Friday, October 21- Boats, Trains, Planes and Automobiles

Left the hotel a little after 9 am via private water taxi directly from our hotel entrance. What luxury and decadence! The ride via motorboat was exhilarating and I was glad to have my giant camera with me. I tried to capture some of the fleeting scenes of daily venetian life: gorgeous architecture, a funeral with casket being transported via boat, garbage boats, police boats, etc. Everything in Venice is done via boat.

Weather is lovely today; clear sky and moderate temperature. Our flight left Venice at 12:20 connecting through Paris at 4:30 for a flight to London. And yes, 22" roll a-boards are allowed on these Air France flights. It seemed like a very long day.

Upon arrival at Heathrow we bought tickets for the Heathrow Express train to Paddington, a ride that took only about 15 minutes. Forgot to mention that somewhere during the afternoon the handle on Ferris' carryon bag broke so she had to pull the bag with only half a handle! Took a taxi from Paddington to our hotel at Marble Arch - The Cumberland - which is not far from Paddington. Unpacked our bags and by the time we finished it was 8pm (London is one hour earlier than Venice) so we went down to the Rhodes Brasserie in the hotel for dinner. I had salmon and Ferris had Wild Boar and Apple Sausage.

Thursday October 20 Venice

Today we experienced the miserable weather day we'd been dreading; steady heavy rain all morning. Yes the venetians do use umbrellas on their narrow streets. And yes I wished I'd brought my new galoshes as I approached large puddles in the uneven pavers. Soon my sneakers and socks were wet. I'd worn my long underwear top plus a sweater and was freezing. But to hear Ferris tell it, it was steamy and hot all day so you can't learn anything about weather from just two data points. At 10am went back to Micromega to pick up glasses we'd ordered. I finally got a pair of prescription reading glasses and they are marvelous. Had no idea how poorly I was seeing before. And I have the RX to take home. Despite the winds and driving rain, we headed through St. Marks to catch the #1 vaporetto to Salute across the Grand Canal.

Our destination was Francois Pinault's museum Punta della Dogana designed by Tadao Ando. Can't remember how many times my umbrella turned inside out. Collection inside was marvelous. Donald Judd room, Sigmar Polke, a centerpiece room designed around two Julie Mehretu paintings that work perfectly with with tones of the Ando building and the lines of traditional Venetian architecture. There are many more wonderful works but I can't list them all.

Interior of the Punta della Dogana; this room features Donald Judd.

Commuters on the Vaporetto.

Our home away from home, the Rialto Bridge.

Certainly not because at any minute a water taxi will arrive to take us to the airport for our departure. (it is now Friday morning as I write.) Tried to visit the Prada Foundation but when we arrived it was closed! And only after 11 stops on the vaporetto. But by the afternoon the rain ended and the sun tried bravely to peek through the clouds. Nothing warmed my wet feet however until we returned to the hotel late afternoon to pack our bags. Ate locally in the evening. Had a meal of pasta and red wine to say farewell to Venice.

Wednesday October 19 - Venice

One note before I get into today's activities:  beware the gorgeous view of a Venetian canal from your hotel window.  At first encounter the scene is a romantic one of gondolas, kayaks and tourists strolling over tiny bridges.  Then you discover that each day before dawn, a rumbling, grinding sound fills your room.  You crank your neck outside to see what really goes on behind the scenes to support Venetian daily life.  The trash collection barge!

4 a.m. daily garbage collection below our window

Today was our first day with less than perfect weather. The sky was cloudy and threatening all morning and in the early afternoon a light drizzle began. But by then we had already reached our art destination for the day - The Palazzo Grazzi - one of the two major contemporary art venues in Venice owned by Francois Pinot of LVMH. If we can figure out the vaporetto system we'll visit the other museum that he owns tomorrow. As the name implies, the Grazzi is a former palace now turned into a showcase for his substantial collection. And it remains a beautiful building with intricately carved and painted ceilings. When we entered we saw a Jeff Koons fucia balloon dog as well as a climbing (it went up all three "piano" of the palazzo) appliqué, patchwork, crocheted work called something like contagion by a Portuguese artist whose name I have to find. I won't name other artists in the collection but suffice it to say he owns the best of the best new names. We arrived at Grazzi around 2 and left at 5.

We'd allocated the morning for (I bet you can guess) shopping! I remembered a nice area for walking from my last trip here in '06 and wanted to find it. It's a short distance from our hotel just west of San Marco. On the the way we happened by one of the best eyeglass stores I've been in: Ottica Urbani. This shop is one of Elton John's favorites and we concur. It sells extremely unique plastic frames in every sort of color and shape imaginable. On our rambles we found another that we both like very much, but this one sells hand-made bone and horn rims: Micromega Ottica.

We looked at gloves, sweaters, glass and walked through charming narrow winding streets. Had lunch at a pasta restaurant on the way to Grazzi.

A favorite leather shop

Typical Venetian plaza

Neither Ferris nor I were hungry for dinner so we asked for a recommendation at the front desk. Ugo, the conceirge, has become our best friend. He suggested a place nearby and we assumed it would be a casual affair. Turned out to be a very elegant hidden treasure (as F calls it) I Mercanti. We had a couple of small dishes that were prepared to perfection.

Monday October 17 - Venice

Today is Monday and the Biennale venues are closed.  Since we had a full day of contemporary art yesterday we decided to head for more classical destinations today.  Everyone keeps telling us how small Venice and the easiest way to get from point a to point b is to walk.  So we got directions to walk to the Dorsoduro (a part of town) rather than take the boat to reach the Academia Museum and Peggy Guggenheim Foundation. We laughed because the front desk told us to keep straight in a certain direction and we'd reach the bridge but by now we've learned there's no such thing as "straight" in Venice. Ferris says the Venetian street plan or lack thereof reminds her of the streets in Fez. This is very apt.

View from the Academia Bridge.

Beautiful day again particularly for walking and picture taking. Loved the Academia. Had a major Tintoretto-fest. And by the way Tintoretto is especially important to see on this trip because his work is the inspiration for the theme of this year's Biennale - Illuminations.  Giorgione's The Tempest magnificent. The Peggy Guggenheim Foundation was quite a treat. I'd never been to either museum before. PG had a room of amazing Pollocks as well as every major artist of the early 20th c. What we enjoyed most was the fact that we hadn't seen many of the works before, not even in reproduction. What a treat.

The Academia.

The Dorsoduro.

View from the front of the Peggy Guggenheim Foundation.

A vaporetto.

Of course we were unable to make it through the day without a little shopping. Of particular note were a glass shop were we both bought necklaces and a Venetian family run leather shop where again we both made purchases. Ferris bought a clever green leather bag that has a detachable iPad carrier. I bought a darling orange document bag. Ended the day on a happy note with our now daily ritual of pistachio gelato. We are making a science of determining who has the best pistachio gelato in venice. Cannot leave until this study is complete.

Wonderful glass jewelry shop:  Marina e Susanna Sent

Sunday Oct 16 Venice Giardini

Spent today going to Biennial exhibitions at the Giardini, a garden area about a 20 minute walk from our hotel. Weather is lovely and sunny but crisp. Venetians are dressed in coats, sweaters and scarves. Walked through Piazza San Marco to the water, past the Bridge of Sighs (scaffolded sadly) to the Giardini.

Enjoyed the Japan (artist: Tabiamo) and French (artist: Boltanski) Pavillions especially. In the Central Pavillion we loved work by an Ethiopian artist plus a three channel video work by Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist whose work we will see later in London.

Did country pavilions until 5:30 and took a vaporetto boat back to San Marco. Dinner at Fiaschetteria Toscana past the Rialto bridge. Had superb grilled John Dory. Tomorrow is Monday and biennial venues are closed. So F and I will scope out a plan for the day over breakfast in the morning.

Tabaimo at the Japan Pavillion

Tabaimo at the Japan Pavillion

October 14 Departure Day/Oct 15 Arrival

Met Ferris at JFK at 6 pm for an 8:30 pm flight to Venice. Weather was very rainy during the ride to the airport but takeoff was right on time. Flew Delta in coach direct to Venice using frequent flyer points. Coach is not so bad; it's only eight hours and reasonably comfortable if you get aisle seats as we did. We weren't really sure what to expect upon arrival. I knew that various options were available for getting to the hotel but we'd decided not to reserve anything in advance; we'd wait to see how we felt at 11:30am Venice time when we landed. Sometime during the course of the evening or flight we decided to take the easy route into town which is to take a private water taxi. When we arrived at the airport we found the water taxi desk and were curtly waved away by the agent who said "water too high, no taxi today". So I asked what the alternative was and she said Alilagunia, the public water transportation system.

So Ferris and I bought tickets and walked the 5 minute walk with our bags down to the dock where both public and private boats depart. It was a beautiful day so the walk was rather pleasant (and downhill; the return walk, uphill all the way, might not be so easy).

But the tricky part for the uninitiated is figuring out everything about how to maneuver the boat ride and what to do once you get off! Ferris and I had been the first to arrive to wait for a boat and somehow, because we didn't understand where to stand, we ended up being the last people to board the boat. It was jammed with passengers and luggage. There was luggage precariously stacked on the top deck that I was sure was going to topple off into the water (one of which was mine). Passengers were squeezed into a small hot cabin below deck with scratched plastic windows that didn't open. Every inch that wasn't filled with people was crammed with luggage. I felt like some kind of boat person refugee in flight. Finally we reached our stop - Rialto Bridge. I'd received walking directions from the hotel that sounded very straightforward. I soon learned that the clearest of directions are only as good as your ability to find a street name on the corner of a building to plot your location. Eventually we found the street we needed and pulled our bags through the narrow streets until we found the hotel.

View from our hotel window

Our hotel is glorious - The Palace Bonvecchiatti on Calle de Fabri. By the way, in Italian the word calle is pronounced CAH-lay and Bonvecchiatti is bon-veck-key-AH-ti. The hotel is modern and airy; our room white with blue accents. And our room (#361) is large! Of course it isn't inexpensive but then absolutely nothing in Venice is inexpensive. And we were thrilled to find that our room had a view overlooking a canal! We took pictures of gondolas as they floated under our window. We unpacked and got ourselves a bit organized. By then it was about 3 or 4 pm and we decided to head off to Piazza San Marco. How can you arrive in Venice and not see it right away? We intentionally meandered around, trying to get our bearings. We found a very nice art to wear/craft shop not far from the Piazza and stopped in to look at lovely Murano glass necklaces.

Then in the Piazza we took time as the sun was setting to walk around, take pictures and stopped to have a glass of wine at one of the cafés on the plaza. What a glorious view we had from our table of the Doges Palace and the Campanile as the sun set! We relied on advice from the front desk for a restaurant recommendation for dinner. Will fill in the name letter but had a lovely meal with one of the best salads ever eaten. We couldn't believe the freshness of the produce. The salad had the reddest tomatoes, the greenest lecture and the orangest (if this is a word) carrots we'd ever seen. I had a grilled fish as my main course and enjoyed it very much.  Also lovely wine which Ferris ordered as a birthday gift to me:  2006 Amarone della Valpolicella, L'Amarone della Casa dei Bepi.  Wonder if I can track this down in NYC?

 

Postscript: I now realize (post Venice stay) that there was yet a third option which is to have the water taxi take us to the Rialto Bridge stop and have someone from the hotel meet us there and transport the bags. This is done all the time and certainly worth considering despite the high cost. Venice has many small streets with absolutely no name on them. And I have yet to find a map of of Venice that depicts all the streets that do actually exist.