A farewell to arms
Sep. 23rd, 2003 07:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lollardfishI would like to declare the end to major combat in my apartment.
It was the second night that was the worst. The first one I was too sick to notice. I had left the windows open to take advantage of the cool breezes, and woke up in the middle of the second night to the tell-tale sound of buzzing in my ears. This fall, Venice is worse with mosquitos than it was last summer. It has nothing on Minnesota, of course, but in Minnesota we have screens on our window. Venetian windows have these lovely green shutters which really shut out all light, and then glass windows. Anyway, the ceiling was dotted with mosquitos, and I went to battle (still woozy from knockout cold medication). I feel sorry for the people upstairs, as I was pounding on ceilings and walls, roaring through the house (wearing a pair of boxer shorts, hair wild, a little crazed and drugged. Quite a scene, really, for the audience of, well, mosquitos about to die!).
Now I close the windows at night, only one or two manage to get in, and the war has settled down to minor aggression with relatively little bloodloss.
Not due to the bugs, I think, but due to some stress over beginning my research, being in a new place, and such, I have been having a little bit of insomnia, and have taken to some late night walks through Venice. The city at night can be absolutely still. The boats stop running. There are no cars. The tourists tend to be in bed. The Venetians, alas, mostly go home to houses on the mainland where property is cheaper (so few live in Venice now. Those that do are older, and are also not prone to late night romps). If it's before one in the morning, you will drift through pockets of noise and light - the occasional bar or late-night gelateria, people cleaning up in a restaurant - but generally the city is 'soft.' Gentle stone (don't ask me how. The stone is gentle) streets winding through the same paths as they have for centuries. The bridges not too slick with the night's perspiration. The occasional passerbye with a buona sera as everyone heads home. This is not a nightlife city, not Milan or Rome, but it also does not have the threatening feel of dark Genoa, and all this is good by me.
I feel perfectly safe, even when the city seems totally silent. I am sure there is crime here, but not the random violent type that plagues so many urban centers. The city is surrounded by water. There are limited routes to and from anywhere. Crime here is about stealth - pickpockets in crowded areas, probably breaking and entering hotel rooms - and grift. I hope, as the year wanes, I get some foggy nights (without, say, a massive flood).
Thanks for the post cards people say have been mailed. I await them eagerly. More eagerly, I await the arrival of my parents on the 25th, as I switch back into tourist mode. Hopefully, it'll calm me down a bit when moving through the daytime streets of Venice, which are NOT calm or peaceful. I am suffering from, um, canal rage. Ok, so I guess it's just road rage pedestrian style, but, honestly, if the street is narrow, do you HAVE to walk in a big clump, stopping to look in every window, completely oblivious that some people MIGHT have somewhere to go. There are few back ways into the Piazza San Marco, alas.
But speaking of San Marco. Minnehaha (I don't remember the code to like to them), do you think the two of you can, between you, find, steal, borrow, or own a really good digital camera? There are a few things I'd like high quality digital shots of in Venice. I can, I think, convince the procurators of San Marco that I am bringing in a photographer to take some shots for my thesis. Did you know that the procurators of Venice, in the 12th century, started as sort of minor caretakers for the church appointed by the Doge, but within a hundred years or so evolved into the chief financial officials of Venice, were in fact a limit to the Doge's influence over his own church, and were in charge of the massively significany rennovatons to San Marco in the 13th century, during Venice's most active period of state-controlled mythogenesis. Did you know? I didn't really until today. Someone needs to write a book about it ...
It was the second night that was the worst. The first one I was too sick to notice. I had left the windows open to take advantage of the cool breezes, and woke up in the middle of the second night to the tell-tale sound of buzzing in my ears. This fall, Venice is worse with mosquitos than it was last summer. It has nothing on Minnesota, of course, but in Minnesota we have screens on our window. Venetian windows have these lovely green shutters which really shut out all light, and then glass windows. Anyway, the ceiling was dotted with mosquitos, and I went to battle (still woozy from knockout cold medication). I feel sorry for the people upstairs, as I was pounding on ceilings and walls, roaring through the house (wearing a pair of boxer shorts, hair wild, a little crazed and drugged. Quite a scene, really, for the audience of, well, mosquitos about to die!).
Now I close the windows at night, only one or two manage to get in, and the war has settled down to minor aggression with relatively little bloodloss.
Not due to the bugs, I think, but due to some stress over beginning my research, being in a new place, and such, I have been having a little bit of insomnia, and have taken to some late night walks through Venice. The city at night can be absolutely still. The boats stop running. There are no cars. The tourists tend to be in bed. The Venetians, alas, mostly go home to houses on the mainland where property is cheaper (so few live in Venice now. Those that do are older, and are also not prone to late night romps). If it's before one in the morning, you will drift through pockets of noise and light - the occasional bar or late-night gelateria, people cleaning up in a restaurant - but generally the city is 'soft.' Gentle stone (don't ask me how. The stone is gentle) streets winding through the same paths as they have for centuries. The bridges not too slick with the night's perspiration. The occasional passerbye with a buona sera as everyone heads home. This is not a nightlife city, not Milan or Rome, but it also does not have the threatening feel of dark Genoa, and all this is good by me.
I feel perfectly safe, even when the city seems totally silent. I am sure there is crime here, but not the random violent type that plagues so many urban centers. The city is surrounded by water. There are limited routes to and from anywhere. Crime here is about stealth - pickpockets in crowded areas, probably breaking and entering hotel rooms - and grift. I hope, as the year wanes, I get some foggy nights (without, say, a massive flood).
Thanks for the post cards people say have been mailed. I await them eagerly. More eagerly, I await the arrival of my parents on the 25th, as I switch back into tourist mode. Hopefully, it'll calm me down a bit when moving through the daytime streets of Venice, which are NOT calm or peaceful. I am suffering from, um, canal rage. Ok, so I guess it's just road rage pedestrian style, but, honestly, if the street is narrow, do you HAVE to walk in a big clump, stopping to look in every window, completely oblivious that some people MIGHT have somewhere to go. There are few back ways into the Piazza San Marco, alas.
But speaking of San Marco. Minnehaha (I don't remember the code to like to them), do you think the two of you can, between you, find, steal, borrow, or own a really good digital camera? There are a few things I'd like high quality digital shots of in Venice. I can, I think, convince the procurators of San Marco that I am bringing in a photographer to take some shots for my thesis. Did you know that the procurators of Venice, in the 12th century, started as sort of minor caretakers for the church appointed by the Doge, but within a hundred years or so evolved into the chief financial officials of Venice, were in fact a limit to the Doge's influence over his own church, and were in charge of the massively significany rennovatons to San Marco in the 13th century, during Venice's most active period of state-controlled mythogenesis. Did you know? I didn't really until today. Someone needs to write a book about it ...
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2003-09-23 09:11 pm (UTC)...Hania
no subject
Date: 2003-09-24 09:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-09-23 10:33 pm (UTC)K. [and to make one of those LJ-specific links, use this magic formula, but substitute angle brackets for the curly quotes: {lj user="minnehaha"} OK? OK!]
no subject
Date: 2003-09-24 09:19 am (UTC)And so forth.
I will try to work on getting access ...