On our last visit we loved Venice, and weren’t too sure if we would be as impressed the second time. There aren’t too many places we have visited more than once on our journey, but Venice is one of our favourite cities and Christine loves the Bienalle, which is the big art festival that runs for 6 months every two years. When we arrived we were kindly given a ferry pass that had a couple of hours left on it, by some tourists who were just leaving. We used this to get to our hotel. We arrived and checked in at about 6pm and had a bit of time to relax before Mel arrived. After greetings, hugs and a coffee the three of us went for a stroll around town, bought a 1.5l bottle of local vino and had dinner when the heavens opened with a big down pour of rain.
Our first morning we had a few errands to run. We headed to the market just near the Rialto bridge hoping to get some fresh seafood. The fish market was closed but we did get some fruit and tomatoes for a pasta dinner. We also purchased the 3 day ferry passes, Christine’s was an extra 10 euro for the same pass, due to her old age! After a coffee it was time to hit the galleries.
The Biennale is wonderful as there are two large exhibitions that it costs to enter, but there are also heaps of small galleries scattered around Venice which are free. We visited a few of these, all conveniently near our hotel. There were some interesting sculptures and photo displays and the girls bought some cheap ‘art in motion’ t-shirts.
Our timing for the boat ride was not brilliant, it seemed as soon as we were on the ferry a massive lightning storm hit with wind and heavy rain. When we arrived at Gardenia we had to huddle in the boat shelter until the worst of it passed. Mel, with her travel sickness was not feeling so good.
Finally we reached Arsenal, bought our tickets to biennale and embarked on the first of the two big exhibition spaces. We had a bit over 4 hours but this still felt a bit rushed. There was a Temple made of bread, hundreds of amazing paintings, Wax candle men and furniture, an elevator installation, history of the Italian Mafia and many videos this year which were a bit time consuming. After a long afternoon of culture we headed home for tomato pasta and salad dinner.
Given the rushed nature of our first day at the Biennale we tried to allow more time on the second day. The girls went shopping while Damien headed to market to get fish for dinner. On our way to Gardenia we visited one small gallery which had some strange but impressive talking mannequins and furniture suspended in the air with pencils attached which were creating drawings.
The exhibition at Gardenia is partially arranged by country, and sadly, unlike last year, Australia’s pavilion was utterly disappointing. The USA pavilion was one of the best with a live gymnastics performance and ATM which is attached to a large organ, when you put your card in the ATM the organ plays. There were some other very good works including a dark room with elastic strings glowing in dark and moving, an english video and talking heads, a room full of plasticine for you to create your own sculpture and biblical paintings like what you might see in hundreds you year old churches, Michelangelo style. Again pressed for time at the end, but did see it all in 6 hours.
We walked up to San Marco and then headed home to cook fresh squid and fish for dinner, brilliant! Still not satiated the girls insisted on Gelato for dessert.
Our final day in Venice we did not have any great plans for the morning, just to have a wander around the canals. We looked at a few more galleries including NZ which was ok, an amazing mosaic made from painted eggs in a church and a 10m high bamboo tower which we were able to climb. The bamboo tower was one of everyone’s favorites’ for the whole biennale. We spent the afternoon in Murano which is a nearby island that produces many fine glass products. We walked around the island and looked at factories and shops, before the weather once again forced us to head back to Venice, for more gelato of course. 
For dinner tonight we headed to Treviso to meet up with our friends Roberto and Eliza. This is the couple that we met about two years ago in Scotland. We did the same last time we were in Venice, so thought we would revisit them. They had the good news that they are living in their new house, getting married in August and expecting a baby. We walked around the small city and had another huge and yummy pizza dinner.
So in short, we have enjoyed our second visit to Venice, it was still great, but did not have the same wow factor! This of course was not helped by the weather being grey most of the time and lots of rain showers. As for the art show, we still enjoyed it, and thought parts of it were brilliant, but overall possible better 2 years ago, and definitely too many video installations. We may have to make another visit in 2 years, hopefully the weather will be a little nicer!
Our first morning we had a few errands to run. We headed to the market just near the Rialto bridge hoping to get some fresh seafood. The fish market was closed but we did get some fruit and tomatoes for a pasta dinner. We also purchased the 3 day ferry passes, Christine’s was an extra 10 euro for the same pass, due to her old age! After a coffee it was time to hit the galleries.
The Biennale is wonderful as there are two large exhibitions that it costs to enter, but there are also heaps of small galleries scattered around Venice which are free. We visited a few of these, all conveniently near our hotel. There were some interesting sculptures and photo displays and the girls bought some cheap ‘art in motion’ t-shirts.
Our timing for the boat ride was not brilliant, it seemed as soon as we were on the ferry a massive lightning storm hit with wind and heavy rain. When we arrived at Gardenia we had to huddle in the boat shelter until the worst of it passed. Mel, with her travel sickness was not feeling so good.Finally we reached Arsenal, bought our tickets to biennale and embarked on the first of the two big exhibition spaces. We had a bit over 4 hours but this still felt a bit rushed. There was a Temple made of bread, hundreds of amazing paintings, Wax candle men and furniture, an elevator installation, history of the Italian Mafia and many videos this year which were a bit time consuming. After a long afternoon of culture we headed home for tomato pasta and salad dinner.
Given the rushed nature of our first day at the Biennale we tried to allow more time on the second day. The girls went shopping while Damien headed to market to get fish for dinner. On our way to Gardenia we visited one small gallery which had some strange but impressive talking mannequins and furniture suspended in the air with pencils attached which were creating drawings.The exhibition at Gardenia is partially arranged by country, and sadly, unlike last year, Australia’s pavilion was utterly disappointing. The USA pavilion was one of the best with a live gymnastics performance and ATM which is attached to a large organ, when you put your card in the ATM the organ plays. There were some other very good works including a dark room with elastic strings glowing in dark and moving, an english video and talking heads, a room full of plasticine for you to create your own sculpture and biblical paintings like what you might see in hundreds you year old churches, Michelangelo style. Again pressed for time at the end, but did see it all in 6 hours.
We walked up to San Marco and then headed home to cook fresh squid and fish for dinner, brilliant! Still not satiated the girls insisted on Gelato for dessert.
Our final day in Venice we did not have any great plans for the morning, just to have a wander around the canals. We looked at a few more galleries including NZ which was ok, an amazing mosaic made from painted eggs in a church and a 10m high bamboo tower which we were able to climb. The bamboo tower was one of everyone’s favorites’ for the whole biennale. We spent the afternoon in Murano which is a nearby island that produces many fine glass products. We walked around the island and looked at factories and shops, before the weather once again forced us to head back to Venice, for more gelato of course. For dinner tonight we headed to Treviso to meet up with our friends Roberto and Eliza. This is the couple that we met about two years ago in Scotland. We did the same last time we were in Venice, so thought we would revisit them. They had the good news that they are living in their new house, getting married in August and expecting a baby. We walked around the small city and had another huge and yummy pizza dinner.So in short, we have enjoyed our second visit to Venice, it was still great, but did not have the same wow factor! This of course was not helped by the weather being grey most of the time and lots of rain showers. As for the art show, we still enjoyed it, and thought parts of it were brilliant, but overall possible better 2 years ago, and definitely too many video installations. We may have to make another visit in 2 years, hopefully the weather will be a little nicer!
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