It started out as a sunny day, so we decided to spend most of our time walking. From our apartment in Cannaregio, we first walked over to the Rialto bridge. I love this little Campo with palazzo, and a shrine around the corner.
Today was All Saints Day, a holiday with businesses and schools closed; and the start of a long weekend. Many Italians were here visiting family, both resident and long resting on the cemetery island. It seemed that Venice was filling up with not only the usual tourists, but also many Italian, German and French families trying to get a little Venice weekend in their lives before winter. The congestion around the Rialto bridge was so thick we had to fight our way around to get to Palazzo Bembo to see the rest of the Interiors show we had enjoyed the other day.
All was serene inside, except for an aggressively fashionably dressed group posing for photos in the windows. We enjoyed the views down. In the exhibit were some quite interesting pieces we missed last time.
Nelson Akamo from South Africa.
Paintings by a Russian artist, Alexy Tronin.
I was very taken by a video and painting series showing an older woman walking through a variety of landscapes, some desolate, some lush, some man made environments, some natural. One I found particularly fascinating was of a sort of boat graveyard full of rusting, falling apart boats that each seemed to have personalities. Damn, I didn’t note the artist.
Another interesting installation was by a Chilean plastic surgeon, who had an artistic past but was pressured by family into studying medicine. His aesthetic bent had him specializing in plastic surgery; but then he starting painting again, his canvas the human body.
And loved these paintings using the opposites on the color wheel by Israeli Ika Abravamel.
We resumed our walk slowly negotiating the mass of people on the bridge. Once in San Polo we got off the main pedestrian path, and the crowds disappeared. We just aimlessly wandered in San Polo and Santa Croce, ducking into Biennale offsite exhibits or across bridges and down narrow calles which empty into a Campo.
For lunch, we tried a newish Sicilian place I’d heard about. Small menu of Sicilian standards, done well. It was busy with a mostly Italian speaking crowd, nice to see a different regional food getting the love. We split fried appetizers, a pistachio spaghetti with shrimp, and swordfish involtini. Not quite as awesome as much of what I’d had in Sicily, but good and different from Venetian food. Nice owners, too. Baccaretto, on Corte de Trozzi. It got busy, so reserve.
Kept walking, past the Frari, through Campos with people sitting in the sun, trying to ward off the increasing chill.
Stopped in to Ca Foscari, where the 15th century university building was hosting a show of Russian painter Geliy Korshev. Soviet Realism huge portraits and still lifes. Some fascinating things from both an art and historical view. And I love how he used red.
Into Dorsoduro, down quiet Rios to the 17th century San Trovaso boatyard. Then to the Zatarre, where the people who weren’t in San Marco were strolling. We got gelato from Nico, which we couldn’t finish, a shame. Then back home.
Early that morning I had made a mushroom ragu from fresh mushrooms and dried porcini. With a bitter greens salad, we had for a late dinner it over a thin layer of polenta, classic cold weather food.
Destination Anywhere 