Getting off the local train from Vicenza and stepping out of the train station of Venezia (known to us Americans as Venice) we were all immediately confronted by the beautiful and bustling Grand Canal. We would then spend the next couple of days adjusting to and absolutely loving the unique car-less city of water-buses, beautiful small streets, and endless amounts of wonderful architecture, art and culture (as well as 20 million yearly tourists [a significant number contrasted to the mere 55,000 residents on the actual island]).
In Venice we enjoyed many museums, churches, food, and of course the amazing Biennale! We architects spent a specifically important two hours at the Peggy Guggenheim Museum (the site for our studio project this semester!), where we got ourselves acquainted with the early Jackson Pollacs’, Cy Twomblys’, and Paul Klees’ (just a few of the notable artists Peggy was patron to and collected) as well as the grave site for her and her many (14) dogs, which had fantastic names such as Madam Butterfly, Sir Herbert and Hong Kong. Perhaps most the enjoyable part of the museum was sitting out on the front deck space of the building jutting out onto the grand canal (this being the only building on the canal that has this intermediate public space between the building and the water), watching the water-taxis and gondolas pass by on a beautiful blue day.
We also visited the famous Piazza San Marco and took in the views from the top ledge of the Basilica di San Marco as well as (the even more stunning) views from the top of the brick tower in the square. In the piazza we also visited a Scarpa interior re-do of an Olivetti store (one of the two Scarpa interventions visited on the trip). On Sunday, we visited a number of churches, one of which we had a memorable altercation with a church employee who refused our entry due to the size of our group and the fact it was a Sunday, which Jeffery, Jerry, and Daniele handled with both style and grace.
We unfortunately only got a totally of 6 hours (sounds like a lot, respective to the size really is not), at the Art Biennale, but we all made the most of our time :). In the Biennale we saw a large array of different contemporary artists, working in an array of mediums, from around the globe as well as many notable structures (housing each country’s art) some of which we had perviously studied back in Ithaca, such as the Italian and Venezuelan Pavillon done by Scarpa and the very structurally notable Nordic Pavillon by Sverre Fehn.
Last, but definitely not least, many of us enjoyed some very notable and classic Venetian meals including light and crispy fired sea-food/street-food, black ink spaghetti with cuttlefish, pistachio pesto and prawn linguini, tiramisu (from the best shop in Venice), and the little Venetian tapas!
