Next week we’ll take a side trip to Ravenna, as I need to see fragmentary mosaics of the Fourth Crusade. Then Avignon, for which the paper is nearly done.
We've taken lots of pictures but have little time to upload them, alas. I wrote this post at my kitchen table, then uploaded it at the internet point. So, photos later!
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K.
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Anyway, I shan't speak for her more but will tell her you asked after her.
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I'll post someday when it's easier to see the internets. Right now I'm late getting back to the boys at home for bath time.
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Of course, Italy as a whole is lovely. I'm totally jealous!
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In my limited travel overseas, I have been to Venice and surrounding area. I don't know if you have the time, the desire or the ability to do it, but if you get a chance, I would suggest visiting Asolo, as it's a beautiful city with a very old church that has some LOVELY artifacts.
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:-))))
Glad to hear from you! Continue having lots of fun-you now have my official permission!
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I have enough with one language, that considering trying another is just too much to handle.
Back to my pickles.