One river, two cruises, paradise and hell

Once and a while, I come upon a place clearly favored by nature in all regards. GuiLin is such a place. As a sheet of thick limestone that was the ocean floor, it later rose above the sea level to be sculpted into 30,000 peaks by millenniums of erosion. The result is a fairyland, a prototype of Chinese landscape ink painting. Being in GuiLin, one feels the presence of nature more acutely, simply because the landscape communicates a certain impression of being designed and manufactured, instead of occurred randomly. Perhaps, nature does have spirit and crafts the place with a poetic tenderness. With that, it is easier to explain why the landscape literally moved me.
It just so happened that in two days, I took two river cruises. one is the worst in my life and the other the best.
The worse one happened on the first night. A project was started in 1998 right after Curtis visited GuiLin (he went without me because he hasn’t met me yet). Some millions were spent to link the Li River and Peach Blossom River together with four small lakes in the city. Years of silting have made the passage non-navigatible. The idea to generate a city waterway cruise was not a bad one actually, yet the way they “crafted” it was nothing but compelling. Thousands of lights were installed to illuminate the landscape and various structures along the way, but the lights were just a bit out of ordinarily too colorful to be called good taste. I encountered a miniature Golden Gate Bridge right next to a small version of Zhaozhou bridge, the first arch bridge in China. Then a Venetian bridge accessorized with plaster nude Italian sculpture came out of the place, quickly followed by a miniature Brooklyn bridge, which was juxtaposed to one that was clearly modeled after London bridge. It seems that the person who designed this place had a tremendous fantasy on bridges and most likely considered it is so cool to have all of them built. Having those weird-looking things across the river in a landscape that is nothing but Chinese was beyond ridiculous, it was criminal. The person should be taken out to be shot. Just when I thought it couldn’t possibly get worse, it did. To add more “beauty” to it, they implanted clusters of music performances along the way. Groups of Chinese women dressed in traditional clothing would start playing Chinese traditional music when our boat approached. But then I also had a Jazz trio performance under one of the European-looking bridge, a Chinese opera performance with a large crowd, and finally the disaster ended with a Bellagio’s like fountain dancing with techno house music, with some Chinese pavilions in the back. That was a dumbfounding moment.
Then it hit me. Under the skin of the project, they were trying to create a theme park, yet when I came to think about it, there wasn’t any clear theme either. All it was there was some atrocious bad taste. One that felt more grotesque in a city like this where nature has been so generous. Humans seem to be ready to ruin it. When I got back to the hotel, I took a long shower as if it could wash away everything I had seen.
With lots of worries, I embarked on the second cruise the next day. It was to get to YangShuo, a smaller town downstream from GuiLin. I prayed that they didn’t do anything outrageous to disrupt the natural scenery. For I would not be able to survive it being on the boat for 4 and half hours.
As it turned out, it was the best river cruise I have ever taken.
The scenery was surreal and beyond words. Li River literally wanders through thousands of Lime stone peaks rising up in the countryside. The banks were often covered thick bamboo forest, called Phoenix tail bamboos here. Occasionally, a flying eve of a village would peek out of the forest, or a herd of buffalos were gazing on the bank, signaling an otherworldly utopia hidden within. .

All gay

We passed through ShengZhen to go to Guangzhou yesterday. ShengZhen is one chaotic place, I must say. The outlying industrial zones were full of migrant workers, temporary bazaars selling everything, the dream to make it big by millions and also reality that is always less beautiful than dream. The city is a vast spread and it took a good 2 hours by bus to get to Guangzhou from where we were. We stopped to have breakfast at Real Kungfu, a Chinese fast-food chain that now fights for a piece of the big pie with KFC and McDonald’s across the country. Kevin happens to work for it. The food is completely Chinese and processed with high-temperature steaming. The price is in competition with the other chains and the taste is nothing extraordinary but definitely acceptable.
Later that day, I got news from Taki that for this reason or that, she and her husband won’t be able to go on the trip with us. So I am going to GuiLin on my own and meet Kevin later in Chengdu afterward to visit JiuZhaiGou, then l will take the three gorge cruise on my own again to Wuhan to visit my mom. It sounds actually like a good idea for I will get time alone on my own. The truth is that sometimes I feel I need a little bit space and privacy.
Being back only for a few days, China once again impressed me as a complicated place. Everything seems to have another layer that is waiting to be peeled and revealed. People definitely tend to put their noses into each other’s business yet there is a lack of sharing in a deeper level. The pursue for wealth, probably like US or anywhere else, predominates people’s mind, but people here seem to mind less to lay the money issues openly on the table. There is also a strong sense of general insecurity because of the lack of social security plan and less than desirable medical insurance policy. This insecurity appears penetrating through different economic sectors of the society, poor and wealth alike.

Because of the cheaper labor, one can always manage to get great service with less spending. We went to a chic hair salon to cut hair in the afternoon. The service was disgustingly good. A girl washed and messaged my hair for an eternity that I felt that I probably would never need to wash my hair ever again. The stylist then spent over an hour to meticulously cut and stylize my hair. The price about 10USD. After we got out, Kevin made a sudden announcement "They are all gay". I was not sure whether that means they are good at cutting hair or just something totally irrelevant that came up to his mind at that moment.

MBA or DAA

Yesterday before leaving Hong Kong, I met this "cousin sister" of Kevin. She is the daughter of Kevin's father's cousin, originally from Hunan provience and currently lives in Hong Kong. She insisted on taking us out for lunch. According to Kevin, she married an older man from Hong Kong in a sort of mysterious circumstance. The details of the marriage or the man are sort of blurry, belonging to that "nobody knows" category. We met her at her apartment complex Harbor View Plaza next to Hong Kan Stadium, a deireable neighborhood. I was not quite clear of the purpose of the meeting because Kevin had gone to see her the night before, but I decided to string along.
Sometimes, some Chinese people open their mouth and you are shocked to hear everything. Things American would consider completely private, such as how much is your apartments, how many apartment does one own, what much rent does one gets, how much money did one make from the last transaction, one's opinion on buying gold, ect. None of these seem to be the materials for conversation with someone you just met. But those were exactly what we talked about over the Dim Sum. Yet often under the veneer of all these "intimate and private" conversation, one also feesl that you actually know nothing about the person. Everything is sort of abstract and encoded and a lot of deciphering seems necessary. The cousin definitely appeared to be a smart woman who picks up things quickly and makes her own (she learned Cantonese by watching TV). Without a college diploma, she works in some place as a broker to invest in gold and other stocks. The minimum to invest with her is 50,000 HKD. Yet I never learned where she works exactly. She called herself a MBA: married but available, yet she also said she was divorced. "So shouldn't you be DAV? Divorced and available?", I asked her. "Doesn't matter", she replied, "MBA is what we call here". As some woman from mainland arriving in Hong Kong merely three years ago through a marriage, she is considered quite made. Her apartment cost a little less than 2000 USD to rent per month and she has two other rental properties, one is HK, on in Sheng Zheng. And of course, she trades gold. She talks about her vacation in England and Australia, buying high-end fashion in some outlet in London, "You know that all check check brand?" "Buberry?" "Yes, that is, Buberry."

Later, the curious cousin ended up taking the train with us to ShengZheng to visit her parents while we were heading to Taki's place. Later, Kevin said that her mother was a very smart woman too, one of the first who resigned from her job in 80s and started a tailoring business. So there you go, like mother, like daughter.
Still later, we were sitting around and talking in Taki's place. She commented: "those girls, especially those from HuNan, they seem always know who to marry." She turned around and then asked Kevin a profound question, "so are you going to invest gold with her?"

Ten Chickens in a Row

After three in-flight meals and five in-flight movies, I am finally in Hong Kong. Consider traveling for 20 hours and sitting by an extremely talkative Chinese man who continually ate roasted sunflower seeds, it was not a bad trip. (He did offer me some, and I resisted the temptation. It just seemed to be a strange place to munch on sunflower seeds). Kevin met me at the airport. He is one of those lucky few who never gains weight no matter what a lifestyle he leads. It was really nice to see him after 2 years. We were good friends back in middle school and after all the supposed “growing-apart”, we still manage keep our friendship across the pacific ocean to this day. After all, with whom can I share such an old story of skipping night class, climbing out of the gate of to watch two movies in a row?

Last time Curtis and I were in Hong Kong two years ago, we were on our way back from Australia. The city does seem to be unable to change anymore physically, especially the downtown. Every inch of real estate has been exploited while a significant vertical expansion has already been achieved. Neon signs have already saturated and people barely have anywhere else to go. What did change was probably a mentality after it became part of China. The mysterious physically and psychological boundary of mainland and Hong Kong is long gone. Now one can get around by speaking mandarin without being looked down upon. As a matter of fact, mandarin is so hot now that many people try to learn it because they can have more employment opportunities, especially in the service industry. People from mainland are now all over Hong Kong for all sorts of purposes. So the city became more national in a sense.

Over dinner in a street restaurant, Kevin and I talked about random stuffs and we came upon the subject of sex. He disagreed my opinion that sex is still a taboo in China. Maybe gay sex but definitely not straight one. I had to pay attention to him. After all what do I know about the real deal in China nowadays, not mentioning sex? He told me that in Zhong Guan, a city between Guangzhou and Sheng Zeng which he is familiar with, prostitution has become a completely open item on the hotel menu. He said that one can order ten chickens ( they call female prostitute chicken, male, duck) from the entertainment department. They will come to the room, line up in a row, strip naked, move around to show the 3D view. The client will choose one. The chosen one will bow and say “thanks for choosing me”. The other nine will also bow and say “hope you will choose me next time”. The image of that polite commerce of sex-trade is both ridiculously grosteque and inappropriately satire. I am not against prostitution. As a matter of fact, I think since we can not remove the oldest profession from our society, we should legalize (Amsterdam is a very good example). That is not the case in China. Prostitution is illegal here, yet there are many Chinas and Zhong Guan is a different china straddled in capitalism and socialism, : in certain area, it probably gets the worse of both. Kevin told me those girls are all from poor villages inland. I can not imagine them not to be exploited or abused. The question becomes darker when I start to consider how many of them are volunteers and how many of them were trafficked and put in the job by forces.

What stuck me more was how the majority of Chinese trained themselves to live with all the ridicules like this and view them as part of the normal fiber of the society. Maybe it is a good way to survive I suppose. When one feels powerless or irrelavent to change, one has to adapt, which may includes telling a story sometime about the ten chickens in a row as a prove that sex in china is no longer a taboo.

China China

So i did a marathon blogging for the past two days to finish up our trip in Italy so that I can get ready to blog about my trip to China.
I think the trip most likely will be a disaster because I am supposed to travel with two old friends from my middle school, one has no tendency for any sort of planning (Kevin), and the other, a tendency to faint easily (Taki). Yet perhaps it will also be the most fun.
I have no idea where we are heading except that we are meeting in HongKong to plan things out. it seems that everyone agrees to go to Guilin at least. I persuaded Taki to bring her husband Henry along so that he can carry her suitcase, and in the case that she faints, her.
I look forward to and am quite determined in taking a cruise down the Yangtze River from Chongqing to Wuhan, and there I can visit my mother (Mama Mia!). Kevin told me that there was nothing to see on Yangtze and that's exactly why I am going, because we see things completely different. I am bringing my ipod that is filled with lots of Coldplay. I think it will come handy when I visit my mom since she tends to talk about lots of things that I don't care to listen.

#10 Rome the Eternal City overflown with Humanity

Again, what can we say more about Rome? The eternal city where the western civilization spread far and beyond, where Christianity became a deciding force that has shaped and is still shaping our world. History was steered by the decrees from Rome for many centuries and the subsequent events largely led us where we are today. Rome is a city for history lover. A monument is often not just a building but the beginning or the end of an event, the effect of which can still be viewed somewhere in the world.
Rome is also a metropolitan, full of everybody and full of noise. To love Rome, one have to love humanity, the good, the ambiguous and the bad.

#9 Pompeii

Buried by the eruption of Vesuvius in one morning in 79AD and wasn't discovered until more than 1500 years later, Pompeii was a roman town frozen in time. Not just the buildings but also the lives its residents were leading.
The buried town testified the whole spectrum of that bygone Roman society: from lavish villas, street-side cafes to enslaved prostitution. Even the equivalents of nowadays graffitis were preserved as a conspicuous testimony of what people grudged and fantasized about.
I think the images would convey the best of this place more than words.

#8 Vallery of Temples and the best stone street in Sicily

The main reason for our spontaneous endeavor to go to Sicily is to visit the famed Greek ruins at Agrigento. I had a photographer friend many years ago told me that the ruins in Sicily was so much nicer than those in Anthem in his opinion. I was kind of convinced after seeing his photos.
The ruins used to be ancient Greek city Akragas, famous for the luxury lifestyle of its residents. The ruins nowadays stand largely on a low ridge between the city of Agrigento and the ocean and it is the largest Greek ruins outside of Greece. We decided to stay inside the park and visited the ruins in the early morning. At night we could see the illuminated temples from our window.
The temples were dated from 5th century BC and was first destroyed by Carthaginians in 406BC then later by Christian for they viewed the temples as the worship of pagan. Nowadays, the complex has nine out of ten original temples that are still visible. The morning visit was a good idea for we managed to avoid the large crowded descended at noon and sometimes in the archaeological zone we felt we had the temples all to ourselves. The best preserved one is Temple of concord, partially because the Christians converted it to a church. The situation of these monument is truly specular with the ocean as a backdrop.

We drove further later to Palermo in order to catch the overnight ferry to Napoli, on the way we visited a curious hilltop town called Erice. There we found the most beautiful stone streets in all Italy. The town was situated on a crag like many other towns yet what set it apart is that all the houses are built with stones with natural color that gives the town a very pleasant aesthetic. The same stones were used to pave all the tiny roads intersecting the town. We spent a lot of time walking on these poetic pavements, playing with our own shadows.

#7 Midnight Surprise: Taormina Sicily

Going to Sicily was a complete spontaneous decision while we were in Tuscany. The route that we conspired was a bit daunting from a hindsight. We basically had to drive along a large portion of the north-south axis of the country to get to the Reggio Calabria, the southern tip of the mainland in order to take the ferry to Sicily. They talked about a bridge for years but still no bridge. The drive to south was however full of scenries we never expected. While we knew the south is underdeveloped and somewhat depressed, we didn't imagine how isolated certain areas could be, from both a geographical and an econimical sense. After lush farming land of Campania were left behind, we entered Basilicata and Calabria, two provinces that were impossibly mountainous and desolate. The highway zigzaged through long tunnels half of the time, the other half, it seemed to be on some sort of bridges hanging along the cliff. The landscape was on the borderline of being Alaskan and a few towns we passed appeared very depressed. How could we thought of Southern Italy as a general warm place full of sandy beaches? It was nothing but wrong imagination.
It took us a while to find the ferry boat to Sicily in Reggio and by the time we crossed the strait, it was dark. We decided to drive through Messina because it appeared to be a busy port. Our goal was to get to Taormina, which we heard was an ancient resort town originally set up by Arabs. By the time we got to Taormina, it was late at night. The lights of the towns indicated that the place, like those in Almafi coast, is completely clinging to the cliffs on the ocean. Without a local map, we had no choice but to try our luck to find a hotel fpr the night. We ended up in Villa Ducale, our random pick, and got a sweet late-night deal. On the way to our room, Curtis noticed something strange high in the sky, a reddish and flame-like glow. Then we realized with surprise that it was the sight of Mount Enna. Mt Enna is an active volcano above the town and last erupted in 1997. At night, while the mountain was invisible, the lava flow
appeared coming out of nowhere among the stars. That was a most amazingly eerie but beautiful sight.
What we ended up discovering in the morning was that Taormina was one of the most beautiful towns in Sicily. It has an impossible and splendid situation that rivals any of the coastal towns in Italy. With Mount Enna on its back, it boasted many small yet impressive monuments and piazzas. A Greek amphitheater could still be visited. We took the long and steep steps down from top of the town to its center, which is closer to the ocean, and the view changed along the elevation. The meditarean always remained in front of our eyes yet Mount Enna hid in the clouds all morning except at one fleeting moment, it revealed its face and was captured by my camera.

photos of Siena

#6 Florence and Siena: the rivals of beauty.

Much has been said about the beauty of Florence and Siena, the two towns in Tuscany that rose up to significant status in the medieval time through Renaissance. For many decades, the two towns were engaged in horrendous war fares to gain the domination of the region. Their rival has largely shaped the landscape of Tuscany by adding or erasing, along the time, the strategic garrison towns as well as numerous roads on the map. Naturally they also competed in displaying their wealth through impressive public buildings and art. But in the end, Florence won the battles and its glory simply eclipsed Siena.
Today for visitors, this history background is evident from just the size of the two towns. For us, what struck us was that how different the beauty the two towns irradiated.
Florence is located in Po valley along the river. It is low-laying, flat and surrounded by gentle hills. Siena, by contrast, is located on a high plateau, and is literally a walled city. The geography of Florence suggests a confidence while the topography of Siena betrays a paranoia. We could feel how much pressure Siena was under at the possible sieges of Florence by simply looking at its massive walls and outlying small hilltop towns that were built for one purpose only: military protection.
The beauty of Florence has been hailed by so many. The city is indeed exuberant and lavish with art, art and more art. We can't think of any other city in the world displays precious art in unprotected public space following a tradition of 400 years. Art is not just in Ufizi or Palazzo Pitti, it is literally everywhere in town. Florence also has that intimate feeling because the glorious Duomo still dominates the whole city like a giant sentinel. Nothing higher than the dome was ever allowed to be built. The Piazza life was ferocious and the focus of the town. The window of our hotel overlooked the Piazza della Signora where day and night, congregations of people lingered and wandered as if they were permanently lost in the city.
The beauty of Siena, on the other hand, has a tone of somberness and bleakness. The town was full of gems by all means. In our opinion, it possesses the most beauty Piazza in Italy El Campo. With its slope topography and shell-like layout, it's like a smooth amphitheater surrounded by cafes and shops. The town is much smaller nowadays compared to Florence, and still largely remains the original layout. One major road goes through the town from an impressive gate. It is just like an enlarged version of a small village, clearly due to the thwart of growth after the defeat by Florence.
After spending days in both places, one thing we couldn't help wondering was that what would happen if Siena ended up winning the wars. Would Michelangelo still be commissioned to sculpt the David for Florence? or perhaps Siena would commission him instead? But then what piece would he end up producing? By this logic, some of the icons of Renaissance art might never be created while some others might be hailed as the treasures of our time? If so what would they be?

#5 Villages on the sea: Portovenere in Liguria

On the Liguria coast tucked on the Northwest of Italy located the most exclusive villages in the country. There are Portofino and Portovenere, the two most romantic and expensive places to have a second home for Italians; and then there are Cinque Terre (the five fishing villages that until recently were inaccessible on land).
We went to Liguria for Cinque Terre. With the limited information (plus some good-will imagination perhaps) about the place, we hope to found solitude and a good hike. Yet things turned out to be quite different at the end.
Nowadays it seems that there are many easy ways to access Cinque Terre: one can drive to each individual one of them, or hire a taxi boat to approach from the sea, or even easier, hop on the train that whistles through all five villages. We planned to walk the 4 hours hiking trail that links the villages until we found out on arrival that the trail was closed due to a landslide the night before. We had no choice but to take the train and found us among the swamps of tourists. Alas, clearly, the isolation was no more. The villages are indeed beautiful, cliff-hugging and gravity-defying, yet we spent the whole time trying to readjust our expectation. If we could do our hike, we probably would have felt completely different about the place.

We did find solitude, luckily and quite unexpectedly, in Portovenere, the tiny village we randomly chose to stay. The village was further south on the coast and the off-season rendered the place a feeling of a lost paradise that completely belongs to the local. It was set on a small peninsular. Pastel-colored houses were built to stacked on top of each other. Our hotel Genio was incorporated in the watching towers at the gate of ancient village so we had a commanding view of the whole terrain. The narrow main street (more like a footpath by American standard) led us to the 13-century San Pietro, a stunning Gothic church perching on the tip of the peninsula with black and white marble. Beyond that, nothing but vast ocean and rugged coastline.
We ended up extending our stay in Portovenere because we simply loved to be in that place. We checked out before the weekend when the innkeeper told us that many Italian weekenders were on their way. The solitude that we had turned out to be simply a stroke of luck.

#4 Medieval skyline: Bologna and San Gimignano

We went to Bologna for one purpose only: to eat. The Emilia-Romagna region is the origin of parmesan cheese, parma ham and balsamic vinegar. The local cuisine is known for their richness so Bologna is dubbed as "La Grassa" (the fat) just for that reason.
But what we discovered there was not only the foods, but also a totally incredible town that was beautifully preserved. Driving into Bologna was a big undertake for not only the town center was close to traffic, but also it was completely "walled' by 4-5 storied buildings that along the time replaced the original city wall. The layout of the town was probably one of the most dramatic in Italy. All roads seem to radiate or converge (depends on where you are) from the main square Piazza Maggiore. Around the Piazza, there are massive monuments and famed fountains. Among them, San Petronio stood like a giant. Founded in 14th century, the brick church was intended to be larger than St Peter's in Rome. Then it was scaled down because the church authorities diverted the funds to the nearby Palazzos. This left the church in a compromised status that is still visible today. The top part of the front remains bare, lacking a facade and on the side, a row of columns are still waiting to support the additional aisles that never took place. It is said that this incident promoted Martin Luther turning against
Catholicism and subsequently founded protestant church. The interior of the church, though, is nothing but impressive. In the massive chamber, the rose and white marble reflects the lights in a magical way without any compromise whatsoever.

What we found the most interesting in Bologna was its two remaining medieval towers Torri degli Asinelli e Garisenda. We walked over to them one early morning. They sort of just rose up in a small square in the middle of the town. Their very existence is nothing but precarious. Dated back to 12th century, these two towers are among the few that remained out of the original hundreds built by noble families as defense towers but more as status symbols. 800 years passed, the towers miraculously survived the earthquakes, fires, looting and bombings. Yet the time definitely took on a big toll on them. They were twisted theatrically as if they were going to collapse at any moment. When we were there, a large restoration is underway. What we found extremely attractive about the towers was that they appeared completely contemporary to our eyes. Without any trace of ornament, they impressed soely with their minimalism shapes and timeless forms like two large abstract sculptures. We couldn't help wondering what the city looked like 8 centuries ago with hundreds of such towers standing, a miniature Manhattan maybe?
Our imagination was completely verified when we were in San Gimignano. One of the most enchanting towns we visited in Tuscany. If Bologna possessed the medieval twin towers, then San Gimignano owns a complete skyline. As a tiny hilltop town, its size cannot be compared to Bologna, yet within less than half acre, there are thirteen such towers piercing out of the roof line. We drove from Siena to see those towers through the Tuscany countryside. The rolling hills were playing hide and seek with us for the view of the town. At one curve, the town revealed itself for a couple of seconds with such a delusion that one would think of seeing NYC in a flash, then it was quickly erased by the cypresses and orchards.
Someone said if you wonder why a road in Tuscany curves just so, it's probably because the Tuscanians want it to. I wonder if that is true for San Gimignano. When they built the town ten centuries ago, what kind of impression they wanted to leave to the visitors coming from afar?

#3 Three Churches in Venice

So here it goes: despite that it is congested with tourists with maps in their hands and that disoriented expression on their face, the charm of Venice cannot be denied. The allure of its aquatic nature rising out of geological impossibility and its exotic orientalism is simply timeless and irresistible. One can truly say that Venice is one of the most unique cities in the world in many senses.
We stayed for five days in Venice and spent a great deal of time exploring different neighborhoods on foot. We tried to see Venice from close and afar. To see it close up, we chose a hotel 5 mins away from the Piazza San Marco with a view of San Giorgio Maggiore across the lagoon so that we could be in the midst of all the colors and sounds of the city. We got lost plenty of times in the labyrinth-like lanes, looking for a hidden church but found us stranded on a dead end by the canal. We later climbed the Campanile of San Giogiore Maggiore so that we could see the whole city from above across the lagoon; and a two-hour boat ride away, we visited the outlying islands surrounding Venice, including the glass-blowing Murano, the lace-weaving Burano and the austere-looking Torcello so that we could appreciate the situation of Venice from a larger marine map.
There have been so many things said about Venice, and one has to go there to really know the city and make a judgment oneself.
Our favorite things among many are the three churches in Venice that somehow provide different perspectives of the city, both its appearance and its history.
The first is Basilica di San Marco. Having seen many churches around the world, San Marco is definitely one of the most stunning. It is highly unique because it blends in many different styles and made it completely Venetian. One can clearly see the Romanesque, Byzantine, Arabic and Far East influences because of the extensive trading Venice had in the medieval time. Built throughout many centuries after the original was destroyed by fire in the 9th century, all ships returning from aboard were ordered by law to bring a gift to decorate San Marco. The splendid mosaic work and lavish carvings is the best testimony to the wealth once the city once possessed. One evening on our way back to the hotel, we walked by the church with the backdrop of a splendid sunset staining the lagoon and a full moon climbing the slope of the dome. The color instantly called to mind a painting by Monet. That sort of light and shadow, that sort of visual ambiguity. The magic of Venice was at full play at that moment.
The second church is San Giogio Maggiore, the one across the lagoon that we could see from our patio. The tower offers the best view of the city. We could truly appreciate its setting from that vantage point. The city indeed appeared floating on the water, nearly impossibly. It was a fine day so we were able to see all the way the Alps on the north with their snow-capped peaks. It was a breathtaking view.
The third church is Santa Maria dell'Assunta, located on Torcello, one of the outlying islands two hours away from Venice by boat. It is the oldest building on the lagoon and in our opinion, the most beautiful. Torcello used to be a glorious island in Byzantine time with over 20,000 residents until Venice eclipsed its fame, but nowadays, it is nearly wild with tall grasses and silted canals. The cathedral was founded in 639AD. Compared to San Marco, its beauty is not splendid but austere. The setting is completely rural, in the middle of no where really. The brick and tile exterior is weathered. The interior is airy with a heavenly feeling. The columns and walls remains bare so they provide a perfect background to show off the most stunning Mosaic works in the Apse and Doomsday, some of which dates back to 11 century.
The church has sat among on this nearly deserted island for almost 1400 years in a semi-abandoned state, witnessing the rise and fall of the power, all ebbs and flows of history. That thought itself is enough to fill anyone with awe and introspection.

Turin's Holy Shroud: an article

Well, call it a coincidence. I was reading the wall street journal this morning and there is this article about the Holy Shroud in Turin, which I blogged about yesterday. It was extremely well researched and written with tremendously insight. It is a great read.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123940218130209621.html

#2 Mole Antonelliana in Torino

Turin became more internationally known after it hosted 2006 winter Olympics, but in Italy it is a city that symbolizes modernization, prosperity and plenty of grace and charm. Our trip to Turin was completely out of a whim. After being bored of window shopping in Milan (probably one of the most visually stimulating things to do there), we decided to hop on the train and take a day trip. From Milan, the ride was only 2 hours and we feasted our eyes on the Alps rising to the north, snow-capped, solemn and majestic. From the train station, we walked through Via Roma directly to the historical town center. During the infant stage of Italy as a newly united nation from 1861-1865, Turin was actually the capital city. Then it became the cradle of industrial revolution, exemplified by the founding of FIAT by the Agnelli family in 1899. The historical town possesses a noble air with wide portico pedestrian walkway, impressive buildings, high-end stores and well-dressed citizens. Along Via Roma, we came across Piazza San Carlo first, an elegant square with an ensemble of Baroque architect. It is dubbed as "Italy's drawing room". We happened to be in town on March 8th, the international woman's day and the town was just full of life and frequent parades. On Piazza San Carlo, there was an installation of purple human cutouts in memory of the victims of domestic violence (pic1. purple is the color of the country this year and it is everywhere).
We continued down to the main Piazza where Palazzo Madama, Palazzo Reale and the 15th-century Duomo stand. The Duomo gained its fame by acclaiming a pocession of "Cappella della Sacra Sindone", the chapel of holy shroud. The shroud is a piece of cloth with an imprint of a crucified man wearing a thorn crown. It was acclaimed that the shroud was the very cloth the body of Jesus was wrapped after his sacrifice. Clearly, no one could verify it, hitorically or scientifically.
Our favorite part in Turin was a visit to Mole Antonelliana (pic 2), the Turin's equivalent of Paris' Eiffel tower. It was an ever-expanding project by Alessandro Antonelli. Starting out as a modest design for a synagogue, the architect was carried away by his ambition. The final structure was completed in 1897 and it reached a staggering height of 550 ft, briefly the tallest building in the whole world. Throughout the years, many endeavors had to be made to restore or modify the various engineering parts of the building because of its massive weight as well as several damages due to the natural causes. What was cool about the tower for us was that it was buried in a neighborhood with a setting as if it was nothing but just an ordinal building. Its massive presence was completely elusive until we turned on its very street, Then there it was, looming in front of us and its complete visualization demanded a backward bending of our upper bodies. The line of the elevator was not unbearable and the view on top was absolutely rewarding (pic 3). The town was very good-looking from up there, a stretch of continuation of red-tile roofs radiating out to the hills surrounding it.
Turin is the birthplace of Fiat yet US no longer imports Fiat, so later we decided to rent one from Venice to continue our journey to Tuscany. It turned out that our Fiat model was called Panda, how appropriate.