FROM VENICE TO RIO DE JANEIRO, SHADOWS & LIGHTS

The Grandma with Ana Bean's Venetian Mask

Shadows...

Today, The Beans have left Venice. They have been in the city during few days enjoying the Carnevale and the most important, enjoying the kindness of Venetian people. Once you have visited Venice it's impossible to forget it for the rest of your life.

It has been a special visit, especially for Ana Bean, who is a great lover of the city, and for The Grandma who lost her lover in this city some decades ago and she has never found him. The search continues and she won't give up but time is running against her and because of this, she's sad and a little depressed and she has bought tones of Super Glue and Bitumen of Judea -nobody knows why, things of old people...-

More information: Corto in Venice (Italian Version)

Hopes...

By the way, The Grandma has received a great surprise from Ana Bean that she will never forget. She has recovered her lost faith and her interest in continuing her particular search of Corto Maltese.

How sad Venice can be.
It's too lonely to bare,

when you have lost the love

that you discovered there.

Charles Aznavour

Lights...

The family is happy because they have spent some unforgettable days in the capital of the Veneto and they're going to visit Rio de Janeiro, another must, if you're talking about spectacular carnivals.

They have been practising some English to try to full their time. It's a long flight again and they must fight the jet lag with their better guns: reading, cinema and expositions. They have revised Past Simple (To Be and To Have) and some Social English before Carol Bean had explained her experiences in Rio de Janeiro some years ago.

More information: Past Simple (To Be) & Past Simple (To Have) 

Carmen Miranda

It has been an incredible exposition accompanied by some typical Brazilian music and food. The Beans have received their first classes of samba thanks to Carol Bean, who is an excellent instructor, and have tasted some chocolate delicatessen thanks to Natalia Bean.

Finally, the family has chosen The Queen of The Beans and Carol Bean has won this recognition meanwhile, The Grandma has started to remember again and full of nostalgia has remember one of her favourite actresses of her childhood, Carmen Miranda, the Brazilian star, singer and dancer whose sister, Aurora Miranda, participated in Walt Disney's film The Three Caballeros. 

The Beans have been talking about their favourites films and the list is long: Pinocchio, Fantasia, The Aristocats, Lady and the Tramp, Dinosaur, The Beauty and The Beast, Mulan, Brave, Peter Pan, Aladdin, Bambi, The Lion King, Balto, The Princess and the Frog... everyone has a favourite film joined to special memories of it.

More information: The Telegraph

Look at me and tell me if I don't have Brazil 

in every curve of my body. 

Carmen Miranda

THE TRADITION OF THE MASKS: FROM MEXICO TO VENICE

Don Diego Vega, aka Zorro

The family has spend its last hours in Mexico DF. They have done a quick visit before going to the Mexico City International Airport to take a plane to the capital of Veneto. In Venice, the family has an intensive agenda: enjoy the Carnevale, visit Belén Collins, Asun Holmes and Eva Collins-Holmes and help The Grandma to find Corto Maltese, her eternal lover.

In the north of Mexico, in South California, in the Pueblo of Los Angeles during the era of Spanish California (1769–1821) a mysterious character became a hero for his population. He is typically portrayed as a dashing masked vigilante who defends the commoners and indigenous peoples of California against corrupt and tyrannical officials and other villains. His signature all-black costume includes a cape, a hat known as sombrero cordobés, and a mask that covers the upper part of his face.

More information: Carnevale di Venezia 2018

The Grandma sees Venice from the air

The tradition of wearing a mask is ancestral and modern at time. Today, after a flight of fourteen hours and an important jet lag, The Beans are going to arrive to Venice where they're going to enjoy the Carnevale during some days and where they're going to meet lots of people who are going to hide their real identities behind a mask, like Don Diego Vega, aka Zorro did in Los Angeles.

Meanwhile, some members of the family takes profit of the flight and read a New Grammar Book offered by Natalia Bean, a good book plenty of exercises and well-explained theory; other read a William Shakespeare's classic play, The Merchant of Venice, other watch an interesting film named Night Train to Venice with Hugh Grant as the main guest star and other read a Basic Manual for the Prevention of Occupational Hazards. The Grandma is reading some comics of Zorro from the webpage archive.org, where you can find millions of free documents to be downloaded.

Fourteen hours are a lot of hours and you need to do something to avoid sleeping all time and try to survive to the jet lag.

 Download Venice by The Grandma

Venice or Venessia in Venetian is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is situated across a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by bridges, of which there are 400. The islands are located in the shallow Venetian Lagoon, an enclosed bay that lies between the mouths of the Po and the Piave Rivers. Parts of Venice are renowned for the beauty of their settings, their architecture, and artwork. The lagoon and a part of the city are listed as a World Heritage Site.

Asun Homes is waiting The Beans in Venice

The name is derived from the ancient Veneti people who inhabited the region by the 10th century BCE. 

The city was historically the capital of the Republic of Venice. Venice has been known as the La Dominante, Serenissima, Queen of the Adriatic, City of Water, City of Masks, City of Bridges, The Floating City, and City of Canals.

Download Venice Guide

The Republic of Venice was a major financial and maritime power during the Middle Ages and Renaissance, and a staging area for the Crusades and the Battle of Lepanto, as well as a very important center of commerce, especially silk, grain, and spice, and art in the 13th century up to the end of the 17th century. The city-state of Venice is considered to have been the first real international financial center which gradually emerged from the 9th century to its peak in the 14th century. This made Venice a wealthy city throughout most of its history.

More information: UNESCO

It is also known for its several important artistic movements, especially the Renaissance period. After the Napoleonic Wars and the Congress of Vienna, the Republic was annexed by the Austrian Empire, until it became part of the Kingdom of Italy in 1866, following a referendum held as a result of the Third Italian War of Independence. 

Venice has played an important role in the history of symphonic and operatic music, and it is the birthplace of Antonio Vivaldi. The city is facing some major challenges, however, including financial difficulties, erosion, pollution, subsidence, an excessive number of tourists in peak periods and problems caused by oversized cruise ships sailing close to the banks of the historical city.

Download Venice-Smart Tourism Guide

But I recall all of them nights down in Mexico,
one place I may never go in my life again.
Was I just off somewhere or just too high?

I only miss you every now and then,
like the soft breeze blowin' up from the Caribbean.

But I can't remember if we said goodbye.

Emmylou Harris