Ciao Bella - Venezia

Buongiorno! I am having a bit of a lucky streak, despite Venice's winding streets and canals after my dinner of pasta pomodoro and 2.60 Euro bottle of yummy rose (cheaper than soft drink, hic! and no I haven't finished it off yet...) I saw an 'at' sign and followed it to Venice's only internet cafe.

This post is dedicated to Annette (see her story through the lovely site Rosemask and Multimask site, links on the right) who has made visiting Venice a big priority on my list. I also plan to make an expedition to Florence to ALICE Atelier but I had to come and discover the place famous for Carnivale and beautiful masks. Thank you Annette, for letting me be your apprentice and discover a love of masks and maskmaking.

I took the overnight train to Venice from Paris, after a long commute to Paris-Bercy train station by metro and RER with kind directions from a Frenchman and a bit of what he called 'boff boff' or pushing and squeezing. I found myself in a cabin with a Bangladeshi family from Canada, parents and a 9yr old daughter and 4 year old son, as well as a Muslim-text reading Italian man with a theatrical but kindly face. We had a smooth journey and I was on the top bunk. The sensation of sleeping on the train was like gentle gliding alternating with a rocking a bit like the hammock on a spring Chinese families have for their young children and babies. My phone woke me up twice to announce that we were in Switzerland, then in Italy, and then I was woken up by a handsome man in uniform who turned out to be a policeman checking passports and asking if there was anything to declare. In the morning, I shared my French cherries with the family for breakfast and we chatted about Venice and growing up in different cultures and different countries.

I arrived in Venice at Santa Lucia train station, Venice was shrouded in mist, dense rain and tourists with umbrellas. Made it by vaporetto to Lido, and found myself at Villa Parco, my hotel booked by chance. It is very lovely, the kind of Italian house I've dreamt of staying in, with a lush green garden full of flowers right outside my window. I was very lucky to have been able to book it as it is high season and it was actually on the cheaper scale of rooms at this time at 40 Euro for a single private room with full ensuite. I will sleep well tonight!

I had a siesta during the pouring rain and woke up to Venice a little more unmasked. I wandered through the streets and visited the pigeon-covered Piazzo San Marco and the Basilica. The masks and Murano glass are everywhere; and I was becoming a bit disappointed in the overdone type of mask with the glitter, plastic and feathers as Annette says, a bit Christmas tree. Then I looked twice at a window and saw a glance of a girl preparing forms in a studio... I wandered into the shop after watching for a while and felt that somehow this shop was a bit different from the others. The smell was familiar and reminded me of working in the Studio, not like the varnish in some of the other shops. Best of all, there were no 'No Touch' signs around and I could carefully pick up and look at the masks, and try them on in the dusty mirror in the corner.

An American tourist had followed me in, bought a poster from the shop and questioned the girl, asking if she was an apprentice, whether she made the masks all the way through the process, whether she was from Venice and how she came to be working in the mask shop. She answered a few of the questions but then let the rest off with a shrug. I thought she might do the same to me as I bought a small half mask (I almost didn't as I didn't want to interrupt her work, she was involved in coating a very elaborate form), but she was very warm and was genuinely interested when I said I had worked with a maskmaker in New Zealand and could appreciate the layers and work the the masks. She customised the ribbons to the mask and chatted to me as she wrapped it up and gave me a card about the studio. Later, when I looked at the card I was surprised, (but maybe just a little?) to see Annette's Eyes Wide Shut painting in profile on the back. The shop was La Bottega dei Mascareri and I felt very very special to have met a maskmaker's apprentice in Venice.

Venice is magical, of course but a little melancholy as it is not truly a living city, the locals have some sadness that it is inhabited by tourists and that their city is somehow a World Heritage Site but also a bit of a theme park to some.

Here is some beautiful Murano glass - this is from the Glass Museum.


Thank you for saying hi, Mum and Dad, Clare, I feel it is like you are on my trip and yes I wish you were with me, this is the next best thing (:
Two more days in here, then I will be off to Florence for 3 days, then to Rome. See you there!