A Few More Shots From Venice

…. even though we only stayed two days I seem to have many more photos to share

It was hard to squeeze in everything in two days, in fact it was impossible. Taking tours was out of the question. I was just happy to see many of the must see places first hand. On our second day we toured the Grand Canal, San Marco and the Rialto Bridge (under construction). We drank cappuccino at the famous Caffe Florian (inside because it was much cheaper and just as delicious), walked past the Doge’s Palace and the Bridge of Sighs, walked through the Campo Santa Margherita and had lunch at a fabulous bistro, La Zucca, near the Rialto Bridge that specialized in vegetarian and pumpkin dishes.

Piazza San Marco and Caffe Florian

Sites Along the Grand Canal

Rialto Bridge, Markets and La Zucca

WPC – Fun

….where to begin with this great topic, FUN?

The first photo, although not the best quality, brings a smile to my face because of how gullible people can be. While watching this guy, my husband sarcastically commented on how this trick or optical illusion is done with magnets and he said it loud enough for a few people to hear. Soon after I hear the same people, who had been standing close by, proclaiming that magnets are the explanation for this feat.

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I can laugh now but at the time I didn’t think it was so funny when this guy wanted to charge me 10 euro for posing with me. He accosted me and we used my camera for the pictures. Boy did I feel duped. In the end I gave him 5 euro and learned a big lesson.

Peggy Guggenheim Gallery in Venice

….one of my favourite art galleries in all of Italy

I guess I shouldn’t have said ‘all of Italy’ when I’ve only seen a small portion of the country. I had never heard of Peggy Guggenheim before this trip. Of course I knew of the famous Guggenheim Museum in New York but I had no idea that there was another Guggenheim in Venice.

Peggy Guggenheim was an avid collector of modern art and in an eight year period she amassed a collection of art by Kandinsky, Jackson Pollock, Picasso, Calder, Henry Moore, Motherwell and Max Ernst, just to name a few, who represented Cubist, Surrealist and Abstract Expressionist movements in art.

She moved to Venice after WWII and set up a gallery of her collection at Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, on the Grand Canal. In the summers she opened her home to the public and when she died in 1979 she left her estate to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation on the condition that the collection would remain intact in Venice and would be recognized as hers. The Foundation assumed responsibility for both the collection and for Guggenheim’s palazzo.

In 2015 a movie of her colourful and controversial life was made. Here is the trailer.

Peggy Guggenheim

I think I enjoyed this collection so much because it was full of modern artists that I admire very much. The Palazzo itself was light and airy and the outdoor sculpture garden was serene and calming. Being on the Grand Canal added another element of vitality and I could just imagine Peggy sitting on the balcony with her dogs observing the gondolas and small water crafts making their way through the green waters of Venice.