Solitario Esploratore

Just a week ago, on a sunny Sunday much like today's in Pennsylvania, I spent some time solo wandering the narrow streets in Venice.  After B left, I took a couple more days in the city before heading north to Germany to catch a flight home.  I took in lots of delightful scenery and reveled in the uniqueness of the city

Stopped off for a cappuccino and a little sweet and did some sketching from a photo of that shot from the Ponte dell'Accademia.  I took the waterbus over instead of walking through the maze.

Epic pen in action...

I'm looking through photos from the trip today for some inspiring bits to take with me to Art of the Carolinas this week for the various classes I have going on down in Raleigh, North Carolina.  These window shapes are just so beautiful.  I expect to see them in quite a few pieces in the near future. 

I've got a variety of classes coming up, including some collage, cold wax, and underpainting techniques.  I want to use these colors and textures as inspiration...will be a neat way to re-live some of those days just wandering around.

Wandering and trying to take a selfie with a pretty canal in the background when some motorboat runs through it.  haaaaaaa.  I bought the scarf when I arrived in Paris at the train station when I arrived and it became a staple for the entire journey.  If you're coveting, you can find it on Amazon.  It's very cozy and somehow managed not to stink too badly after three weeks of solid wear.

Since my solo adventure had no agenda and no purpose other than to soak in the sights, I was able to fool around with camera apps a bit.  Here's one with some Hipstamatic going on:

And here's another Hipstamatic shot of an iconic Venetian lion in a square near Arsenale.  I took a walk away from St. Mark's square one morning and found a more idyllic garden in a residential area. It was a wonderful part of Venice that I hadn't seen before and really made it feel more "real" and less like a giant collection of tourist venues.

I made it over to the Guggenheim museum and spent a couple of hours enjoying the collection.  They had a special Jackson Pollock exhibit going on, but I found a few other inspiring artists...going to save that trip description for another post.

The next morning, I stopped at a little cafe in the Serra Dei Giardini and had another cappuccino (can you really have too many of these little creamy delights?) and did some more sketching.  Even got the paints out since the sun was so nice.  I used some of the Amalfi watercolor paper that I got from my new favorite Italian paper shop, La Ricerca.

I stopped for lunch on the Via Giuseppe Garibaldi and had "pizza pantalone" which is basically pizza with my favorite salad on top:  bresaola (a dried beef), rucola (arugula), and parmesan cheese.  I added some lemon juice and olive oil and it was perfect!  Throw in a glass of vino rosso and a great novel and I had a wonderful lunch while reading and enjoying the crowds at the markets down the street.

I took the bus back over to the Academia, but was too late...it was already closed early with Monday hours.  So, I took the long way back on foot and made an important stop at the request of my Mom:

Had a bellini at Harry's Bar.  They weren't crowded, so I had some space there at the bar to get out my pen and paper and captured the moment to make it a little more special.  The manager was standing nearby, noticed what I was doing, and actually explained that all the bottles on the shelves have been in the same place since the bar opened.  He gave me a copy of a little book that had old pictures of the bar with the bottles arranged just so.

A little further on my walk back to the hotel, the gondoliers were massing back in their stalls near the square.  I liked this action shot as they moved in all sorts of directions as the sun started to set.

The sun was setting on the Italian leg of my adventure, too.  The next day I had another long travel day with a flight up to Frankfurt, a shuttle van ride down to Reichenbach-Steegan, and then some time with the Horines awaiting transport back to the States.  All goodness...even with 100 pounds of luggage to haul over bridges myself.  haaaaaaa