Greetings all!
I didn’t post yesterday because we didn’t really do anything except go from the hotel to the Venice train station where we got on the train to Florence and then took a taxi to the hotel here.
We’re staying at the Ville sull’Arno, which is a ridiculously cool place. It’s literally next to the Arno River and I’m typing this will looking at it flow by. The bar and restaurant are that rare combination where the expense matches the quality and quantity. So often, I’ve found expensive places get that way by promotion more than execution, but this isn’t what we’ve found here.
It’s an old building. Not sure how old, but it has to be centuries, though it’s been extensively renovated. In wonderful news, though the renovations are recent, the style they chose matched the vibe of the decor instead of forcing modern white, black, square, and boring.
I hate that, by the way. I don’t hate all that much, but I hate modern architecture.
In fact, this is probably the time I should mention something that’s been boiling in me for much of this trip. I don’t understand how anyone could look at the glory and beauty of the Palazza Ducale, St. Mark’s, the cathedrals of Europe (frankly any old church in Europe whether Catholic or Eastern Orthodox, and whatever else along these lines you want to include and yet, despite having seen all that, thinks modernist and post-modernist art, architecture, music, and everything else is better.
I mean, how? I totally get tastes are different. One might prefer the Scandinavian stave church to a medieval cathedral or a Japanese palace. Perfectly fine, and you can extend that to all sorts of different cultural norms. The Alhambra is beautiful, as is the Taj Mahal, and so much more.
But to go from any of that to modernist and post-modernist crap? I hates it, my precious. It’s like the new addition to the Louvre, or the new entrance of the ROM, and so many other instances where we’ve put glass, steel, and hate where stone, intricacy, and beauty should be.
Screw all that. Make beautiful things. I can’t do much when it comes to art and architecture or fashion, but I certainly try to make beautiful, intricate, cool, and enjoyable stories. You may not like my style, but that’s always my aim.
Whoops, I just put a quarter into myself.
Not whoops, really. I was always gonna say all that, I just didn’t know when. It’s just so annoying when I see modern stuff here. You have all these great examples but you make something that’s different just because? I hates it!!!!
Anyway, we had a delightful dinner last night and this afternoon we’re having a proper English tea in Italy, because why not.
This morning, though, we went walking. Our hotel is about 2.5km from the Ponte Vecchio. We walked up one side of the river, crossed the Arno there, and then came back to a couple of places Jonna Hayden suggested to us, a gelateria and a coffee shop.
After that, we went to this hole in the wall proscutteria, which is a fancy world for place that sells cold cuts. Our most common lunch is an antipasti board with various meats, cheeses, breads, veggies, and fruits. This place had an excellent version of that, plus it had fun music!
When we walked in, they were playing stuff in Italian, but then it shifted to Jolene from Dolly Parton, Sunday, Bloody Sunday, which is one of only 2 U2 songs I like, then Peter Gabriel’s Solsbury Hill. Good stuff. Then it went back to Italian stuff.
OK, I’ve been silly on this trip. I’ll stop for a moment so you can recover from the shock. Anyway, we were passing a record store and I said something like, “Can’t go there, I won’t understand them all because they’re in Italian.” Of note, the two albums I noted in the window were from Abba and Taylor Swift.
With that in mind, I can continue talking about the restaurant’s music because this is the part that’s interesting, especially to St. Louis Blues fans. Can you guess what song came on? Those around for the Stanley Cup run will. Yep, it was Gloria, but it was in Italian! It’s like they made it just for those on The Hill.
After that we meandered back to the villa and napped before coming down to tea.
We did a lot for a day when we didn’t really do much, but tomorrow, we’re going to the Uffizi and maybe the Accademia if we have time.
Excellent. I’ll have all the more reason to despite modernism and post-modernism.
See y’all tomorrow!