Second Catch Up.

Next stop from Marseilles was Dijon. I needed to get here to jump on an over-night train to Venice. I had 8 hours in Dijon, which gave me just enough time to try some fine moutarde and Burgundy wine. I visited some interesting churches, all of which had fascinating roofs. Brightly coloured tiles seemed to be the local vernacular roof choice, and many of the churches shared in this. When I boarded my train for Venice an Italian took my passport and ticket away from me, which left me a little nervous, particularly because I don’t have enough Italian to have asked him why.

I suddenly found myself in Venice. We pulled up next to the Orient Express. I all of a sudden realised that this city was going to cost me. I walked out of the station very bleary eyed and disoriented. All I knew was that I was supposed to take a busboat to my hostel, which was on an island across from the Piazza San Marco. Be warned potential travelers, busboats are not cheap. I immediately dropped my articles in the hostel and went frolicking through old churches and ducal palaces.

My first observation of St. Mark’s, a church that I was really looking forward to seeing, was that I found the mosaics to be hideous. When I think of mosaics I think of lovely two-dimensional scenes portrayed in the typical byzantine style. But for some reason, probably that whole renaissance thing, somebody tried using perspective and other techniques to imitate three-dimensional paintings. I am arguing that this style of mosaic just doesn’t suit the medium. Because there is a break in each colour and line, mosaics are necessarily made with small pieces of glass, it must create a more simplistic and rough image. Which is great, because the glittering gold light mixed with the rich pastel colours make a lovely scene. However, these new fandagled mosaics were just too much, they are a renaissance inspired façade on a byzantine skeleton. I’m guessing they were added after the initial construction, but I’m going to have to research this later. The mosaic in perspective just doesn’t work because it has the elements of a fine renaissance painting, but stops far short because of the many broken lines and its bright golden shine – all of which looks unsuited to the rest of the byzantine mosaics inside.

At the hostel I met a poet from Oregon and an architecture student from Dalhousie, and the architecture student decided to continue on with me to the Trullo of Puglia in southern Italy after we met yet again in Florence. Im currently sleeping in a Trulli and I have been building some terraces straight out of bedrock. Tomorrow I start working with a local craftsman who has been restoring Trulli for over 40 years, his name is Giovanni, and my first opportunity is to the outer skin of stones on a Trulli cone, hopefully more work will follow this. Pictures to follow!