crump ova Italy V

11/17/06 More of Genova

For some reason the jet-lag CRUSHED! me today. A nap got the K.O. on me and I didn't get up until noon. Maggie shook me awake and we headed out for a more extended tour of Genova, as well as a tour of the various sites Maggie is using for her urban planning project.

The view from the villa. You can barely see Genova's famous port in the distance.

We picked our way down the hill, descending steep stairs and narrow alleys. It was early afternoon, so we passed lots of kids heading home from school for their two hour lunch break. We reached the port in no more than 15 minutes and walked across a large plaza adjacent to another of Genova's claims to fame, the aquarium, which happens to be the second largest in the world. A group of little kids on a field trip sat in a long line on the curb outside. They ate lunch and were marauded by pigeons.

Further along the harbor, we climbed up onto a public platform for one of the best views of Genova. Or at least the central to northern part. The light was so crappy, I wanted to wait to take the ultimate panorama. But below is a pildered photo of the harbor, which gives a much better overall view than I could attain anyway. We were hanging out right near that big, splaying white thing. It's a sculpture actually. The "platform" I described above is actually that long cargo boat left of the splaying white thing. It's permanently docked there apparently. The buildings on the hillsides constitute northern Genova; to the right of the cargo boat, but barely out of the picture is central Genova; the southern parts are out of the photo. The city basically extends a very long way along the coast, making a thin line of development bounded by the Mediterranean on one side and steep hills on the other.

A view of Genova's port

From the port, we walked back into central Genova and Maggie showed me the (real) site of her (simulated) architectural/planning project. The site is shared by her class, but each student has different problems to solve. The project is a sort of food-culture museum. Maggie's self-appointed task, if I have this right, is to design an interconnecting set of smaller, outdoor sites which make a sort of walking loop from the museum. The cool thing is that she gets to pick these sites herself. We proceeded to explore these sites, and she explained what each would feature. I thought it was a pretty neat project, but Maggie, after a whole semester on it, seemed a little burned out on it. One of these sites is in the photo below. It's a set of large grass terraces under a very, very old bridge. This bridge is part of the original city wall, most of which is now torn down.

One of Maggie's project sites under a very, very old bridge

On the walk back, I ran into a lone boot on top of a trash can. Some say Italy looks like a boot, but I don't want to be pushy. Here at this blog we report, you decide.

Some say Italy is shaped like a boot

Later in the evening, Maggie and I went to a dance-acrobat-illusionist performance called No Gravity. Their stuff was very similar to Momix's stuff (Boone-heads will know this dance company). In fact, the choreographer used to work with them. The whole show consisted of many, many short pieces with dancers attached to multiple cables which were impossible to see from the audience. With their apparatus', the dancers could essentially fly, or depending on the style of movement, swim, flap, run, bound, or, literally, rocket like Superman. There were a lot of pieces with a man and a woman literally flying in and out of each others embrace, and, ultimately, love. Snore. The best pieces were the ones that didn't try to hold much of a narrative or standard theme. The best ones focused simply on movement, and, illusion. One piece, for example, consisted of all six dancers floating in a circle from right side up to upside down; they moved in perfect symmetrical coordination, like some sort of floating kaleidoscopic organism. Through some wonderful lighting, another piece consisted only of the dancer's arms, all of which moved in the fashion of a distant flying bird (as in the bird shape one might have drawn in kindergarten). This piece consisted only in performing certain "flapping" formations, but it was way more interesting--just visually--than watching a flying man and woman make out or fall in love on a flying park bench.

A stock photo of No Gravity's human kaleidoscope

Tomorrow Maggie and I head out on the "crump ova Europe" portion of the trip: Ireland, France and Czeclesovakia (Prague). I probably won't be able to post any updates on the trip, but I will check email very occasionally. We return to Genova around the end of November.

(Oh, and I don't know why the upper paragraphs are single spaced and the lower are double. I can't seem to control that. I certainly have been wondering.)