Venice

2018 Sep. Venice. Burano. Italy.

Back in Venice again after so many years. Still as picturesque and gorgeous as ever…

When in Venice, inevitably you will somehow wander into Piazza San Marco which is the main public square packed with tourists. The Campanile stands tall as a location marker, and the opulent and ornate St Mark’s Basilica is a famous example of Byzantine architecture not to be missed. Palazzo Ducale is right by the side at the waterfront.

Hotels in Venice are expensive, and the prices get even more ridiculous during key events, so plan and book ahead of time if you can. I stayed in Hotel Ca Alvise, which was a short walk from Piazza San Marco.

Venice is a big tourist trap and finding nice restaurants or good authentic food is a challenge. For lunch, cicchetti is a popular Venetian tradition where small snacks and side dishes are served at bars, similar to the tapas culture in Spain. I frequented this place as it was near my hotel and the cicchetti selection looked yummy.

This was a work trip. Yup, nice destination for a work trip. My colleague’s flight got delayed unexpectedly and I had an afternoon free to explore on my own. Took a long walk to explore the meandering streets of Venice and visited some museums.

Peggy Guggenheim Museum had a nice art collection, and an inviting courtyard with sculptures.

Lazy me did not do any homework before visiting Punta Della Dogana, but the moment I stepped inside, I could tell it was special. And indeed, the building was restored by Tadao Ando, one of my favourite architect. Simply stunning interior, love his architecture. The art show ‘Dancing with Myself’ was also quite interesting.

Throughout the entire visit, I ended up touching and caressing the beautiful concrete walls rather than viewing the art installations. You know, the magical feeling of holding beauty in your hands. Cool, clean, monolithic, beautifully constructed concrete.

The vantage point at the tip of the island had a nice view back at Piazza San Marco. Beautiful sight.

Saw this humungous cruise ship along the waterway, so this was probably one of the reasons why Venice was packed with tourists.

When in Italy, must eat gelato! This is Gelati Nico near Accademia, and their house specialty is Gianduiotto. It was good but I decided next time I shall just order pistachio flavour everywhere, to compare which is better.

Dinner at Osteria Alla Frasca, quite a walk away from where we were staying, but supposedly a good restaurant that locals go to. Worth the effort as I love good local food, and would hate to step into a tourist trap to eat mediocre meal and burn a hole in my wallet.

While on work trips, my usual routine is to squeeze out some ‘me time alone’ by waking up real early in the morning to explore, before work schedule begins. Venice, early in the morning without the tourist crowd, was a beautiful serene sight to behold.

The Rialto Bridge already had visitors taking photographs. I wandered to Mercato di Rialto while the stall owners were busy setting up for business.

This was an interesting sight to chance upon, and now I know how sewage issue in Venice is dealt with.

And right after an eye-opener on sewage management in Venice, breakfast came next, naturally. 🙂

Time to get to work. Some practical info on local transport (public waterbus is vaporetto) in Venice. It is expensive at 7.50euro one-way. But just bite it and get the 1, 2, 3 or 7-day pass (20, 30, 40, 60 euro respectively). Save yourself the hassle of counting and planning, enjoy the convenience of hopping on and off as and when you like. Basically if you take 3 one-way rides, you would have made the day passes worth the while. Otherwise be prepared to walk until you cannot take it. Airport transfer by Alilaguna was 15euro one way, which was the cheapest option charged separately.

Took the water bus to Giardini stop, one of the 2 locations for Venice Biennale, and the reason for my trip. The theme for this edition was ‘Free Space’. The garden grounds was quite sizeable with 29 country pavilions in total.

Visiting all the pavilions one by one took a lot of energy and leg power. It was both exciting and tiring, and we spent the entire day from 9 to 6 to view all the exhibits briefly, without enough time to go into details. Took a tonne of pictures of Venice Biennale @ Giardini, but I shall share only a few that left an impression on me here…

Swiss Pavilion, winner of the Golden Lion for best national participation and deservingly so. Such an interesting ‘house tour’, simple yet powerful idea through distortion of scale and proportion, creating new perspectives and illustrating how space shapes us.

German Pavilion. Brilliant layout design with careful crafting on the framing of views. The monolithic panels in black upon entry, unveil as you walk through the space, to show the exhibition contents behind. Unbuilding Walls. Beautiful.

UK Pavilion, the anti-Pavilion. Count on the Brits for wit and humour, the pavilion was left empty, void with nothing inside. Instead scaffolding were built by the side to a recreated rooftop, and the show was staged as ‘island’ – the one nearby you can see. Free space, I get it, walau like that also can.

Australian Pavilion. Put a few bags of native plants in the empty space and the show is done. Nice and simple, deep thinking and no fuss.

French Pavilion. Free space with free drinks and snacks. I like.

Venezuela Pavilion. Beautiful architecture by Carlo Scarpa, oops sorry, totally distracted and didn’t pay attention to the show when in a nice building.

After a long tiring day of pavilion-hopping, took a slow long walk back to hotel, and saw a part of Venice that was not as frequented by tourists.

Shops selling Venetian masks and dolls. Masks were worn in Venice since antiquity, and had a long history of protecting the wearer’s identity during promiscuous or decadent activities. So naughty, I like. I still remembered vividly my awesome week in Venice during Carnevale twenty years ago during my student days. Hordes of tourists were dressed in period costumes and masks, and packed Piazza San Marco. What a memorable experience!

No time for lunch during the day, so had ciccheti and drinks for pre-dinner instead.

Out hunting for a nice dinner when the night falls. It was a nice walk, without the packed tourist crowd in the day.

My favourite dining place in Venice so far was Il Paradiso Perduto, nice casual local restaurant with great vibes and good food. Always packed for dinner with multiple seatings late into the night, definitely need to reserve ahead or you would be turned away. I could not get a table on the first night, so I booked one on the spot for the next evening, even then only late seating was available.

Second day visiting Venice Biennale @ Arsenale, another long full day with so much content to view, more walking and standing…

So many beautiful exhibits at Arsenale, a beautiful venue itself on a beautiful day.

Singapore Pavilion at Venice Biennale, Arsenale.

Mexico had the most beautifully crafted exhibit at the Biennale in my opinion. The projects on display were carved in stone. So stunningly gorgeous!

Argentina had an interesting display with optical illusion.

Found a place to sit at the outdoors of China Pavilion.

It was a beautiful day with nice cool weather. The Arsenale grounds, which was a complex of former shipyards and armouries, was very scenic too.

Made a trip to see the Holy See’s pavilion Vatican Chapels @ San Giorgio, a small standalone island.

Ten architects were invited to build ten chapels, gathered in the wooded area on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice, to form the pavilion of the Holy See.

Another exciting day seeing so many beautiful things – architecture, design, installations, and ideas. But walking all day was challenging, two blisters already and my legs, back, rib cage were all aching. I was seriously exhausted after 2 long days of non-stop walking and standing the entire day viewing the exhibits. This was the moment when I wished I was in Asia, with foot reflexology and massage places everywhere. 🙂

Venice at dusk was stunning, with that beautiful glow in the sky. Monet’s paintings captured it much better than my lazy-to-compose-properly iPhone snapshots.

Dinner at Vini da Gigio, a local trattoria with decent food.

Had some free time before my flight home the next day, and did some sight-seeing. A friend suggested that I visit Burano, and it was a great recommendation. Love the place and its colours! To reach the island from Venice, take a vaporetto at Fondamente Nuove, the ride would take about 45min.

Views of San Michele Cemetery while on the waterbus ride.

Murano island, famed internationally for its glass production. I had visited many year ago and did not make a stop this time.

Finally reached Burano, famous for its brightly coloured houses, and lace production. The island was very small and took only minutes to cross the entire village, only way to explore the place was by foot.