Fastest Vivaldi Contest

Little known fact: Venice has streets.

After crossing the bridge to Venice on the train Monday night, we took a vaporetto (water bus) ride from the station to our hotel at the opposite end of the Grand Canal. Clint watched my bags so I could sit in the back of the boat and watch the city glide by in the twilight. The lights reflecting off the water create a magical atmosphere, which was enhanced later in the evening by wandering around St. Mark's square listening to dueling restaurant orchestras that play familiar classical and show tunes on outdoor stages.

Venice is definitely a tourist town, but I have been happily surprised by the number of non-couples here. This morning while eating breakfast in the hotel (it sits at the corner of two canals), I watched four gondolas float by in a row that were packed with Asian families.

We actually got around the city entirely on foot yesterday. You really do need a good map here, because I don't think there is a major street (or one that goes in a straight line for any length of time) on the entire island. So far we haven't gotten lost, which is actually sort of disappointing because we have done a lot of wandering around.

Yesterday we had a fantastic sun, rain, hail, and thunder storm in the afternoon. We have a corner room on the third floor of a cute hotel with shining marble floors and confusing stairways, which is also at a canal intersection of one of the gondola routes, so we got to sit in the room and watch very wet people in gondolas floating by in the sporadic rain showers. They actually make gondola covers, which seem to serve a much more practical purpose than car covers (since they have plush seats in many of the gondolas). I think I might wait to pay a lot of money for a gondola until I am rich and/or famous, or until someone else is doing the bargaining and paying.

Okay, this has been a happy post until now, but I have to spend a few of my very expensive internet minutes ranting about something. Although this trip has generally exceeded my expectations, last night was a bit of a let down. We went to see Vivaldi's Four Seasons performed by a local chamber orchestra in a random concert hall near St. Mark's cathedral in Venice. The tickets weren't cheap, so I was expecting it to be a pretty good concert. That was my first mistake. Keep your expectations low and it's hard to be disappointed. First of all, everything in Venice is expensive. Second, this chamber orchestra plays the same two programs on alternating nights for 4 months in a row. Third, Venice is known for being a tourist town, not for being a major music capital. Granted Vivaldi was born here, but that doesn't mean music lovers flock to the town to see the Vivaldi museum (I've tried to go twice and it's been closed both times.) I sat there wondering if I was watching my high school piano quartet play our favorite Rondo as fast as possible, every man for himself, rushing to the end, neglecting any kind of phrasing, rhythmic accuracy, or ensemble togetherness. I'm not kidding. I could have sworn that the first and third movements of every single concerto were marked Vivace Molto. Just to give you an idea, this group played six concerti and an encore in less than an hour. It actually hurt me to watch. But the rest of the crowd seemed to be impressed. In my opinion, if Vivaldi looks difficult to play, it's because you're not playing it well. It should look beautiful and singing and effortless. Sigh.

On to London tomorrow. :)