In Venice now...

over the past couple of days i visited the leaning tower of pisa, the ufizzi (a museum where a lot of famous paintings are - i.e. "birth of venus" by botticelli, raphael, rubens, etc), and the accademia (where "the david" is). I am so amazed by the amount of emphasis that was placed on the arts in this region. I heard that 60% of the western worlds art is in Italy. I have to admit though it was overwhelming. Some areas just didnt do a great job in presenting the art. At the Vatican there is just too much to see and it was presented like an art maze leading to the Sistine Chapel. It was just too much to really appreciate one work or a few works at a time. I really enjoyed seeing the David however because of the way it was presented - and by its grandiose nature and by michelangelo's vision. There were the statues of the slaves which led right to a large atrium where the david was. It was inspiring to see because it came from one large block of marble and took 2.25 years to complete. I wonder what michelanglo was thinking as he made it - did it turn out the way he envisioned? did he like it as much as people like it now? did he mess up? how many times did he fail to get this outcome? Now we are in Venice - which is such a unique city. We took a boat ride along the grand canal to the hotel - felt like a decrepit disneyland. In hindsight, I wish I had taken a trip like this before I started working - i really feel like having a better global perspective would have helped me. This trip has had a lot of first's for me - first time on this long of a vacation, first time in all of these countries, first time being in a place where i didn't know the language, first time going this long without indian food :) - first time being so far away from mitu... I am really looking forward to paris now...