Local Expert
Bradley Harden
Living the Sweet Life in a Fantasy Land
I was born in Missouri, but grew up in Minnesota where I was exposed to true winter and the health benefits of shoveling A LOT of snow. After graduating from…
Living the Sweet Life in a Fantasy Land
I was born in Missouri, but grew up in Minnesota where I was exposed to true winter and the health benefits of shoveling A LOT of snow. After graduating from high school I attended Northwest Missouri State University for 2 years and then transferred to Boston to attend Berklee College of Music and earned a degree in Music Business and Management. After deciding that a desk job simply wasn't my thing at this point in my life, I set out to see what the world had to offer. I found a wonderful little town a few miles southwest of Venice called Padova. This small, university town truly captures all of the ideas, visions, sights, and sounds of what you think Italy should be...except the gondolas, that is left for Venice.
I enjoy a lot of different things. Travel is obvious. I have traveled extensively throughout Europe in the years since arriving, trying to see as much as I can. This, of course, includes a vast amount of Italy. I have had a wonderful time experiencing the culture with real Italians that have taken me to the places that you can not find in any guidebook and that are not on any map. During the spring and summer I work as a liaison for travelers; helping them find their way from the airport or train station to their hotels and helping them navigate through Venice or surrounding area to see things that are off the beaten path. Of course, if it’s your first time you need to see the important historical things, but if you’ve been before perhaps a day of ‘live like a local’ is more your thing. I always find a huge amount of pleasure and satisfaction from seeing a city that I know very well through the eyes of someone who is experiencing it for the first time. When this happens I, too, see the city for the first time and I realize that the magic never left.
In addition to all of this, I also enjoy movies, most types of music, going out for a “spritz” in the piazzas during the evenings with friends, and since I’m living in Italy eating AMAZING food and drinking a GREAT glass of wine come almost automatically. This is the definition of "Having your cake and eating it too."
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La Biennale - Art, Music, Architecture, & Movies
For over 100 years Venice has celebrated Italian art, music, dance, architecture, and movies during the summer. The event is called La Biennale di Venezia and was founded on the idea of promoting Italian Contemporary art and music through a massive expostion. Architecture was added in 1980 and dance followed in 1999. This summer is no different as Venice hosts the event once again.
Biennale Art
The 53rd Annual Art Exhibition will run from June 7th to November 22nd and will host artists that thrive on avant-garde styles in their work.
Biennale Architecture
On June 27th, the Board of Directors of the Venice Biennale, gathered together and, on the proposal of Director Aaron Betsky, awarded Frank Gehry the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement of the 11th International Architecture Exhibition. With this award, the desire is to stress -in line with the spirit of the 11th Architecture Biennale. "Frank Gehry has transformed modern architecture"; wrote Aaron Betsky in his motivation. "He has liberated it from the confines of the ‘box' and the constraints of common building practices. As experimental as the art practices that have been his inspiration, Frank Gehry's architecture is the very modern model for an architecture beyond building".
Biennale Film
The 65th Venice International Film Festival, organised by the Venice Biennale, will take place on the Venice Lido from 27th August to 6th September 2008. Burn After Reading, written and directed by Academy Award winners Joel and Ethan Coen, will open the Festival this year.
Marco Müller will be the director of the next edition, continuing the work he began in 2004. The line-up of the Festival will be presented in a press conference in Rome at the end of July.
Biennale Dance
Twelve performances -five of which to be world premiered-, a workshop whose results will be four new creations by young choreographers, and a video-installation visible for the whole duration of the festival: this is Beauty, the Venice Biennale's 6th International Festival of Contemporary Dance, directed by Ismael Ivo. The festival takes place in the venues of the Venice Arsenale and at the Teatro Malibran.
Biennale Music
Since 1930, the Festival has featured new compositions, European and world premieres, great orchestras and prestigious ensembles and soloists, confirming the Festival's vocation for research and the attention to new trends. A long-standing tradition and a strong planning attitude are part of the Festival's history, that Luca Francesconi's directorship intends to renew today.
Information for this post was taken from the Official Website for the Biennale di Venezia. If you would like additional information about this event or other activities in Northern Italy, please visit me HERE.