Venice Realized

Reflecting back on my journey from the United States, I realize how valuable of a learning experience, both personally and intellectually, this study abroad has been for me. I grew as an individual from my experiences traveling and staying in a foreign country. Similarly, my knowledge of artwork, Venetian history, and the transition to the Renaissance greatly expanded from lecture and course material.

In the lectures and readings, I learned about definitive shifts in our way of thinking, particularly the massive paradigm shift from the Medieval period to the Renaissance. I learned about differences in temporality and space that relate to new ideas and different perspectives/methods of representation. In artwork, I discovered the acquiring of perspective, use of a vanishing point, and introduction of a third dimension. I used to never understand artwork beyond a simple appreciation for a pretty painting, but now I can look at a painting and describe the aspects that contribute to the representation of the object and overall message from the artist. Before starting this course, the only famous artist I knew was DaVinci, but now I feel confident in my ability to identify traditional Byzantine paintings and work by Giotto and Tintoretto.

For me, the most influential aspect of this course was learning to understand current transformations by looking at similar transformations in the past. Looking at my surroundings in Venice every day, I enjoyed observing and analyzing the different details that contribute to the function of the city. As I anticipated, Venice is a great big puzzle. I enjoyed picking up each piece, examining them with my hands, and feeling the edges to decipher the placement in the overall puzzle of Venice. Focult’s paper on heterotopias was most influential to my analysis of Venice.  Heterotopias function as a look into the past, or a reflection back. In his paper, Focult describes a mirror as a heterotopia, creating two separate spaces that exist simultaneously in a symbiotic relationship. Looking into the mirror, the place you occupy is real and unreal at the same time. It is real because you are physically there looking into the mirror, but it is also unreal because the image reflected back at you had to pass through another space, or virtual point. I viewed Venice in a similar fashion. Standing in St. Mark’s Basilica, I am real, my existence grounded to the hard floor. But, taking in my impressive surroundings, I find myself in an unreal state as the history of St. Mark’s Basilica is reflected through its architecture. Throughout my week in Venice, I viewed the city as a heterotopia, looking at its history to understand its present.

Reflecting back on my original imaginings of Venice, I did a reasonably good job of reaching my goals. I wanted to explore the city and eventually be able to navigate it on my own. As far as my navigational skills go, I may possess a little more confidence than ability, but I am proud to announce that I knew how to get to Academia, Rialto, and my favorite restaurant spots from San Marco. However, I was unable to navigate between any of those spots without returning to San Marco first. Before leaving for Venice, I also stated that I wanted to experience Italy with the same concentration on details as Robert Langdon in the book Inferno. I tried my best to accomplish this, the lecture on artwork was particularly helpful, but I definitely need to study my hagiography. Finally, I wanted to improve my Italian. Although I tried to communicate in Italian whenever possible, most Venetians spoke English to me and on difficult topics, it was easier to converse in English. I did order my sorbet in Italian though, and often communicated about my allergies in Italian. I am continuing to work on my Italian using Duo Lingo, so hopefully next time I visit Italy I’ll be more fluent.

Furthermore, on an individual level, I grew as a person. Traveling out of the country was the first time I felt like an American. Feeling my nationality as an identifier, I questioned whether “American” was something I wanted to be identified as. During my time in Venice, I was not sure about my answer; it was not until I returned to the United States that I realized how glad I was to be an American. Perhaps it was surface-level differences in culture that made me cherish my nationality; I did miss free water and public restrooms. Or, more likely, it is based in a deepening awareness of myself as a human and learning how being an American fits into that self-identity. This study abroad was an insightful and educational trip that taught me valuable lessons about myself. I am thankful for the opportunity to visit another country while learning so much about its history and cultural influences.