Biennale

When we arrived back on the mainland, we walked about 20 minutes to get to the Arsenale sight of the Biennale. The Biennale is a huge art exhibit that happens every two years, and there are pavilions where each country has an artist to represent his/her country. We have tickets to see both venues, but they are so big that we just went to one today.

We spent about three hours touring the emerging artists' pavilion, which were all arranged thematically. There was a lot of contemporary pieces, which are not really my thing, but some were quite neat. There was a huge piece that featured strands of thread that connected to a table of clothes demonstrating the idea that we are connected by the clothes we wear and who fashions them. There was also a piece that had a wall of old running shoes that had been turned into pots to grow plants. Evan and I also found a tee pee made of yarn that you could go sit in.

After a quick granita break, we began to explore some of the smaller countries' pavilions. The highlight may have been the huge horse sculpture in the Argentina pavilion! It completely dominated the space and was quite stunning to see. Brad and Evan also liked some work in the China pavilion, which featured huge cut outs and the use of silk embroidery.

We were arted-out by now, so we used the golf cart shuttle service to take us back to the main entrance. Evan quite enjoyed our quick ride! Then we took the vaperetto back to our apartment.

Evan had to have a shower when we got back as he'd been dripping in sweat since we set out this morning. We had wrongly assumed there'd be dinner options on Sunday night, so it was a bit challenging once we found out so many places were closed. Eventually we set out to find Al Nono Risorto.

When we arrived, it was absolutely packed! We had to wait about half an hour to be seated, but it was nice to be out on the terrace to eat. Evan decided on a carbonara pizza, Brad started with a shellfish pasta and then had squids in ink with polenta, and I had an octopus and potato salad followed by polenta and baccala. The Venetians don't eat as much pasta as some of the other places we have been, which has probably been a good thing for our waist lines! It was a nice meal and honestly, we were just happy to find a place that was open!Read more