vaporetto strike
so the vaporetti (water buses) that are a main source of transportation around Venice were out of commission today because of strike action. i had read that they would operate the main services between 7am-9am and 5pm-7pm, so i thought i’d be ok to get to and from the museum (which is directly across the canal from the vaporetto stop near my flat). so i got up earlier to get to the stop by 8:30am.
sunrise over chiesa di frari from my window.
then when i got there it seems they were only running vaporetto line #2 and not the #1 that goes between my stop and the museum. so i had to do what the locals were doing and taking the traghetto instead. supposedly this isn’t supposed to be a scary thing… traghetti are basically stripped down, retired gondolas that take you only directly across the grand canal. they have no seats, but usually so few people ride the traghetti at a time that you can sit on the cross beams. since there was the vaporetto strike many more people were having to use the traghetti. so picture 20 people standing up in a gondola cutting across the canal while boats zoom by (motor boats, garbage boats, constructions boats…). an italian woman near me grabbed onto my arm for stability… and then after laughing i grabbed the man in front of me who then laughed at the two of us. it was actually quite terrifying. i was thinking “this is it. i’m going to fall into the lagoon with my laptop and lose all this research.”
but of course it was fine and i had an hour before i had to be at the museum so i stopped for coffee and made more notes for my next 2 chapters. the women working the coffee bar were singing along loudly to every american song on the radio. the best might have been the love ballad from top gun (take my breath away) or “if you don’t know me by now”, especially because they didn’t know all of the words but sang confidently anyway.
one of the shops i passed on the way from the cafe to the museum had these:
the glasses lots of people are wearing in venice, i’ve noticed. think zeke would want some?
then i spent the morning researching more of Mariano Fortuny’s albums of collected reproductions and photographs.
for my lunch break i didn’t want to try the traghetto again to get back to my flat, so i ate at a touristy restaurant near the museum and upped my caffeine for the home stretch of researching.
though i wouldn’t wish the inability to eat cheese on anyone, this pizza was actually pretty delicious. and i think i scared people with how quickly i ate the whole thing. (do you see its size relative to that normal-sized butter knife?)
i went back after lunch to finish looking at the selected albums. the archives director graciously agreed to send me more photographs of Palazzo Fortuny.
this is the ground floor of Palazzo Fortuny very near the water.
after leaving the museum, the vaporetto still wasn’t operating on my stop so i decided to walk the long way around (up to the bridge at the Accademia and then back down to campo dei frari) instead of braving the traghetto again (though i’m not sure it was easier as i had to deal with some, ahem, ‘chatty’ young italianos on the walk).
yesterday’s research also went well. i had an italian translator help at the museum who had studied in oxford and written her dissertation on the Scouse accent! (that’s liverpool for you american readers) we chatted about england for a bit. i also met with a professor of fashion history/theory at the university of venice whose book i had just read (and, like a nerd, asked for as a christmas present). she was enthusiastic, encouraging, and helpful.
i’ve had a wonderful time here in venice this week. the staff at museo fortuny have been excellent and i feel much more inspired for the last 2 chapters of this thesis.
