My name is Kellen Dorchen, I am a prospective computer science and now art history double major from South Carolina, class of 2020. This is my first time outside of the U.S. not including two brief trips to Canada growing up. My flight was a struggle and luggage was not much better but arriving in Venice was exciting. Before I left the airport, I was hit in the legs by a luggage cart and watched a couple angry Italians yell at each other. It was wonderful.
That afternoon I was thrown into a brief look at the contemporary art scene and was sufficiently confused. The only thing I really understood that day was the Finnish Pavilions love for Finland. After that I miraculously found and met the rest of my group for the first time at a vaporetto stop.
Food is good. Pizza, pasta, gelato, pizza again, a different kind of pasta, maybe 5 cannoli’s, and the occasional generator burger. The same breakfast of a roll, ham, cheese, yogurt, cereal, and jellies is amazing and I love it but I don’t even know what a vegetable is anymore. The food is great but I miss vegetables, tea, and eggs. I went on a hunt for eggs with Patrick the other day. We found pizza and gelato and settled.
I do find joy in visiting the Rialto fruit market. One of the guys there recognizes me and treats me like a friend (always go to the same guy.) The one time I went to a different guy for fruit, he first thought I spoke Italian (I was flattered.) Then he narrowly avoided asking me if I am Indian and instead asked where I am from. Then proceeded to ask where my dad is from and so on eventually I realized what he was asking and I told him that I am black and white (this is not the first time this has happened to me.)
That brings me to what it has been like in Venice for a month as a black man from the southern part of America. It has been weird. I feel like all the political burdens I typically bear, have gone into hiding. I am sure they are still there but they are subtle at best. It is strange looking around and not seeing the normal minority from the U.S. that I am used to in small dosages. It is weird and unsettling. The black people I see around me are mostly African, wealthier, and privileged, or other. I nearly feel as if I have no politics in Venice. I am just here for a month studying art and being mistaken as a French person.
Living in a hostel for a month in Venice, is not common. Last night when we were ordering dinner, one of the bartenders questioned how longed we are here for. While other groups come and go in a matter of a few days and we have met Australians, Germans, Americans, Irish and British people; Venice is still a tourist trap. Being here for a month is exhausting and expensive and repetitive. San Marco overwhelmingly full of tourists until at least 19:00 and is significantly harder to navigate because of this. In my experience, I learned that I would rather follow a stream of tourists than the Venetians. The Venetians will almost always lead you down a path that goes to nothing but homes and you will be forced to go back the way you came.
Venice is overwhelmingly beautiful. To the point where it becomes numbing. Every alley I have gone down has been lovely and there have only been four scents that I have found distasteful. I would recommend Venice as a five-day visit, maybe a week at most. I feel like I have lived in Venice which is a dream. I even have a bone to pick with the pigeons and seagulls in Venice. I have lost count of the number of pigeons I have dodged in San Marco alone. Also in San Marco, a seagull hit me in the back of the head with its wing.
My goal on this trip is to determine if I would be able to live in any of the places I go to. As for living in Venice, I could not.
I liked it. Thanks.
I am surprised there were not lots of veggies in Italy. I know the veggies are just coming in on the farms, July and August, June being the end of the winter and not much being harvested then. There were probably potatoes and root veggies until recently. Maybe late July and August will have lots of fruit and veggies in Germany for you. The tomatoes are just now getting juicy here in the Midwest., U.S.
My friend from high school went to Florence for a term, like you are doing, but her college hired a cook. Their meals were typically Italian, so let me see. I think they had the anti (before) past first, then pasta, then a meat course. So the Italians have two main courses, pasta then meat. I don’t recall when the salad comes in, but perhaps that and the anti-pasta are the same thing. Then dessert. Followed by coffee. The college students were cooked for every day. IN contrast you all get cash and are free to eat the way you want to during the hours stores are open.
Yea, I agree that the faces and the mixture differs as you travel. I wonder what German faces and German tourists will look like compared to Italy. More Asians in California, more dark hair on the east coast, more blond hair in the upper mid-west. Some places have blacks, some do not, some more than others. I miss black faces when I am in places that do not have, such as Cape Cod or a university in Alabama.
Anyway, enjoy your break.
Polly LYNN