Category Archives: Italy

Venice Architecture Biennale 2016

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….featuring different aspects of architecture from around the world

One of the must see venues in Venice for my family on our recent trip was to take in some of the Venice Biennale exhibits, mainly the the Victoria and Albert contribution curated by our son.

For those who have never heard of biennales let me explain. A biennale takes place every two years. They are large international art exhibitions dealing with contemporary issues around art, music and architecture and take place all over the world. The Venice Biennale was founded in 1895 and highlighted city marketing, urban regeneration and cultural tourism. This year’s theme is titled REPORTING FROM THE FRONT, and is curated by Alejandro Aravena. The show runs from May to September and the exhibits can be found at  the Giardini and the Arsenale.

The exhibit our son curated in agreement with la Biennale di Venizia and  the Victoria and Albert Museum out of London, England is titled A World of Fragile Parts and focuses on how the production of copies throughout history and today has aided in the preservation of cultural artefacts.

This exhibit highlights the new technologies that make it possible to fabricate copies of historical artefacts that are ravaged by war, tourism and environmental factors. For more information about the exhibit go here.

Old technology using plaster casts.
New technology using digital scanning and 3D printers.

Unfortunately while we were there our son was not so to prove that we actually went and saw the exhibit we posed in front of the sign for A World of Fragile Parts. Even the baby got involved by pointing out her uncle’s name on the list of credits. A week later Brendan did go back to Venice to give a talk and teach a class on the exhibit.

My only regret is that we didn’t get to see more of the Biennale. Two days in Venice is not enough time.

Thursday Doors – August 4, 2016

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…Italy has an abundance of beautiful doors

The first is an opening leading to our son’s show at the Venice Biennale and the second is a door we passed on the Grand Canal.

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For more interesting doors check out Norm 2.0

Thursday Doors – July 28th (posted July 30)

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….church doors in Italy were a photographer’s dream

Every large city in Italy seems to have a Duomo or cathedral. These two doors are from the Duomo in Florence.

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Thursday Doors is hosted by Norm 2.0

Traffic Jam in Venice

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…there are no cars in Venice

You can get to Venice by bus, train, boat and car but the only transportation in Venice proper is by water. So how can Venice have a traffic jam you ask? It’s all on the water, in the canals and around the perimeter of the island.

The photo of the gondolas is courtesy of my brother-in-law.

Where to Stay in Venice

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…..hotel, Airbnb or VRBO?

Accommodations in Venice vary from luxury hotels to simple one bedroom Airbnbs.

For our first two days in Venice we opted to stay in a small hotel called Villa Rosa in the district of Cannaregio. It was close to the bus stop and train station and a little less busy than other parts of Venice. We had a small room with a double bed and a twin and a crib. For two nights we figured we could stand each other enough to all sleep in the same room. Admittedly the baby had a hard time adjusting to her new surroundings and ended up sleeping in the twin with her mother both nights.

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To get to our room we had to climb up one flight of steps and then down another to get to the back of the hotel where our room was located. In the morning we had breakfast in the hotel where a continental breakfast was served every morning.

The roads (pathways) to and from our hotel were narrow but we never felt unsafe. Literally a few hundred metres from our hotel was the Airbnb that our other daughter and her wife were renting. It was a cute little place with one bedroom, a living room, kitchen and bathroom. Everything was very modern, clean and air conditioned.

My sister and her family were also in Venice at the same time. They arrived one day earlier and stayed on day longer. They rented a place through VRBO that was located within walking distance from us in the same district. It was very large, spacious and beautifully decorated with Indonesian and Asian artefacts. The downsize was that it on the sixth floor and the elevator was broken. Apart from that there were three bedrooms, two modern bathrooms a huge living room, a small walk out and a quirky little kitchen. The views looking over the rooftops of Venice were wonderful. On our first night there we all got together and enjoyed a great Italian meal prepared by my brother-in-law.

My only regret in Venice is that our stay of two days was too short. You need at least four days and if you are staying that long and enjoy cooking and shopping Airbnb or RVBO is the way to go.

Till next time, Ciao!