Random Landmarks

Here's another collection of randomness I had piled up while I watched ARIA.


ARIA makes the Rialto bridge so much bigger than it is.

Gondola parking - but at least there's no parking meters!

The market on the west end of the Rialto Bridge.

And a picture I found on a friend's social networking profile which closely matched Amano art, complete with the Vaporetto in the same spot.

Piazza San Marco

Isola San Giorgio

The Bridge of Sighs by day. Included the ever-so-cute dekkai for the sake of it.

The Bridge of Sighs by night.

To end it off a view of the lagoon, which reminded me of a photo I took.

The Hunt for Himeya

From watching ARIA, I had already deduced the approximate location of Himeya to be on the southern promonade, near Piazza San Marco. Akira looking out of the window in Ep05 of The Origination gave me the precise estimated location. It is way too easy to use this landmark as a bearing on a map!

So I went down the Southern Promonade and lo behold, Himeya actually exists - as the 5-Star Danielli Hotel with rooms starting from as low as €400 a night!

A brief scene showing the unique design of the revolving doors was not to be discarded.

The side entrance for people arriving by boat, complete with the red carpet.

Obviously, the next thing to do was to go in - and what a posh lobby it has! There was also some Murano Glass on display. I ventured further in and up the stairs, as depicted in this cover art.

Now that I was inside, the next task was to pull my camera out and take a picture! I was all alone (my mum doesn't count :P) on the first floor, away from prying hotel staff who didn't seem to notice me trying to get an indoor shot without a flash. This was very lucky as Ruki was apparently told KINSHI by hotel staff.

Amano-sensei must have loved this hotel (if she stayed there, she's loaded!) and the producers have definately been inside to take down the details. I shall end this entry with a google map image showing where the real-life Himeya/Danielli is for future pilgrims.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v390/a340_313x/ARIA/VCEmap.jpg

Isola Di San Michele / Murano

On my way to Murano, I did a very quick pitstop and spent all of 15 minutes at Isola Di San Michele which consists of a church and a huge cemetary. This island features in the rather spooky ep20 of ARIA the Natural in which the artwork was easily the best from the whole season.

Face to face...and at the exact same angle.

Image retrieved 08 August, 2008 from: Italy Heaven, "San Michele, Venice's cemetery island", http://www.italyheaven.co.uk/veneto/venice/sanmichele.html


The cemetary. This would sure be very spooky at night.

Akari is way too nice to be taking someone from Piazza San Marco to San Michele late at night. A quick measurement of distance and calculation gives me an approximate trip time of 45 minutes.

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Then it was off to Murano, featured in The Natural ep11.

"The people of Venice have been making crystal and glass since the 10th century. The bulk of the industry was moved to the island of Murano in 1291 because of the danger of fire posed by the glass-working kilns.

Venice had a virtual monopoly on the production of what is now known as Murano glass, and the methods of the craft were such a well-guarded secret that it was considered treason for a glass-worker to leave the City." (Simonis 2008, p113)

The second paragraph about people being prohibited to leave the city was mentioned in The Natural Ep 11 at 05:10 when Alicia was explaining the history.

If you look at my picture carefully, the canal turns sharply to the left. Once you go round that left, as depicted in the anime, you will reach the clocktower.

Both sides of the canal in the pictures above are full of glass shops - Murano really is a tourist heaven/trap to an extent that you'll be disgusted by it.

Akari takes a peek...

The shelves at one of the countless glass shops.

Murano and the glass furnaces are so tightly built it's impossible to get a clean shot, unless you take one from the sea.

After initial disappointments, I found a glass furnace which was very welcoming to visitors - it had signage for tourists to understand the process of glass making as well as a live demostration. The people were even so nice as to pose with the freshly completed product! Here is "Maestro" at work!

Bibliography

Simonis, D. (2008), Venice & The Veneto: City Guide, Lonely Planet Publications: London

R.I.P. Kawai Eri

I was trawling around Asuki as usual when I read the news that the singer Kawai Eri (河井 英里) had passed away on August 4, 2008.

She's best known in ARIA for singing Athena's songs - Baracarole and Kokkoro. However, she also did the vocals for all the background songs which don't contain any lyrics such as the track played in the background of The Origination Ep02 (timestamp 17:02) when we reach Amarantha's secret place (Aria - Kawai Eri).

Less known is the fact that she wrote the lyrics for the three OP songs, Undine, Euforia, Spirale.

Rest in peace - You brought joy to many peoples' lives. ARIA would not have been the same without your priceless contribution.

Random Scenes from ARIA

A post to random moments collected across the ARIA anime seasons which don't really warrant a post by itself. I've accumulated these over time and finally have enough to post!

I'll start with ARIA the Natural Episode 12...something about Milk and Summer.

It turns out milk in Italy is the best I've drank so far. None of that tasteless Hong Kong stuff or semi-tasty British/Japanese milk. A true full cream milk. So good I even bothered to take a picture of the milk carton.

Episode 9 of The Natural saw Akari talking Chrysanthenum, and how Venice grew to love the plant after Marco Polo brought it back from his travels in China. I did indeed see some chrysanthenum doorknobs!

Episode 6 of the Natural. Not exactly Venice-related but look at Akari - baseball anyone?

On Episode 6 of the Origination, we see that Neo-Venezia has adopted Euros as the official currency!

Retrieved 01 August, 2008 from: "Euro Coin Sets from Italy", http://www.eurocoins.co.uk/2002italyeurosets.html


Episode 1 of the Origination. Alicia and Akari goes out shopping to buy some ingredients for a tea party. One of the stalls they visit is a floating vegetable stall. I managed to see the real thing!

My picture was taken in the East Castello region. I've called this region a different face of Venice in an earlier post, which Episode 5.5 of the Origination said the same thing a month later (timestamp 2:55)!

Last but not least, in Episode 5.5, that stone figurehead at the Basilica di San Marco which Akari goes to "meet" at her secret spot really exists.