Yes sir, ladies and gentlemen, the secret location was VENICE!
And it could not have been more perfect.
I have kept the location secret since October, and until the night before we left Hansoo had no idea. Through a toothbrushing mishap he found out it was Italy, but that was all he knew.
DAY 1
The next morning, we took the Gatwick express to the airport. When we arrived, I had printed our boarding passes already, so I pulled him aside just before we had to ender security. I handed him an envelope labled "top secret", and through a couple clues he figured it out... we were going to Venice!
On the plane we hadn't been able to get seats together so I sat the row in front of him, both of us in the window seats. This was an awesome decision (the window seats, I mean)... about 15 minute before landing, I was looking out the window and noticed that in the distance, the cloud covering below us seemed to have separated to form denser clumps of clouds. It wasn't until we got closer that I realized it wasn't clouds at all... it was the Italian Alps!
We arrived at the airport and followed the signs outside to the Alilaguna waterbus service. It was already an amazing day... sunny and in the high 50s. So much nicer than the UK. The boat ride took a little over an hour, and then we were there... the San Marco waterbus stop. It was just outside the piazza San Marco but I was so overwhelmed by the little shops selling masks and the colors and the water and just being there that, for the moment, I had no concept of my location on a map.
I pulled myself together and began to take us through along the canal to the street where we would need to turn. It was when I found that street that Venice really hit me and I began to get incredibly, ridiculously excited.
The streets of Venice are very narrow, and every turn feels like a secret passage. Our trip took place on the weekend preceding Carnivale, so many of the streets were lit up from above with blue twinkly lights. The city smells like water and delicious food, and there is this mysterious tension of feeling like you might turn a corner and find a piazza alive with some kind of weird masked party. (This is actually not an exaggeration, there were a lot of people walking around in period costume and masks).
Down a few more streets and across a bridge, we found our hotel nestled in the corner of a turning street. It was so beautiful. Our room was a little one up on the third floor, decorated in traditional Venetian style (beams in the ceiling, luxurious looking cloth on the walls, matching bedspread on a bed with a decorative headboard). The really cool part, though, was the view. Out of our bathroom window we could see the campanile of San Marco coming up over the rooftops, and in the room the window looked out on rooftops stretching in front of us as if you could walk across them all to the sea.
We did some exploring and had dinner outside since it was ridiculously warm for February. Then we shared a gelato and stopped into a wine bar on our way back to our hotel, where the full moon shined in through our window.
DAY 2
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Hansoo and the grand canal!
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Being the worlds biggest nerd, the one thing that I really wanted to see in Venice was Il Redentore, a building by Palladio featuring his characteristic stacked pediments on the facade. We woke up and set off for Giudecca, enjoying the sun and all the people who were out.
The coolest part of seeing Venice in the daytime has to be the water; it is stunningly blue! We definitely did the shameless tourist thing the whole weekend with our cameras, but it was worth it. We stopped into the Museo Della Musica and Hansoo told me about the instruments displayed there. (The museum is full of baroque string instruments, and Hansoo studied violin for a long time)
When we turned the corner and Il Redentore came into view, I got so excited that I spun in a circle and turned the other way. I spent way too much time writing and learning about that thing, so seeing it was like seeing a movie star.
On our way back we also walked by Santa Maria Della Salute, a building by Baldessare Longhena.
We took a lunch break and I got the most delicious Bruschetta ever. In Italy, they pronounce it BrusKetta instead of the soft ch sound that we use. Hansoo got some pizza and we sat in our windowsill looking out over the rooftops, enjoying the warmth and the breeze and our delicious Italian food.
We spent the rest of the day exploring, walking around the canal and the Piazza San Marco, and I took us to the Caffe Florian, a famous old cafe where Casanova used to hang out, which was established in 1720. We sat by the window looking out on the piazza, enjoying a glass of prosecco and some yummy puff pastry savory things that I don't know the name on.
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Our restaurant
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| Pesto and pinot grigio! |
Later on, we decided on a restaurant for dinner. Let me tell you, we got so lucky. We walked up right as someone had just left, so we got a table right by the water of the canal... and the restaurant was right next to the Rialto bridge! I had the most amazing plate of pasta pesto I think I will ever have. It was just fantastic.
On the way back to the hotel, we enjoyed the moon and Hansoo got us each one of these cool light-up things that some men on the piazza were trying desperately to sell. They were actually awesome... you launch them into the air and they fly really high, and then you catch them when they come back down. We played with them for a while. I was really bad at it. As we left the piazza, some Italian guy high-fived Hansoo, and I'm pleased to say that I understood enough Italian to know that he told Hansoo that I was pretty and that he was a lucky boy. (Oh hey, hear that Hansoo? :) )
We walked for the last time through the lit up streets, and stopped to look up and enjoy the moon shining down through the twinkle lights. I tried so hard to take a picture, but I couldn't capture it. Oh well. I guess I'll just have to remember it.
ELIZA OUT!
There are two artifacts in the museum of London’s Ancient London exhibit that I would like to examine, one of which I find to be ineffectively presented, and the other of which I find to be exceptionally well presented. The first item is an example of a simple wattled and daubed wall. The artifact stands against the far wall of the exhibit and is set behind a minimal barred structure to keep viewers from disturbing the other items featured alongside the wall, a feature which includes a series of typical cookware items and baskets from the period, as well as several photographs depicting example buildings that a wall like the one shown would have been a part of. The photographs also show the interior of one such building, depicting paintings that would have covered the smooth daubing of the walls. To the left of the artifact, there are several small panels listing the photographers and the locations in which the photographs were taken. 
This is a problem that could have been solved very easily. By providing a label with a comprehensive heading such as “Deconstructed example of a typical [insert culture here] home” and then explaining the context of the wall in more detail below, the exhibit would allow the viewer an at-a-glance context for the object, as well as the option to more comprehensively learn about this context by reading on below. I was surprised that the museum had made this choice, especially because this wall was not the only item which did not have information provided alongside it. The display itself is beautiful, and it is well situated to feature the objects. However, it is the story of an object that allows us to understand it—without that, why should we care? 
This display works well because it is accessible on several levels. The first is visual: the large photograph of a recognizably modern London, the map, and the stone tools all allow the viewer to get a quick sense of what the display is going to describe. Next, the poem and its title provide a sense of time and give the viewer an idea of what he or she is being asked to do. Finally, the detailed label below gives more detailed information about the display, the items, and the era that they represent. 
Day 11:
On the plane we hadn't been able to get seats together so I sat the row in front of him, both of us in the window seats. This was an awesome decision (the window seats, I mean)... about 15 minute before landing, I was looking out the window and noticed that in the distance, the cloud covering below us seemed to have separated to form denser clumps of clouds. It wasn't until we got closer that I realized it wasn't clouds at all... it was the Italian Alps!
Down a few more streets and across a bridge, we found our hotel nestled in the corner of a turning street. It was so beautiful. Our room was a little one up on the third floor, decorated in traditional Venetian style (beams in the ceiling, luxurious looking cloth on the walls, matching bedspread on a bed with a decorative headboard). The really cool part, though, was the view. Out of our bathroom window we could see the campanile of San Marco coming up over the rooftops, and in the room the window looked out on rooftops stretching in front of us as if you could walk across them all to the sea.
When we turned the corner and Il Redentore came into view, I got so excited that I spun in a circle and turned the other way. I spent way too much time writing and learning about that thing, so seeing it was like seeing a movie star.
