Giardino Papadopoli

We started the day with and ride in the ACTV ferry to the Rialto Market and then breakfast at the Farini Café – double espresso and focaccia with feta. Then it was on a meander via the shops and St Mark’s Square (where I demonstrated my Pigeon Mastery skills .... just for you Sam McKay). Following the pigeon interaction we headed down the Canal Di San Marco to the Gardini where the Biennale is held. It was quite cool and the breeze had a bit of a chill but it was lovely to be out and strolling. Wre arrived at the ticket office just before 10 and joined the short queue – smack on 10am up went the blinds and we soon had our 48hr pass (we had thought about just getting a day pass abut as it turned out we were glad we went with the 48hr).

The Biennale is an international contemporary art exhibition which occurs every second year in Venice and has been going in odd numbered years since 1893 (this year is the 57th). There are exhibitions by both individual artists and “countries” Countries have their own permanent pavilions and will have a nominated artist or artist exhibiting there – there are also large pavilions with 40+ plus invited artists exhibiting works based on specific themes. The exhibition is primarily held in the gardens (Gardini) at the tip of Venice and the Arsenale – but there are also various works scattered all over the city.

We started off in the main pavilion – I don’t know if I just don’t “get” contemporary art, but I found most of the stuff in there just really odd (although some was really good). However I enjoyed some of the work in the international pavilions much more, as well as the pavilions themselves – it was interesting seeing how the buildings reflected national character. The Australia exhibit was a tad odd – a photographer (Tracey Moffatt) – whose work I found overly staged. At about 3pm I think we got to the point where we were tired and a tad hungry and so decided to head off in search of Pizza even though we had only seen the works at the Gardini and not yet the Arsenarle

We left the exhibition and headed off to find Art Della Pizza which I remembered from my last visit to Venice – it took quite a bit of meandering and swearing at the map but finally we found the place and enjoyed a couple of pieces of Pizza (as good as I remembered) before repairing to a local bar for a “spritz” – not nearly as yummy as the one we enjoyed of Murano yesterday. Refreshed we headed off to find a Traghetto – the gondola which takes you across the Grand Canal for 2 Euro (can’t visit Venice and not have ridden in a Gondola) Jumping out at the fish market we wandered around the shops and and generally got lost several times on our way to dinner, we managed to find the shop selling coffee makers and the one where I had seen a pendant I wanted for Mum, as well as the supermarket for a few necessities before rocking up at La Zucca for dinner.

La Zucca is a vegetable focased (but not vegetarian per see) restaurant – it doea really nice food and we had visited 4 years ago and I was keep to go back. We had a really lovely meal there – I have baked pasted with egg plants and kirstin had a pumpkin and ricotta tart – plau we shared a spinach dish and some grilled artichokes – delicious. We shared our table with a couple of German students who I think we scared with all our talk of fierce Australian wildlife, then, sated once again it was time to head home…. Or at least back to the hotel.Read more