A recent Guardian article discusses Venetians’ disgust with the thousands of people being disgorged by tourist ships each day on their little city. One local, Luciano Bortot, said, “…the problem now is the mass tourism, the people who come for just a few hours and see nothing – it’s as much of a nightmare...
Read more →I’m happy to announce that Professor Spehar-Fahey and I will be offering Imagining Venice again in Spring 2018! ART/COMM 285 fulfills the Participatory Art requirement for CORE 21 and will be offered Tuesdays & Thursdays 12:25-2:05 p.m. You can take the course for either Art or Communication units — take ART 285 for the...
Read more →The last time we went to Venice, we had a chance to talk to travel writer, blogger, and Venice resident Erla Zwingle, whose blog Venice: I Am Not Making This Up gives a non-native resident’s loving, wry, frustrated, and melancholy view of this beautiful city, its residents, and its perpetual mismanagement. In one of...
Read more →Blogging here is now optional for our students, but for any friends and family who may be reading still, we took the train to Verona today. Here are most of us (the ones who didn’t immediately race off in another direction) at the very well-preserved Roman amphitheater in Verona’s historic center. Although the weather...
Read more →We’ve asked our students to choose and photograph their favorite two works of art made in Venice to date, and I am posting them into a new art gallery page; I’ll keep updating it as students get their work photographed and as we complete more painting sessions.
Read more →After a rainy, acqua alta day, what better way to relax than to hold a big potluck dinner?
Read more →This morning, upon returning from our mandatory cappucino at the Bar Spritz a few streets down from our palazzo, a student reports that her sore throat has turned into an earache, and should she go to the hospital? Now, I’ve been to the ospedale in Venice, myself, and I received prompt, courteous, and cost-effective...
Read more →Leah and Chloe were among our more adventurous students who chose to try the Venetian specialties of spaghetti and risotto “nero di seppia,” i.e., cooked in cuttlefish ink. The general consensus among the students seemed to be that the dish tasted great but that eating black-colored food is a little psychologically disturbing.
Read more →Here are our students in Campo Sananzelo, just a few feet from our palazzo! They have just dropped off their bags and are headed out for their first immersive experience in Italy … buying groceries as the local supermercato. It was a good chance for them to practice reading and speaking Italian, learning the...
Read more →Last week Venice finally removed the controversial “Boy with Frog” statue by Charles Ray that had been standing on the Punta della Dogana since 2009. The city will be replacing it with a replica of the lamppost that used to stand there. This is the photo I took of the statue on our last...
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