stupadaso – YuSmith

Italy and Switzerland summer 2018

After a month and a half of procrastinating I’ll get around to updating the world on our week and a half high speed journey through Italy and into Switzerland that we did back in the first week of June. Logistically it was quite complicated. Mary left China and made a 1 day stop in Istanbul for business and then continued on to Rome. I left Nashville and had a red eye flight to Rome that got in at 8 am. Yuki was already in Rome finishing a 2 week study statues course (or something like that) but wouldn’t free up until the next day. Haiyan (Yuki’s mom) would not get to Rome until 2 days later. I met Mary at the hotel she stayed at and ultimately we checked out and went to the hotel we were staying that night. It should be noted that Rome was all booked up as it was the big national holiday weekend (like the 4th of July) coming up on the weekend so we changed hotels about every day. Mary and I spent the afternoon and evening wandering around Rome and doing the usual things like posing in front of fountains.

The next day it was off to the train station where we met up with Yuki and we headed to Ercolano near Pompeii. Ercolano is the site of Herculaneum which was one of the other cities buried at the same time Pompeii was. It was buried much deeper and actually Ercolano is built on top of it so not much has been excavated but what has is actually better preserved that Pompeii. There is a walking tour on YouTube.

The next day it was up and off to Pompeii. Pompeii is a much larger area that what I expected. The way we entered got us to what I’m pretty sure was the baseball stadium first.

This gave us the opportunity to take a picture that I’m sure has never been taken by another person, ever. Posing with Mt. Vesuvius in the background.

AS you walk around Pompeii it is easy to forget that Pompeii was not a rich city it was just a run of the mill town and yet has all these columns and stuff that we tend to associate with wealth and culture. (just look at our dining room)

I’m not sure what the lady posing like an airplane has got to do with Pompeii or Vesuvius, maybe it was some interpretative dance that I’m not cultured enough to understand

After about 5 or 6 hours it was hot and we had seen enough so it we decided that we would hop the train and head to Sorrento to kill the rest of the day.

We walked from the train station to the coast, which of course required shopping but we got there and did a quick pose.

Went to one of the bars and had a couple drinks

and then back to the hotel and to a restaurant on the water for dinner.

The next day it was up and back to Rome, check int the hotel and pick up Haiyan from the airport and begin the hardcore Roman tourist activity. We started in the Colosseum area and posing.

We wrapped up the day at some weird not traditional Italian restaurant place for dinner.

The next day was more Rome tourist things like the 3 coins in the fountain thing.

The Parthenon

And the Fiat informal motor museum.

That night Yuki and her mom went to the Vatican and since Mary has been there twice and I’ve been once and we were both still jet lagged (6 hours each in opposite directions) we ate and went to bed as the next day we were heading off to Florence.

We get to Florence and spent the rest of the day wondering around looking at statues and stuff.

A late afternoon lunch

More statues. And while we are at it I will admit that when it comes to statues I may not be on the cutting edge (although all other art forms I am) but just what is going on here.

Late in the afternoon we made it to the river and the bridges across for more posing

Reviewing the “posing for pictures” pictures

Then it was back to the hotel area (across the road from the Dumo) which offered some artsy picture shots.

The next morning Mary and I were up early waiting for the breakfast places to open which allowed for more posing.

Yuki and Haiyan finally got up and made it to breakfast.

This afforded me an opportunity to sit at our street table and do what I love to do when in Italy which is to watch the crowd for the latest Italian fashion designs. After all Italy is the home of that kind of stuff.

Here we have a design for the discriminating Asian traveler

Here for women we have this years theme, glossy.

And finally, an unanswerable question. What is it with Asian women doing airplane poses?

After that informative and eventful breakfast it was over to the Statue of David place.When I first saw the Statue of David ten years ago or so it was one of those eureka of art moments (I was going to say epiphany but I can’t spell it) If your response to that is wtf well just hold on a moment.

When I was a kid we had a World Book Encyclopedia. I think my parents bought it when I was 7 or 8 years old and it was on the built in shelves of my bed from the time I had the bedroom before Lori was born. It tended to be the go to thing when bored or didn’t have anything else to do and over the course of the 10 years or so I was in that bedroom I’m sure I looked at every page at least once and actually read a high percentage. Now anyone that as seen a late 50’s early 60’s encyclopedia will remember that all artwork was presented a a standard size picture with some history about it, although unless you looked up the guy that made it not a lot of history. Now I think that they gave the size in the description somewhere but if they did that never registered with me. So as a result in my mind all artwork is the same size and all statures are the same height. There are basically 3 works of art that finally broke me of that misguided mindset. The first time I went to the Met in New York and walked into the room with Washington Crossing the Delaware I was of a “well that’s surprisingly big, won’t be hanging that over the fireplace ” although I had seen much smaller copies all over the place. Should be a law that copies have to be the same size as the original. The second time happened at the Louvre a few years back with the Mona Lisa. Looked at that and though that “jeeze he must have painted this to be one of those little decorative paintings that people hang in their bathrooms” The size just didn’t match the level of famous. So when I saw David for the first time once again I was totally surprised by the size which leads me to make this proposal. All artwork shown in encyclopedias should have a Carol Merrill person standing next to it pointing so that we can tell haw big it is. I attempted to provide one of these but the crowd, my pointer and the auto focus on the camera were not cooperating. But you get the idea and can tell that the Statue of David is only about 4 ft tall.

WE looked at the statue and from there eventually got to Michelangelo park overlooking the city. Its got a copy of David (and apparently an old woman breaking wind on another woman)

It’s the park from which all of the iconic pictures of Florence are taken.

We spent the rest of the afternoon touring the home of famous dead people and the home of statues.

For example Michelangelo, Dante and Machiavelli

One of my favorite statues from the Uffizi

Before the Medici left all these statues to the state they were in the various houses. You have to wonder what it was like to get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and have to travel past all these busts and statues. Did you have to say hi howya doin to each of them?

The next morning Yuki and her mom went on to Venice and Mary and I moved on to Lugano Switzerland. Even though it’s Swiss it is in most ways an Italian town only about a 45 minute train ride from Milan. We got there and checked into our hotel late afternoon and Mary checked out the balcony.

Lugano is apparently a vacation spot and also it seemed to be more upper class than what we were. A lot of Maserati and Porsche and at least one bright red Ferrari 488 GTB on the streets. But it fit the needs of just a day without needing to look at statues or other artsy things. The next morning we walked the park and took the funicular to the top of the mountain overlooking the city. (by the way every town should have a funicular even if they don’t have a big hill just for the name)

Our hotel is yellow building in the middle of picture left of the group of trees on the curve

An hour long sitting at a table on the mountain with a late morning snack of beer and french fries was quite nice.

These were all from the building at the very peak of this mountain.

After a tour around the lake on one of the water taxis for an hour and dinned at a highly rated restaurant and a bunch of walking around shopping in way over priced stores (one lady wanted over $2000 for a set of sheets and they were not even fitted sheets) it was time to bring this trip to an end. Although while shopping I did notice one thing that surprised me. Apparently the second coming wasn’t the big deal it was built up to be as that Jesus guy is apparently running a jewelry store in Lugano.

The next morning it was back to Rome and I caught a morning flight back to the US and Mary had to get to Chicago through Turkey and she got delayed a day so she didn’t get home until 2 days later.

As always the full unedited not curated camera dump is posted to the right.

Primera Casa Rancho

Mackenzie’s new house. Look closely and see her still sleeping.

It’s the 45th anniversary of the best Thanksgiving song.

Jump in when it comes around on the guitar.

Italy Pictures; The Full Set

RRRiiiiight here. And a link over to the right.

varese-venice-trento-italy

Mary posing with stuff

Of course when you go on a trip you take pictures posing in front of stuff. Here are some of those kind of pictures.

Standing in the last of the high water in our $20 high water boots

Outside at the Peggy Guggenheim museum for contemporary art

Again at the art museum next to the only thing in the whole museum that you could tell what it was

On a balcony overlooking Piazza San Marco

In front of a statue thing in a square in Trento

In front of the entrance to the Trento Whirlpool factory

The Rialto Bridge

The Rialto bridge is the old main bridge across the Grand Canal in Venice. It was built 600 – 700 years ago and over the course of the 3 days we were there we crossed it many times. It is marked by big ol arrow thing on map below.

Here you have a view of the North side of the bridge as seen from a water taxi.

Here is a picture from the North side of the bridge looking North to where the previous picture was taken.

Here is from the other side of the bridge looking South.

Here is from the south side of the bridge looking down directly next to the bridge.

These are a few of the shops and stands on the bridge.

And finally here is the bridge from a gondola.

This bridge has been kind of a big deal in Venice for a few years.

I didn’t take this picture but I wanted to

But there was not the opportunity to see a blind person in Venice and yell out too all nearby

VENETIAN BLINDS

In Italy it’s worth 70%.

Whatever it is.

Venice, No lack of water here.

Although I didn’t have Americano Coffee I suspect it would have had water since Venice was flooded today. It is the season of Aqua Alta or high water and apparently today it was very high. When we got there at 10 it was near high tide and we had to buy boots to get around. Here is a couple of pictures, one blurry because with the rain I didn’t have my high speed stop action camera.

Piazza San Marco 5 hours before this picture was covered with 2-3 ft of water. It floods normally in the high water but normally not that much it seems.

Live From Varase Italy

Sever Water Shortage Impacts Coffee Industry
We spent the evening walking the city center of Varase when it was decided that we should have some coffee and whatever they have for snacks. Didn’t want espresso or capachino so I ordered the great Americano coffee. Here is what I got.

Untouched, as delivered, Americano Coffee
The water shortage is so bad that only the coffee part of the coffee got delivered. All that was needed was a cup of boiling water.

A wet and cloudy day in Michigan highlights the nearness of Hallowween

Be afraid, be really afraid.

Grandma’s Chair

Grandma Marchant’s chair returned home today after being gone for a few months to have its skin replaced. Here are some before and after pictures.

This was Grandma’s only chair. She did have a couch but the chair was where she spent most of her time. I would guess that she bought it sometime after WWII (the big one) after mom and dad got married. I don’t know when she moved from the west end of town to the east but it must have been sometime around then. The first apartment I remember was on East Main although the house there seems different now 6o years later.

I’m sure I’m the only one that can remember this place because she moved when I was probably 6 or 7. It was an upstairs apartment with the stairs being outside which must have been a chore in the winter as she would have been in her later 70’s by that time. The apartment itself was like 3 rooms with the chair being the center piece. Although about all I really remember is the candy dish and the parakeet. Since the apartment was so small the birdcage for the parakeet took up a lot of room. It stood between the living area and the kitchen area and required discussing things with the bird when you passed by. Some time after 1955 the bird met an untimely death. (I know it was after 55 because I can only remember traveling there in the turquoise 55 Chevy) Grandma at this time of her life had cataracts and did not see that good apparently although none of the pictures from that time show her wearing glasses. Her is a picture from June 1955 although I suspect Mom’s dating of this may be incorrect. Looking at the tree with little or no leaves and the big flower thing she is wearing I would guess it is Easter 1955 which was April 10.

The importance of noting that her sight wasn’t so good is that the story I was told about the demise of the bird (assuming that it was the real story and not just something told to a kid to get them to shut up) was that she stepped on the bird. I’ve wondered a few time how that could happen and have never come to a reasonable scenario for that but that is what I was told.
Sometime during 57 or 58 she move to the apartment that she lived in until she died. This was on Wayne street. It looks like from Google maps that the duplex she lived in has been replaced by some big house, or at least added onto.

This is the apartment that had 3 rooms and was on the north side of the house. It was within a couple block of the library, the church, the dime store and and either of the groceries that were in the downtown area at that time. (Kroger at the corner of High and Meridian and Marsh at Main and Harrison. Setting right inside the front door between the door and the big space heater furnace was the chair with an end table next to it with a radio and reading items. The chair during this period had some type of rough cloth covering and had doilies on the arms and head area. One of the books always on this table is this one.

This has a copyright of 1948 and is a book of miscellaneous facts and tables along with thing like the words to the Star Spangle Banner, The Lords Prayer, patriotic quotes, the poem Casey at the Bat and the reason I remember it and probably the reason mom passed it on to me is a poem by the greatest poet that ever lived, Author Unknown.

This apartment was a great location. Since I was mobile on my bicycle by then there probably wasn’t a day that went by during the warm months that I didn’t roll up into the yard and go running around the porch and through the front door through the living area, the bedroom and into the kitchen to the candy dish on the table. Grandma was usually sitting in the chair listening to WPGW on the radio. If it was late enough in the day she would be in the kitchen cooking Brussels sprouts. And I believe to this day she ate that for every meal every day.
After Grandma died in January of 63 mom ended up with the chair. She took it to a reupholster named Abney Addison or something with an A in it. The shop was on Morton street between Walnut and Main.

She had it re-skinned with the dark brown Naugahyde shown in the before picture above. So I’ll call this a good choice since it was used for almost 50 years. If I remember correctly it was in my room for the rest of the Race Street era. I’m not sure when I got possession of the chair but I do know that it was the only chair that I had while I lived in the servants quarters behind the Jaqua house during the winter of 76-77. This now seems to be something other than the Jaqua house and its not a driveway but a street.

I watched Roots sitting in this chair. This was my primary sitting chair for about the next 10 years.
I don’t remember the location of the chair in South Bend but it was probably in the little used living room. In New York it got moved to the extra bedroom/play room. Since then it has mostly served as a bra storing appliance in the bedroom.
By this time it was not in the best of shape. The springs were coming through the bottom and there were various cuts to the material on the arms and seat cushions. Mary had wanted to have it redone for years as she felt it was a great chair so this summer that was done. It now should be in shape to out live a third generation and get most of the way through the 4th.
I set in it today and the strangest thing, it is much smaller that it used to be. I’m not sure how they did that but it is a fact.