IF YOU GO TO VENICE, YOU MUST WEAR A MASK

The Beans in Venice

The Beans are in Venice enjoying the city and its people. Before going to the reception offered by the City Hall, the family has continued its English classes. Today, they have been talking about some conditional structures: Zero and First Conditional.

It's a special visit for Ana Bean, who is in love with the city and for The Grandma who has great memories of her past with Corto Maltese in this wonderful place. Venice is being a great experience for all the members of the family: Tania and Paqui Bean has fallen in love with a gondolier, a Venetian boatman.

More information: Zero Conditional & First Conditional

Moreover, The Grandma has been talking about sustanaible houses and buildings that avoid pollution and energy consumption, something very important for cities that are under danger of collapsing like Venice.

More information: Passive House International

The Carnevale di Venezia is one of the most famous carnivals around the world, and a charming characteristic of the city. Its origins are centuries old, and it still attracts thousands of tourists each year who arrive in Venice to admire the sumptuous costumes and masks parading in the streets and squares. Creating masks is, indeed, an art in Venice, a tradition dating back hundreds of years, making the carnival of Venice truly unique.

Paqui and Tania Bean with a handsome gondolier

The carnival became a public festivity in 1296, with an act of the Senate of the Republic of Venice, but its origins are even older. Already in 1094, official documents brought traces of public celebrations in the last days before Lent. 

At this time, and for the following centuries, the carnival consisted in several weeks of festivity and fun in the whole city, during which people could indulge in music, dances and parties, barely working. Wearing masks and costumes made it possible for people to hide any differences of class or status, and it was even allowed to make fun of the aristocracy. This time of regulated social outburst was a way for the Most Serene Republic of Venice to maintain order and power throughout the rest of the year.

More information: Simply Masquerade

Public shows and exhibitions were organized everywhere in the city, with musicians, dancers, acrobats and jugglers. At the same time, parties and raffish performances also took place in private houses and cafés, and theaters hosted a growing number of masked plays.

The carnival became internationally famous and prestigious in the 18th century, when it reached its widest fame. It was in this period that the writer Casanova spent his life in Venice between wild parties and love affairs. At the end of the century, with the French conquest of the Republic first and the Austrian occupation later, the tradition of wearing masks was forbidden, and the carnival survived, even though reduced, only in some island of the lagoon. It was only in 1979 that the ancient tradition was restored, in the form still seen today.

More information: Venezia Autentica

Who are The Beans hidden behind the masks?

The magic of carnival gives to Venice an enchanted atmosphere. Masked people fill the streets with smiles and laughter, and several events are organized all around the city. The carnival usually lasts a couple of weeks, but the most important days are those between the last Thursday and the very last day, Tuesday. These are called giovedì grasso and martedì grasso, literally ‘fat Thursday’ and ‘fat Tuesday,’ in opposition to the following Ash Wednesday that marks the beginning of Lent, a period traditionally dedicated to fast. However, the weekends are usually the privileged time for tourists and visitors.

On the last Sunday and last Tuesday of carnival, a big wooden stage hosts the award ceremony of the best masked costume, which is elected after several parades that take place during the central days of the festival. This stage is also the theater of different plays, where traditional masked characters like Arlecchino interpret comic adventures. It is also possible to participate to sumptuous masked parties in 18th century style, organized in ancient Venetian buildings, but the dimension of the squares and streets is the most popular one.

More information: The Telegraph

To build a city where it is impossible to build a city 

is madness in itself, but to build there one of the most elegant 

and grandest of cities is the madness of genius. 

Alexander Herzen

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

THE BEANS DISCOVER THE PAST IN TEOTIHUACAN

The Beans in Teotihuacan

Today, The Beans are in Teotihuacan. They are visiting the ancient Mesoamerican ruins and discovering the incredible past of this amazing culture. 

The family has wanted to have better views of the ancient city and they have taken some balloons to enjoy them from the sky. They are totally astonished with the wonderful landscape.

Teotihuacan also written Teotihuacán is an ancient Mesoamerican city located in a sub-valley of the Valley of Mexico, located in the State of Mexico 40 kilometres northeast of modern-day Mexico City, known today as the site of many of the most architecturally significant Mesoamerican pyramids built in the pre-Columbian Americas.

More information: Live Science

At its zenith, perhaps in the first half of the 1st millennium AD, Teotihuacan was the largest city in the pre-Columbian Americas, with a population estimated at 125,000 or more, making it at least the sixth largest city in the world during its epoch.

Ana, Antonio, Carol and Paqui Bean by balloon

Apart from the pyramids, Teotihuacan is also anthropologically significant for its complex, multi-family residential compounds, the Avenue of the Dead and the small portion of its vibrant murals that have been exceptionally well-preserved. 

Additionally, Teotihuacan exported fine obsidian tools that garnered high prestige and widespread usage throughout Mesoamerica.

The city is thought to have been established around 100 BC, with major monuments continuously under construction until about 250 AD. The city may have lasted until sometime between the 7th and 8th centuries AD, but its major monuments were sacked and systematically burned around 550 AD.

More information: Lonely Planet

Teotihuacan began as a new religious centre in the Mexican Highlands around the first century AD. This city came to be the largest and most populated centre in the pre-Columbian Americas. Teotihuacan was even home to multi-floor apartment compounds built to accommodate this large population. The term Teotihuacan is also used for the whole civilization and cultural complex associated with the site.

Natalia Bean in Teotihuacan

Although it is a subject of debate whether Teotihuacan was the centre of a state empire, its influence throughout Mesoamerica is well documented; evidence of Teotihuacano presence can be seen at numerous sites in Veracruz and the Maya region. 

The later Aztecs saw these magnificent ruins and claimed a common ancestry with the Teotihuacanos, modifying and adopting aspects of their culture. The ethnicity of the inhabitants of Teotihuacan is also a subject of debate. Possible candidates are the Nahua, Otomi or Totonac ethnic groups. Scholars have also suggested that Teotihuacan was a multi-ethnic state.

The city and the archaeological site are located in what is now the San Juan Teotihuacán municipality in the State of México, approximately 40 kilometres northeast of Mexico City. 

The site covers a total surface area of 83 square kilometres  and was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987. It is the most visited archaeological site in Mexico.

More information: UNESCO

You don't stumble upon your heritage. 

It's there, just waiting to be explored and shared. 

Robbie Robertson

THE BEANS VISIT MANZANILLO AND ACAPULCO IN MEXICO

Pancho Villa Statue

This morning, The Beans have visited Manzanillo in the Mexican state of Colima. The city, located on the Pacific Ocean, contains Mexico's busiest port that is responsible for handling Pacific cargo for the Mexico City area. It is the largest producing municipality for the business sector and tourism in the state of Colima.

The city is known as the sailfish capital of the world.  Since 1957, it has hosted important national and international fishing competitions, such as the Dorsey Tournament, making it a very attractive fishing destination. Manzanillo has become one of the country's most important tourist resorts, and its excellent hotels and restaurants continue to meet the demands of both national and international tourism.

More information: Visit Mexico

In 1522, Gonzalo de Sandoval, under orders from conquistador Hernan Cortes, dropped anchor in the Bay of Salagua, north of Manzanillo Bay, looking for safe harbors and good shipbuilding sites.

Manzanillo Bay was discovered in 1527 by navigator Alvaro de Saavedra, naming it Santiago de la Buena Esperanza, or Santiago's Bay of Good Hope. Manzanillo was the third port created by the Spanish in the Viceroyalty of New Spain. It became a departure point for important expeditions. Cortes visited the bay twice to protect his galleons from Portuguese pirates. 

Over the next 300 years, the Pacific Coast’s history is filled with accounts of pirates from Portugal, England, France and even Spain assaulting, looting and burning ships for their rich cargos.

Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata

In 1825 the Port of Manzanillo opened, in recently independent Mexico, and so named because of the abundant groves of native Manzanilla trees that were used extensively in the early days of shipbuilding. Manzanillo was raised to the status of a city on June 15, 1873. The railroad to Colima was completed in 1889.

In 1908, President Porfirio Diaz designated Manzanillo as an official port of entry to Mexico. It was the state capital of Colima from February 20 to March 1, 1915, while Pancho Villa’s troops were threatening to capture the city of Colima.

More information: Lonely Planet

This afternoon, the family has travelled to Acapulco de Juárez. This city, commonly called Acapulco, is a city, municipality and major seaport in the state of Guerrero on the Pacific coast of Mexico, 380 kilometres south of Mexico City.

Acapulco is located on a deep, semicircular bay and has been a port since the early colonial period of Mexico's history. It is a port of call for shipping and cruise lines running between Panama and San Francisco, California, United States. 

Emely, Nereyda's friend, is a professional jumper

The city of Acapulco is the largest in the state, far larger than the state capital Chilpancingo. Acapulco is also Mexico's largest beach and balneario resort city.

The city is one of Mexico's oldest beach resorts, which came into prominence in the 1940s throu 1960s as a getaway for Hollywood stars and millionaires. Acapulco is still famous and still attracts many tourists, although most are now from Mexico itself.

The name Acapulco comes from Nahuatl language Aca-pōl-co, and means where the reeds were destroyed or washed away. The de Juárez was added to the official name in 1885 to honor Benito Juárez, former President of Mexico (1806–1872). The seal for the city shows broken reeds or cane. 

More information: Acapulco

You have to fill the planet with violins and guitars 

instead of so much shrapnel.

Chavela Vargas

NATALIA BEAN REMEMBERS THE UNITED MEXICAN STATES

Natalia Bean with a Mexican mask

Really, Mexico is called Mexican United States, in the North of America. It has 31 states and the capital, that’s mean that there are 32 states. It has two coasts, at west we find the Pacific Ocean, at east Gulf of México and the Caribbean Sea. 

At Yucatan Peninsula, we find the Riviera Maya, I only know Cancun, and its seemed nothing wonderful. That depends of feeling of each one, because I don’t like beach, in general. Because of Guadalajara, Jalisco is in the east part of México, that place is more known for me.

GULF OF MEXICO, RIVIERA MAYA

Cancun: It’s situated in Riviera Maya. It’s a touristic place. It’s the second most expensive place. But you can choose cheap places to stay. Snorkel.

PACIFIC OCEAN

Manzanillo: You can find wild animals at the entrance of hotels.

Puerto Vallarta: Green waters and vegetation. It is a Mexican beach resort city situated on the Pacific Ocean's Bahía de Banderas. There, you can practice adventure sports.

Ixtapa Zihuatanejo:   Fishing village, all are almost conserved. Cobbled streets and tiles. Its located at de bay of Zihua.

Acapulco: Humidity place and template. Here you can find the clavadistas. Around 1950  was a select place for Hollywood stars. There were filmed a lot of movies. You can find some different places, like virgin and popular beaches. The narco turns Acapulco into one of the most dangerous places.

And obviously, México D.F., as a child I visit The children city but now does not exist. There are some places to get fun as funny parks.

In México we can find some interesting places, not touristic, but great. Like the Tianguis. They are markets were local and foreign peoples will expose their art craft and typically food. There is no drinking water, so in each house we can find water filters.

FOOD
 
Some of names of food are in Nahualt (Azteca language). It is based on tortillas of corn, cheese, acid cream, onion, chili, nopales, beans, lettuce, avocado, coriander, green lemon, potatoes and cocking meat.

Tortilla: Boiled water and corn flour.

Tlacoyo: Blue corn tortilla with nopal and black beans.

Elote: Is the cob (corn) with chile, cheese and mayonnaise and esquite. It is the same but all the grain are out from the cob. Grilled corn.

Taco El Pastor: Corn tortilla with beef, longaniza and spicy sauce and coriander.

Taco de canasta: Are made at home and sold in the streets.

Flautas: Rolled tortillas full of chicken.

Quesadilla:  Tortilla fills of cheese, Oaxaca cheese and sometimes has spicy chorizo.

Quesadilla made of blue corn: Filled with flower of pumpkin.

Gorditas: Grilled fat end filled tortillas. They are like an Arab bread.

Tamales: Made with corn leaves and filled.

Fruite Juice: Beside all of those places.

Sope: Blue tortilla filled with black beans, cream, lettuce and cheese.

Green sauce: Green tomatoes, chile jalapeño, onion, garlic, black pepper and salt.

Chicharrón: Fried tortilla with cabbage, cream, avocado, tomato and lemon.

Gordita de maíz: With corn, sugar, vanille, carbonate.

Fried banana: With cream, cajeta.

Sweet lemon: Lemon peel filled with coco and honey.

Tamarindo Ball: Tamarindo and sugar.

Atole: Beverage with cinnamon corn milk.

The Vengeance of Moctezuma is the stomachache that suffers the tourist because of Mexican food.

THE DEATH DAY

It is a celebration to venerate the dead.

Earth: Flowers.
 
Water: Cups or glasses full of anyone liquid.
 
Fire: Candles and incense.
 
Wind: Perforated paper.
 
Photographs and personal things.
 
Smiles and good memories.

Native places I visited: Teotihuacan, Toltecas and Olmecas.

More information: Historia y Biografías

I was privileged to grow up in Mexico at a time when you could play in the streets. We lived not too far from the ocean, and we would be outside all the time with the neighbours' kids, running free. 

What better place could there be for a child? 

Salma Hayek

THE BEANS DISCOVER THE ANCIENT SECRETS OF LIGHT

Natalia Bean prepares Nachos con Guacamole

This morning, The Beans have continued their English classes practising with Countable and Uncountable. 

It's not an easy thing and they must work very hard to have success.

They have also reviewed some aspects of Present Simple and Social English before leaving Dominican Republic and arrive to Mexico where Natalia Bean has offered an incredible surprise to them.

More information: Countable & Uncountable List 

During the flight, the family has discussed apassionately about education and the educational system. It's a deep and hard theme with different points of view that join in one: the school is a place to take knowledge and home is the place to be educated.

Past picture of The Grandma in Majorca's Cathedral

Next, The Grandma has talked about February, 2, the an important day for Azteca culture but also for Mediterranean one. 

Today, in some buildings of the Mediterranean countries you can watch the effect of eight thanks to the position of the sun and the special characteristics of the buildings.

Download The Calculations of La Sagrada Família

Meanwhile, in Punxsutawney, Phil has predicted six more weeks before the end of winter,  The Grandma has continued her story talking about one of the greatest genius of the last century, Antoni Gaudí, who influenced by nature built the most spectacular and mysterious buildings that you can imagine like the Colònia Güell or The Sagrada Família.

Download Barcelona's Natural Wonder

The architect started to work in his creations in Sant Boi de Llobregat and from there he imagined incredible fantasy worlds which he built some years later.

Finally, The Grandma has fallen asleep and has been dreaming about The Beans visiting The Sagrada Família... 

Download Antoni Gaudí Works

Nothing is art if it does not come from nature. 

Antoni Gaudí

PUERTO PLATA IS 72: "LO STUPORE, 'A MARAVIGLIA!"

The Beans buying some food

This morning, The Beans continue visiting Dominican Republic. It's the last day in the country because tomorrow they are going to travel to Mexico. The family has reviewed the Relative Pronouns and Countable and Uncountable nouns before going to buy some local products to prepare a great lunch because they want to say goodbye to this wonderful country with all the honours. They have been tasting different kinds of beans, the typical Dominican food whose name is the same that the family.

More informatioin: Relative Pronouns

The Grandma and Anton Bean have explained some things about the Indians, the Catalans who travelled to the Caribbean Islands to find fortune, did it, and returned to their hometowns where they invested in new business and factories, especially food and textile ones. The Indians never forgot the Caribbean Islands and tried to recreate the American landscapes in the European ones, importing Caribbean plants and seeds and building Caribbean-style houses closer the sea.

More information: Countable and Uncountable

The family has been talking about the importance of Salvador de Samà i Torrents, Marquis of Samà who was a great investor and closer friend of Eusebi Güell, who was Antoni Gaudí's patron. Samà was one of these indians who made fortune in the Caribbean Islands and returned to Vilanova i la Geltrú in El Garraf and bought lots and lots of lands in Barcelona, where years after, will be built the most important monuments of the city like Park Güell, Palau Güell and the Sagrada Família.

Download Food & Drink Vocabulary

Edgar, Oscar and Nereyda Bean in Puerto Plata

The family has also talked about the influence of the Jewish community and the kabbalah in Barcelona and the interpretations of our dreams in a Neapolitan-style with the Smorfia.

More information: Smorfia

This afternoon, The Beans have visited Puerto Plata in the north of Dominican Republic. The family has enjoyed the landscapes and they have travelled by cable car to the top of the mountains to have a great view of the north of the island. It has been enjoyable, a beautiful trip before saying goodbye to this unforgettable country.

Tonight, The Beans are flying to Mexico. During the travel, they are listening some classic books thanks to Natalia Bean and Burlington. Enjoy them!

Burlington Books Online (MP3's)

I've done the calculation and your chances of winning 

the lottery are identical whether you play or not. 

Fran Lebowitz