A Serenissima Safari

The nickname of Venice is 'The most serene' = La serenissima. Not an emotion one associates with the Safari, either in the preparation or the execution of our visit, and this was our first trip to a fabulous grid, Aviverse, so there was a lot at stake. Another big turnout this week, and it was all to play for with a tight schedule of tour and concert... would we make it? Read on and find out.

Isha Cullen: Welcome to Aviverse

Gin Leeder [it→en]: Welcome everyone!
snowbody Cortes: chi gha 'sciugà il canal?
KingScorpion Resident: buonasera a tutti
snowbody Cortes: sera King 

Gin Leeder [it→en]: if you want to visit the tower, remember to increase your viewing distance to be able to see the wonder of the landscape from above
Mal Burns: beware if you have vertigo
Nyx Breen: where is the gelatto shop?

Lavia Lavine: I know two whole words in Italian.....Spaghetti and Pizza.

snowbody Cortes: the best words Lavia

James Atlloud: how about paparazzi?

Mal Burns: cappuccino molto caldo

Unadecal Arado: never minde de gelato. I want-e de pizza!

Tosha Tyran: never to cold for a good gelatto

Unadecal Arado: pizza di gelatto: An offer he can't refuse

Lavia Lavine: LOL Unadecal

KingScorpion Resident [it→en]: today everything's free – Gin is paying

Gin Leeder [it→en]: welcome everyone to Venice and AviVerse. On this occasion, we would like to thank you and remind you that there will be a Zeno concert at 01:30 pm (10:30 pm in Italy) a famous Italian singer!

Thirza Ember: Wow and everyone's clothes just arrived

Nyx Breen: yes mine was delivered from Gucci

James Atlloud: I hope you din't see my underpants!

Gin, left, and Isha, center, led the tour

Gin Leeder [it→en]: Here goes... AviVerse was born as a very simple project, about 5 years ago, but at that time it was curiosity that moved everything around opensimulator, like many of you I believe, I also come from Second Life and the desire for something more "simple" " and "free" has always been there... so I took DreamGrid, and with Asiah we gave shape to a very small grid called avLife, but honestly we were inexperienced in the Opensimulator world and also not very satisfied

Gin Leeder [it→en]: Having created a viewer for SL called BluEye, I unhooked the project from Fred's Dreamgrid (whom I always thank for what he does) and I started working on the Opensimulator code. I became interested in some particular things, and EgoCore, the aviverse engine, was born

Thirza Ember: oh wow you made a Viewer???

snowbody Cortes: cool Gin

Nara Nook: wow

Gin Leeder [it→en]: also known as aviverseSIM. In fact aviverse is a grid that also has its own official viewer complete with open sources. For a time the name of the grid was AlterEgo, but in Italy the name could not be registered as it was used by a company. So then we changed to AviVerse – making it simpler and above all free

Gin Leeder [it→en]: Previously, Aviverse wasn't compatible with HG but now it is, and so, thanks to this, we are satisfied with what we have done with the OS engine, you can notice the slightly different physics, greater walking speed and many other little things, but above all Isha was able to bring this beautiful SIM to life with Kim which he will now tell you, and thank you very much for being here this evening, visiting us in ITALY the country of spaghetti and love :9

James Atlloud: (^_^)
Forest Azure: in what order?
Lavia Lavine: Together if possible Forest

Tosha Tyran: giggles at forest

snowbody Cortes: applause!!

Gin Leeder [it→en]: and now Isha, also known as the Professor, will tell you about how Venice was born in AviVerse.

snowbody Cortes: /me forget the pizza and looks at the Professore...

Nyx Breen: clap

Alexey Kazarovic: /me claps

Pauline NOVA419: *clap clap*

Isha Cullen [it→en]: If you allow me, I'll give you a little explanation about this sim, Venice. We, Kimmy and I, decided to reproduce Venice on this grid, because it is known throughout the world and has a very strong symbolism for many people. To do this, the grid created a var, that is, a very large sim, equivalent to 4 joined SL sims.

Dabici studies the architecture

Dabici Straulino: 2x2

Isha Cullen [it→en]: For our part, we went and looked for a map on Google that represented the map of Piazza San Marco and placed it on the ground to get the proportions. We also consulted the different images of these buildings to reproduce the shapes in prims, then we applied the textures recovered before.

Tosha Tyran: clever

Isha Cullen [it→en]: This job represented several hundred hours of work. We also reproduced several other historic buildings in the city, trying to be as close to reality as possible. What would Venice be without its gondolas and the tours that tourists particularly love? So we also created a small tour in Venice to visit the city.

Forest Azure: i was here 3 years ago, an sl friend showed me around

Tosha Tyran: I was in venice quite a few years ago as well in RL

James Atlloud: wow - lucky to visit such a wonderful place

Tosha Tyran: didnt find a spot to park and left again

James Atlloud: ha ha

Forest Azure: well, if the real Venice sinks in the water, there is always this

Isha Cullen [it→en]: We have also placed «Information Points» to provide you with information on historical and interesting places. Therefore on these Info points you will find links to Wikis that give you explanations... if you don't suffer from vertigo, you can also go up to the top of the tower (by clicking on the door)

Forest Azure: /me is looking for the hotel she was staying

Gin Leeder [it→en]: isha is also an excellent scripter and graphic designer

Tosha Tyran: oh wow, a magic person then, bravo isha!

Isha Cullen [it→en]: who wants to try the gondola ride, Kim accompanies you

snowbody Cortes: very great job!

Kimmy Cullen: follow me for the gondola ride, please sit on the right side of the seat first

Tosha Tyran: wow, racing gondolas

Elamanu Pastorelli: you should be careful, don't walk between the columns

Kimmy Cullen [it→en]: ladies and gentlemen, soon another gondola will arrive

Dabici Straulino: baisser les têtes

Kelso Uxlay: ouch

Dabici Straulino: need to install tire to bump smoothly

Star Ravenhurst: This is ggreat!

Kimmy Cullen [it→en]: Thank you

Nara and her new friend. 

It's the real deal Venice experience, complete with handsome gondolier (I am pretty sure Nara gave this one her number, and why not? he's got a job and his own transport)...

...and lots of low bridges. Really low!

The gondola script was magnificent despite there being so many of us all clicking on things, and the static figures give a truly lived in feel without adding a lot of stress to the servers.

Tosha Tyran: very nice... reminds me of the novellas Donna Leone", very popular in Germany

Dabici Straulino: moltissimo bravo

The trip was the perfect length for our brief stay - for a first visit to a grid, these guys had one of the most impressively well organized visits and they coped amazingly with our crazy chatter and impact.

Gin Leeder [it→en]: you can also visit the tower or the museum or go around Venice, but remember soon the concert for you by Zeno will begin, one of the best Italian singers with his music that matches Venice

Tosha Tyran: ok, lead the way, we will be your faithful followers

Angelic Kisses: this is a beautiful place...so to happy to visit here.

Elamanu Pastorelli: very impressive

Dabici Straulino: chi è Zeno

Kimmy Cullen [it→en]: zeno is our live singer. And on this occasion we also wish Isha a happy birthday!

Tosha Tyran:[en→it]: Yeah Yeah happy birthday, isha

Kimmy Cullen [it→en]: happy birthday isha

Angelic Kisses: this is so much fun!

Thirza Ember: Gin and all the Aviversiani, thank you so much for this fantastic welcome

Tosha Tyran: indeed... it is a wonderful change to the first stop!

Lara Piro: Thx to all You!

Thirza Ember: considering we are, once again, 20 people jumping onto a grid... fantastic performance too

Nara Nook: grid is running great

Tosha Tyran: and how wonderful that there are not millions of tourists, hahaha

Forest Azure: i think they drowned, tosha

Fabulous Italian singer Zeno entertained us during our visit.

Gin Leeder [it→en]: zeno asks if you like music

snowbody Cortes: bravooooo

Tosha Tyran: may I say? you have a very sexy voice!

Valerie Sky: ..wow... this place is the real Venezia.... amazing....I love it ! ..anad the music too... i hear a man singing ...in Italian...

James Atlloud: The lighting is also lovely at night.

Unadecal Arado: WOOOOW!!! I didn't realise! This is SOOO good

Thirza Ember: what an amazing voice

Roffellos Kisses: thank you for inviting us to this lovely place ..its been great

Check out the interiors with much lush art

Angelic Kisses: this was fantastic! Enjoy the rest of your weeks!!

Dabici Straulino: Grazie mille, ciao a tutti

Tosha Tyran: well, friends! Thanks for a fantastic safari and see you

Forest Azure: ty so much and what a great place this is!

Nara Nook: thank you for a lovely evening, ciao

Birthday boy Isha shows off his moves (and his six pack)

Kimmy Cullen [it→en]: thanks to you for visiting

Star Ravenhurst: Thank you this was so lovely. Beautiful voice!

Tosha Tyran: special thanks to the builder of the region,  and... of course to the sexy singer Zeno :D

Valerie Sky: thank you very much for doing this... the place and the music... I will be back next time... * hugs to all *

Cataplexia Numbers: Beautiful!

Lara Piro: Thank you Friends! :)

HG Address: hop://aviverse.it:8002/Venezia/376/258/23