Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Goodbye Paris, welcome Vienna.

School is over, the house is clean, ready for our “swapping” guests and we are on a plane directed to Vienna, where Giuseppe is waiting for us. We have 2.6 lbs of foie gras in our luggage...let's just hope that the security will let us pass!

  
I’ve never been in Vienna. I’ve never been in so many places in Europe, despite living in Italy for so long. And now that I’m in Paris, I want to make the best out of our year here in Europe and travel all around, before going back in California. We’ll go to Barcelona, London, Amsterdam, Oslo…at least, this is the plan. We’ll see.  

We are staying in a very nice hotel, the The Sissi…it’s very clean, the room is big and comfortable, the furniture is contemporary and everything looks pretty new. The only downside in the concierge: the guys don’t have a clue about anything. So you’re mostly on your own. But it’s ok. Vienna’s historical center is so small that you can cross it from one end to the other in 20 minutes, walking. If you don’t want to walk, the metro line takes you everywhere and it’s safe.

We had our first breakfast at Café’ Zanoni, where everyone, from the owner to the waiter speak Italian. We had strudel and of course Sacher Torte: delicious! 





Here we are in front of St. Stephen's Cathedral. It's freezing cold. 




We spent our first day visiting the massive Schönbrunn Palace: just the Christmas Market was worth the trip. Unfortunately the maze was closed but Josh had enough fun chasing squirrels all over the park. 













On the way back, Giuseppe couldn't resist so we stopped by the Bosendorfer show-room, where he was even able to convince the guy to let him play The Imperial 290. 




There's no way this monster will ever fit in our living room!



In the evening we bet on Josh being able to "survive" a concert of the Vienna Royal Orchestra in the Imperial Hall. 



Surprise, not only he made it through the entire program, but he actually enjoyed the program: Mozart, Beethoven, Strauss, Hayden. Naturally, he had a blast with the Radetzky March. 




Bravo Josh! Are you going to be a music star as your famous homonym? 




On the second day we visited the Belvedere, where we saw the Klimt Exposition. Let's just say that this Eugene of Savoy, like his others aristocratic relatives from Turin, knew how to build a summer cottage! The building is absolutely exquisite.





Around the city, you don't see only historical buildings...also unknown artists display theirs strange installations in public parks and plaza. Check this out! 



Later in the day we spent a couple of hours at the Albertina Palace, to see the Magritte's Exhibition. We all loved it but Josh had a blast: all this surrealistic paintings...his favorite was "Ceci n'est pas une pipe". 



My favorite is The Empire of Light. 


We then had dinner at the Bitzinger - Wiener Kulinarium where we tasted some specialities: the Wiener Schnitzel ...



...Gulaschsuppe ...


and Roast Pork Shank with krauts...

  
What a dinner!


Here Giuseppe, recovering from our 3 hours of modern art experience, shows the side-effects of too much beer! 




On our last day we visited Mozart's House: interesting, educational but somehow not surprising. 






Finally, we went to the Haus der Musik: it's the most amazing museum so far! 


 Josh had the  chance to virtually conduct the Wiener Philarmoniker and...well, let's just say that it didn't go too well. The virtual orchestra works with the same principle of the Wii game but if the conductor makes too many tempo mistakes, the First Violin stop playing, drops his instrument and starts protesting with several unpleasant comments (something like "in 36 years of activity, we have seen a lot, but this is too much, we can't take it any more!"). Needless to say, Josh was very disappointed.
Here is the movie: unfortunately the comments are in German with English subtitles that you can't read but I think, by the tone of the voice, you get the idea.




Here is the link: Virtual Conductor


Last comment about our trip: the check-in of your luggage directly at the train Station before getting the shuttle to the airport. How comfortable is it? 
Goodbye Vienna, welcome Torino.




Sunday, December 11, 2011

Les Cailloux

Who's to say that you don't eat good regional food outside your Country? I do. Normally  I don't eat Italian outside of Italy. I like the traditional plates to be kept "original", not mixed or adjusted to the new location. In this case, I was wrong.
We went for dinner in an Italian Bistro very close to us, Les Cailloux, literally 20 steps. 



It's difficult to find a table since it's always booked. Now I understand why. The atmosphere is very nice and relaxing. Service is quick. 
The food is simply superlative. We began with padellata di calamaria al nero di seppia (calamari with squid ink), burrata con verdure grigliate (burrata with grilled veggies), carpaccio di manzo con parmigiano e rucola. 


Then risotto con tartufo nero (black truffles rice) 


and ravioli ricotta e spinaci al burro e salvia. Finally biscotti di castagne fatti in casa. 
Delicious.

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Le Corbeau et le Renard

Another week, another poem for Josh to learn by heart. 
This one is from Aesop, reedited by Phaedrus and finally by La Fontain in French. 


Maître Corbeau, sur un arbre perché,
Tenait en son bec un fromage.
Maître Renard, par l'odeur alléché,
Lui tint à peu près ce langage :
"Hé ! bonjour, Monsieur du Corbeau.
Que vous êtes joli ! que vous me semblez beau !
Sans mentir, si votre ramage
Se rapporte à votre plumage,
Vous êtes le Phénix des hôtes de ces bois."
A ces mots le Corbeau ne se sent pas de joie ;
Et pour montrer sa belle voix,
Il ouvre un large bec, laisse tomber sa proie.
Le Renard s'en saisit, et dit : "Mon bon Monsieur,
Apprenez que tout flatteur
Vit aux dépens de celui qui l'écoute :
Cette leçon vaut bien un fromage, sans doute. "
Le Corbeau, honteux et confus,
Jura, mais un peu tard, qu'on ne l'y prendrait plus. 


Here's the animation version of the fable in French and  in English.


Saturday afternoon at the Beaubourg

Four hours. That's as much as we can expect our 10 years old boy to stay in a museum without freaking out. He began with "I'm thirsty.." as soon as we got in, then he switched to "I need to go the the restroom.." halfway through the visit and ended with a "May I have a cappuccino?" at 8:10 pm, on the terrace. 
Other that this annoying episodes, I have to admit that Josh behaved really well. He seemed more interested in Modern Art than in ancient romantic/classic art....I agree with him only partially. Of course we liked Leger, Warhol, Picasso, Kandinsky, Braque, Miro and Pollock. 



We also found some installations of Mario Merz, an artist very well known in Torino for his Fibonacci Series on the Mole Antonelliana and for the wierdest roundabout ever, the Igloo Fountain. 


And much more...


Yes, that's Josh inside this installation. 




All this is fantastic. But there's a limit to my understanding skills. Occasionally I thought: "Is this really art?". 
You tell me.  We stopped in front of this artwork, we observed it for some minutes. 


Nothing. The only consideration we both had was: "Why is our shower courtain exposed in this Museum?".  
 
And then we went to the Munch Exhibition. What to say about it? Well, he was depressed, that's pretty evident in each of his portraits and self-portraits. We understood why "The Scream" is probably his most famous painting. Because he only made four versions of it, whereas for all other artworks he made something like 6 to 8 version of each in different times...and each of them was exposed in the museum in different rooms! He was totally obsessed with his themes: a vampire, a sick child, puberty, two human beings, girls on the bridge over and over and over and over. 
By then, it was 9 pm. Time to go home and watch some episodes of "The Simpsons". We don't want to be overloaded with culture and knowledge. We need some good old junk-TV!

La véritable légende de Père Noël



La véritable légende de Père Noël est une pièce théâtrale racontée par des petites lutines : un jour Ark, un immortel, trouve un bébé dans le foret et il le donne a Necile, la Fée des Bois. Elle l’élève comme son fils et l’appelle Claus. Le jour de son deuxième anniversaire, après un voyage sur la Terre avec Ark, Claus décide de vivre parmi les mortels et de faire du bien : avec son manteau vert et son renne Chausta, il donne des jouets à tous les enfants.

Alors il devient l’immortel Santa-Claus.








J’ai aimé beaucoup la scénographie avec la neige fausse, les jongleurs avec les lumières rouges, les acrobates et les bulles.

J’espère de voir un autre spectacle du cette compagnie théâtrale.

Giovanni Sebastiano


(prepared for the class blog)