Got my chocolate, got my brownies! My work here is done!

Magnet #806 - L'Eglise San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice

We passed the San Giorgio Maggiore, designed by Palladio, a few times during our half-evening trip to Venice late last year.

I picked this Monet painting of a church, because I wanted to share my sidetrip to the Limelight Marketplace, which just opened up this weekend here in town.

When I was little, my sisters and I used to play "Nightclub" in our living room - and we always used to name our club, the Limelight. Who knows how three little girls ever knew what the Limelight actually was, but it was still a good pretend nightclub name.

So, one of my first nightclub visits here in town, was to the Limelight. I remember a couple of things about that night - first, that they had a bubble pool. Second, that my friend saw John Norris of MTV fame there. And third, that in the darkened hallways there was open drug use. Hahaha. Scandalized was I!

It was hard to believe that such a den of iniquity was actually a former Episcopalian church that could count John Jacob Astor and Cornelius Vanderbilt among its parishioners. But then the nightclub was finally shut down, and for years, it sat quietly in the heart of Chelsea.

Until they decided to throw $15 million at it to renovate the church-cum-nightclub into a 35-space marketplace - the Limelight Marketplace. I went yesterday, and of course bought way too much by way of MarieBelle chocolate and Mari's brownies. But, it seems fitting that the building went from one sort of sinning to another.

Of course, when I got home, I realized that the latest UK Doctor Who episode was set in Venice, so this was the perfect magnet for today after all, especially given that the very first scene of the Doctor and Amy and Rory in Venice is actually this church across the canal. Oh, that Monet, who knew he could be so useful.

And, yes, I totally just stole Amy Pond's best line from tonight's episode and made it my blogpost title.

eta:
Oh! And the fun part about New York? I'm assuming because it was opening weekend, Maribel from MarieBelle was in her own boutique. And Mari from Mari's brownies was in hers! In fact, Mari taught me how to tie a bow, like the Bergdorf's and Tiffany's folks do it. I've been practicing and I'm almost, almost there.

But come on. You can't get more New York than that!

Sigh of something, alright

Magnet #645 - Venice - Bridge of Sighs

Yesterday, while Save the World Couple went off to their Malta honeymoon, the 8 of us remaining went off to Padua, with a quick trip over to Venice.

I've been to Venice once - on my AMA band trip. Where a starry-eyed boy and I spent a few hours wandering the sidewalks and bridges of town and having pizza, so my memories of Venice, are really more of the boy than the town.

Yesterday, I got to make new ones, which were terrific. Though we lost daylight on our vaporetto (water taxi) ride over to Piazza San Marco, we were able to see the beautiful architecture and churches along the way. I was pretty happy - and of course want to watch Italian Job, David Tennant's Casanova and the third Indiana Jones movie.

At least till I saw this treatment of the Bridge of Sighs. I wanted to cry. I'm an adgirl, so I know the wonders of selling valuable adspace for too much money - but seriously, it's almost a desecration. Oh, I totally get they were probably renovating the palace and the prison on either side, but give me a break, the bridge was built in 1602. How is it that 400 years later, it's turned into that? How freakin' sad is that image?

Ah, Venice. I'm heaving a sad, sad, sad sigh for you.

Italy, Italy, wherefore art thou, Italy

Magnet #193 - J.M.W. Turner's Venice: The Dogana and San Giorgio Maggiore

Country #4 - Italy

It's funny how many paintings of Venice I have in my little art gallery, so I picked this Turner, since I've not used him before.

By this time in the musical ambassadors trip, we'd gotten a lot more comfortable with each other, having made friends and figuring out the routine of music rehearsals and performances, and then packing up our stuff quickly, boarding the bus and being shepherded and toured around towns that had all begun to blend together. Most of us silly high-schoolers slept through a lot of the guided bus tours, and suffered through the guided museum tours.

To be honest, I can't imagine how anyone trusted us enough to go roaming the cities alone without chaperones - if our parents knew how much alone time we had, they'd have come along as chaps, too. Actually, though, that's what I remember most about my trip - running around each foreign country in a pack of 4 or 5...high-schoolers just mucking about major cities that didn't necessarily speak English. Which means that though we mixed with the locals, we didn't necessarily see all the touristy stuff to see.

Venice was no different. We ducked the pigeons (YUCK) of most beautiful and famous Basilica di San Marco, saw Doges Palace and the Bridge of Sighs (even if I can't remember it), did our own little romantic walk through the canal bridges and back alleys of town, ate authentic pizza, did an organized boat tour (slept again), and therefore couldn't convince my friend to ride a gondola (hmph), and saw glass being made at the Murano glass factory (Chihuly has nothing on them).

We were also set loose upon the streets of Verona...where we opted for a walk through town and authentic gelato, rather than visiting the infamous Romeo and Juliet balcony, or other famous churches and sites. Argh!

We were in actually in Verona to see the non-Disney/Elton John version of Aida in the other world-renown outdoor arena. But we were on a 3-hour rain delay, during which we opted to find a place to serve the boys a contraband glass of wine, run around town in our best clothes, pretending to be a gangster and his mob moll.

Nope, I kid not. It's amazing how a hefty Asian guy with a Swiss name can look like a big Italian bruiser while wearing a big-boy suit and sunglasses.