Peggy Guggenheim

It was a cool morning (26c, 29c with humidity) so walking about was actually quite pleasant. We strolled along the streets and popped into many different shops as we made our way to the Peggy Guggenheim Museum.

The Guggenheim is housed in what was formerly Peggy's home situated right on the Grand Canal. The home itself is incredibly beautiful, and the art collection is quite impressive. It is basically Peggy's own collection, so Brad described it as "all thriller, no filler." In the collection, we saw some great pieces by Jackson Pollock (an entire room in fact), Mark Rothko, Max Ernest, Alexander Calder, and Picasso. There were a lot of works by Abstract Expressionist artists, which is one of my favourite art movements. We also got admission to a Mark Tobey show as part of our visit.

After checking out the art, it was time for lunch. We stopped in at Cantinone gli Schiavi for a local food called cicchetti, which are small pieces of bread with assorted toppings. We tried six different ones that included: octopus; truffle and egg; shrimp; salmon. We ate standing next to the bridge just outside the restaurant while drinking a spritz. Evan was less keen on the ciccheti and more keen about eating pizza, so we stopped at a small stand so he could get his fix.

We arrived back to our apartment for a bit of down time and it suddenly began to pour! The temperature also dropped dramatically and there was a lot of lightning! Luckily we had packed our raincoats and umbrella, so we set off to walk to the Damien Hirst show.Read more