Culture on the Canals: Our First Two Days in Venice

After the bus fiasco, we manged to find our way back to Venice without a problem. (Okay, that's not entirely true. We got on the bus going to Mestre. We asked the driver if it stopped in Venezia, and he gave us a weird look and then said, "Just get on." We rode along, thinking maybe it would eventually get to Venezia. However, when it reached Mestre, the bus driver told us to exit and transfer to the Venezia bus across the street. Even though it added a bit of time to our trip, we never felt lost like we had on our earlier rides.)

Ponte della Costituzione bridge designed by Santiago Calatrava

Since we had spent so much time waiting for buses, it was already evening, and we weren't ready to start our official sightseeing ventures. Instead, we opted for wandering around, snapping pictures, and just soaking up being on vacation with no specific agenda. (Of course many of my days are agenda-less right now, anyway, but it was nice to be in Venice and to have Mr. Traveler by my side.)

As we walked, we grew hungry, and even though the guidebook had steered us away from eating pizza (it's not a Venetian specialty), we decided to ignore this advice. We found a nice pizzeria away from the main tourist section, ordered some wine, and selected our pizzas. I chose one with fresh buffalo mozzarella, tomatoes, and pancetta. It was absolutely amazing. I had declared a couple months before that I wanted to have mozzarella in Italy, and the cheese was every bit as good as I had imagined.

Waiting for Pizza

After dinner, we continued our walk. In the moonlight, the canals seemed so picturesque, but without a tripod it was impossible to perfectly capture what we were seeing. I made a comment that the moon was pretty, but didn't think much of it. "Woah," Mr. Traveler said. I looked around to see what could be so amazing. "That's a lunar eclipse." So we were in Venice, one of the most romantic cities in the world, walking hand in hand, and witnessing a lunar eclipse. It was the perfect way to end the first day of our vacation.

Lunar Eclipse in Venice

On Thursday morning, we actually got on the Venezia bus and made it into Venice without a problem. Our plan for the day was to visit Basilica di San Marco (St. Mark's Basilica) first and then pick a few places to visit in the surrounding area. I wore long pants and a conservative shirt as the dress code had been hammered into me by several people (no shorts, no tank tops, no cleavage, no short dresses, etc). When we got there, we saw people wearing shorts (only those with extremely short shorts were turned away), tank tops and cleavage (covered with loosely placed scarves), and dresses above the knees. I was still glad I hadn't risked wearing something less conservative though; it would have been pretty painful to wait in the long line to enter only to be turned away.

Basilica di San Marco

Even though the Basilica was as beautiful and intricate as everyone had described, I actually found that once inside I wasn't too interested in looking around. Since we've been in Europe, we've seen so many churches (many ornately decorated), that they've all started to blend together. The gold ceilings, the murals, the crowds chattering away despite the "No Talking" signs, all seemed very familiar.

Inside (Mr. Traveler was able to sneak a photo as we left)

Back outside, we grabbed two Powerades, and sat down to recharge and figure out an agenda for the rest of the day. I said I'd like to visit a palace, but I didn't have a preference. Mr. Traveler wanted to check out the art museum. Palazzo Grassi combined both into a single destination, so we decided to walk that way, stopping at Il Museo Della Musica on the way.

Il Museo Della Musica (the Museum of Music) is located in an old church, Chiesa di San Maurizio, and houses a large collection of violins and other stringed instruments. I found the rare and unusual instruments to be the most fascinating part of the exhibit. Photos weren't allowed in the museum, so I did a quick internet search to see if I could find some of the instruments. You can find photos here and here.

We ate lunch (a fried seafood plate and melon, mozzarella, and ham) before continuing on our way to the Palazzo Grassi.  We still had a couple more spontaneous stops before our destination, however.

Every other year, a large international art exhibition called La Biennale takes place in Venice. As we walked, we spotted a couple of exhibits that were part of the larger exhibition. The first one to catch our eye was an Iranian Art exhibit. No tickets were required, so we decided to duck in and check it out. One of the pieces consisted of a room of mirrors with the faces of victims of the Iraq/Iran war so that visitors could see their faces overlapping the victims, forming a connection between the victim and viewer. I found this piece extremely moving; in the mirrors, women, men, and children of various ages stared back, reminding the audience of the cost of war.

Iranian Art Piece

We saw a couple more Biennale exhibits before continuing to the palace. One had lifelike bodies onto which talking faces were projected. The other consisted mostly of furniture attached to the ceiling by a wire connected to a motor. Each piece of furniture hung above a white piece of paper and had a pencil attached, so that when it swayed, it created a piece of art. (Examples of previously created works were displayed in a separate room.) I've already shared one picture of this exhibit in the week's review entry, but you can find a video below.

Finally, after the Biennale detour, we made it to Palazzo Grassi. Upon entering the building, one piece of art immediately stood out. Contamination (2008) by Joana Vasconcelos filled much of the first floor and continued up the stairs, touching each floor of the building. Photography was not allowed, but several photos of the piece can be found in this article about the Palazzo Grassi and Punta Della Dogana museums. Beyond the initial, very eye-catching exhibit, the museum had several very thought provoking displays. All of the art in the museum was definitely intended to make a statement, rather than just to create something visually appealing. I never expected to find contemporary art making relevant statements in a city known for its light Renaissance depictions of religious figures.

Although we enjoyed both the Biennale and Grassi exhibits, by the time we wrapped up our visit to the Grassi, we were ready to take a break from art museums (at least until the following day). We spent the rest of the evening wondering around the city, people watching, and enjoying Italian wine.

Grand Canal

Next up, I'll tell you about our final day in Venice before the cruise.