Venice



I returned to Venice this year for research on an upcoming book (2019!), and it was just as beautiful as always! It's such a magical and improbable city.


Nothing exemplifies this more than the elegant gondole that slide down the narrow canals and under the dozens of little bridges. Developed as a means of transportation through the shallow lagoon, these flat-bottomed boats have been a symbol of Venice for centuries.


Like the world's most elegant traffic jam, the gondole emerge from the tiny side canals into the bustling Grand Canal, twisting and pivoting with ease.


It's fascinating to watch the boats turn at fantastic angles, and watch the shapes distort and change so quickly with the leaning of the gondolino.


On the Grand Canal, they glide past elegant palaces in a dream-like cityscape that appears nearly unchanged since the Renaissance.


You can imagine, with not too much extrapolation, how incredible it would have been to look out from one of these palaces, with intricate pierced windows and marble mosaic walls and floors, as dozens of gondole and other boats passed by, with none of the speedboats or ferries of today. (This view is from the elegantly restored palace The Ca D'oro.)


As they continue down the Grand Canal, the towering Rialto Bridge emerges from around a bend. Replacing an ancient wooden bridge, the immense stone structure, completed in 1591, bends at a surprising angle over the water below.


As the Canal winds through the rest of the city, it finally emerges into the Venetian lagoon, crowned by Piazza San Marco.


Surrounded by the elegant colonnades of the Doge's Palace and the Venetian library, there is ornate and impressive architecture on all sides. The entire city is made up of overlapping influences from Turkish and Muslim sources, Gothic, and Roman architecture.


The Campanile soars above the Doge's Palace. It's hard to believe that this tower was built twice! Originally in 1549, and again after its collapse in 1912.


The square is surrounded by the endless Procuratie Vecchie and watched over by the elegant clocktower.


But nowhere exhibits Venice's eclectic architecture better than the incredible Basilica San Marco. With its patchwork of marble, columns, and influences plundered from the Byzantine and Roman empires alike, it eschews simplicity in favor of way-too-muchness. Crowned with Gothic, Byzantine, and Roman arches with glittering gold mosaics and elegant stone relief, it's hard to believe that it was once even showier with it's arched peaks covered in gilding.


If you get tired of the overwhelming architecture, the throngs of tourists (and occasional Venetians) make it a wonderful place or people-watching.


But really, who could get tired of that architecture?


For more of Evan Turk's travel illustration, check out the link below: 

Italy: Venice

 

Venice! From the minute we stepped onto the water taxi at the Venice airport, it felt like we were wandering through a fairytale. It is a city so beautiful and improbable that it feels like it could have only been designed by artists.


Every view, archway, bridge, window, and pattern, is worthy of a painting, and becomes even moreso as the evening light begins to hit. Once I sat down to draw, I found it hard to focus on the reality of one view. The whole city felt more like a montage, with layers upon layers of beauty.


We decided to indulge in the romance of the city and stopped to have a cocktail in St. Mark's square at sunset, while a string quartet played behind us.



The whole city begins to feel like Venetian glass, where everything is reduced to layers of color, light, and pattern. As I was pondering the extravagant beauty of the scene, a seagull dropped a half-eaten pesto sandwich into my drawing bag. Ahh romance! Nice to be reminded that this place actually exits in reality.


People complain that Venice is touristy, but if anywhere deserves to have millions from all over the world come to visit, it's here.


And nothing captures the romance of Venice more than the gondolas. The tourist trade is a far cry from the days when the dramatically shaped boats were the main method of transportation. But the elegant sweep of black as it glides across the water is still a miraculous sight.




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This week central Italy experienced a devastating earthquake. If you appreciate these drawings and the beauty of Italy, please consider donating to help the relief effort:
Italian Red Cross
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This post is part of a series of travel illustration from a three week tour of Italy. For more of Evan Turk's travel illustration, check out the link below: 

Italy: Cinque Terre


After Florence, we traveled to Italy's western Ligurian coast to see the famed Cinque Terre villages, a series of five impossibly quaint villages dotting the rocky coastline. We stayed outside the industrial hub of the area, La Spezia, overlooking the Golfo dei Poeti (Gulf of Poets), where poets and artists (including Lord Byron!) have come for centuries to absorb the beauty. Our first night, we went to Porto Venere, an honorary "sixth village" of the Cinque Terre, at the tip of a peninsula. Less secluded than the "Cinque", but also less touristed, it was wonderful to spend time in this charming and beautiful town.


It felt more like a beach town for Italian tourists, rather than the international hotspot that the Cinque Terre have become. It was fun watching the Italian families gather, nap, chat, and relax under the shady, seaside trees.


A nearby wedding brought glamorously dressed guests, mixing with the older locals who sat and watched the sea and the visitors pass by.


We enjoyed a perfect sunset over the marina as boats bobbed in the tide and seagulls soared overhead.


The next day, it was on to Manarola, one of the Cinque Terre villages. It's not hard to see why the towns are so heavily touristed, as you see the gorgeous, brightly-colored houses tumble down impossibly steep streets into the lapping waves of a grotto at the seas edge.


Up the inclines, the town dissolves into sweeping hills of vineyards that surround the city.


The bustling town during the day is a far cry from its quaint, isolated former days as crowds of foreign tourists pour in every hour on the trains.


Although Manarola is without a true beach, dozens of sun-worshippers plop themselves out on the hot, steep pavement near the grotto to soak up the rays. Chris and I dubbed it "walrus-ing".


Both men and women donned their teeniest bathing suits to display their tanned and toned physiques. No complaints!


As the sun set, the crowds began to thin, the walruses departed, and the town began to feel small and cut off from the modern world again. I made this last drawing inside the grotto, perched on a rock as I watched a group of girls swimming and jumping from the cliffs into the water below. What a magical place!

This post is part of a series of travel illustration from a three week tour of Italy. For more of Evan Turk's travel illustration, check out the link below: 

Italy: The Duomo of Florence


Florence, the capital of the Tuscany region, is almost more impressive than beautiful. While other cities, like Siena or Venice, are breathtaking in their elegance, the architecture of Florence feels somewhat austere and almost macho. Its crown jewel, the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore is jaw-droppingly massive. Adorned with Brunelleschi's incredible dome, it makes for a soaring spectacle.



One can easily imagine the overwhelming awe and fear that pilgrims centuries ago must have felt upon seeing a building of this grandeur. Even today, I couldn't stop exclaiming just how HUGE the cathedral feels. From certain angles, it appears more like an entire city than a single building.


Today's pilgrims help themselves to dozens of selfies, trying to fit the whole building into the frame.

  

It is an incredible feat of engineering. As you move around the building, the distances and angles are so immense that it feels like it moves along with you.

 

The locals seem to be a mix of refined, fashionable, artsy types, and faces that populated the paintings of the great Florentine Renaissance painters.


But as the sun begins to set, and the crowds of day trippers disperse, the light transforms the architecture and makes you understand the beauty that inspired the bravado of the city.

This post is part of a series of travel illustration from a three week tour of Italy. For more of Evan Turk's travel illustration, check out the link below: 
Evan Turk Travel Illustration

Italy: Tuscany


Ahh Tuscany! From Rome we drove north towards the Val D'Orcia, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Tuscany region with rolling hills and regiments of spire-like cypresses punctuating the hillsides.


On the way to where we were staying, we planned to visit the town of Marta for a spring festival called La Barrabata. After a series of delays, we arrived in Marta just as the parade made it's last turn through the center of town. I drew frantically as the procession got swallowed up by the crowd following it. Only men marched in the parade, most with straw hats and plaid handkerchiefs, with floats displaying the fruits of their trades (fish, fruit, bread, cheese, vegetables, buffalo, sheaves of wheat). Women threw rose petals from the overlooking balconies as the crowds made their way up the hillside to the church.

With some help from an older local man, we made our way up to the church at the very top of the hill to find that the entire procession was now displayed for viewing behind the church. There were elaborate, flower-covered floats with tiny fountains, white buffalo, sheep, and hundreds of people celebrating. Just as I started to draw, the clouds that had been building emptied into a steady downpour. After trying to wait it out, we eventually joined the umbrella-ed masses descending the slope. I suppose when traveling you are always supposed to leave something undone, so there is a reason to come back! Next time!


It was rainy on and off for most of our stay, but that just made the landscapes more dramatic. We hadn't expected it to be so green and lush! It was amazing to see the dark thunderstorms roll over the towns and hills in the distance.


There is so much beauty, big and small. The roads are lined with tiny, delicate paper poppies and dramatic rows of cypresses.


We learned that some of the cypresses in the area date back to the 11th century when they were planted along the pilgrimage routes Via Roma and Via Francigena that led through the area between Canterbury and Rome. The trees were seen as pillars to the heavens because of their vertical nature. Many of the farmhouses sit on hilltops and were lookout posts to aid travelers as the route was often plagued by robbers and thieves.


Built by Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini, also known as Pope Pius II, Pienza was constructed in 1459 as the Piccolomini's idea of the ideal Renaissance town. After being there, it's not a stretch! It has gorgeous piazzi, palazzi, and narrow cobblestone streets. The air is full of the cooing of wood pigeons and clanging bells, and the smell of delicious pecorino toscano cheese.


The city is surrounded by a walled walkway with incredible panoramic views of the Val D'Orcia. Layer after layer of hills, cypresses, villas and towns that disappear and blend into the rolling storms.


In the center of the town is the beautiful duomo, a very early Renaissance cathedral. We were there on a Sunday, so locals from the region were out in full force along with the tourists to enjoy the beautiful day. There was even a woman playing the flute under the colonnade as I was making the drawing above.


It's always nice to be able to draw the locals when traveling. People's faces in Italy often feel like they came straight out of a Renaissance painting.


On one excursion, we visited a nearby natural hot spring, or acqu calda, named Fosso Bianco. After a short walk down the hill through the woods, you can smell the sulfurous mineral baths as you approach. Steaming mineral water pours down over the enormous, white calcium-covered terraces as people collect in the various pools to bask in the warmth.


On our last day, we left the Tuscany countryside for Florence, but made a stop in Siena, one of the most beautiful cities in the area. The medieval city boasts unique, rich architecture, the Piazza del Campo where the famous Palio horse race occurs (next time!), and a striking striped cathedral. After only a couple hours, it was onto Florence, but we will definitely be returning to Siena!

This post is part of a series of travel illustration from a three week tour of Italy. For more of Evan Turk's travel illustration, check out the link below: 

Italy: Rome



I just got back from a three week trip to Italy and am slowly adjusting to real life. What an amazing country with so much beauty packed into such a small place! We were surprised by how much we liked Rome, and were a little disappointed we had only booked two and a half days there. Hopefully we will be back! For an imperial city, it feels unexpectedly inviting. The Tiber River carves an elegant path crossed by grand bridges, and many of the ancient buildings are draped with jasmine that perfumes the whole city.


We sort of just wandered from place to place, admiring every street, statue, and piece of architecture, and smelling every flower. Not a bad way to spend a couple of days! We drew in the piazza near the Pantheon (above) as we were serenaded by a street performer singing opera.


Then we wandered to the Piazza Navona and admired Bernini's Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi or Fountain of the Four Rivers. The allegorical figures represent the four continents and their prominent. rivers: Africa's Nile, Europe's Danube, Asia's Ganges, and the Americas' Río de la Plata. This drawing is of the Ganges on the left, holding an oar representing its navigability, and the Nile on the right, with his head draped to show that people did not know the source of the river at that time.


We also visited the Castel Sant'Angelo which was a wonderful surprise. Between its construction in 134 AD and 1900, it served as a mausoleum, fortress, Papal residence, and a prison. This mishmash of uses created a very unique structure with layers and layers of history. It also has amazing views of the Tiber River and the whole city.


No visit to Rome would be complete without a stop at the Vatican and St. Peter's. I had gone to the Vatican Museum when I was a kid, and really only remembered the Sistine Chapel. Nothing could have prepared me for the exhaustion of the rest of the museum. You are moved in hordes through beautiful room after beautiful room as they slowly lessen the air conditioning to thin the herd before arriving at the Chapel. The ceiling is incredible and well worth it, but by that point you really need a nap.


After the Vatican, we went to St. Peter's Basilica, and its impressive, expansive plaza. Inside, the cathedral is wall to wall heavy stone, mosaic, and gilt. It is beautiful, but in an oppressive, heavy-handed way. (Also, they don't let you lean or sit against anything to draw...)


Outside, in the much airier, but equally overwhelming plaza, crowds of tourists exhausted after the Vatican Museum slumped against the endless colonnade.

What a beautiful city; I can't wait to return! But this time, it was on to Tuscany...

 
This post is part of a series of travel illustration from a three week tour of Italy. For more of Evan Turk's travel illustration, check out the link below: