La Biennale di Venezia

Venice is full of tourists, especially around St. Mark's square. The trick is to find the authentic places that are far enough away from the tourists and the Disneyland areas of Italy. And I have to say that we have been fairly successful in achieving those goals.

On Monday, we took the three hour train from Florence to Venice. There is simply no place like this - a city built on water. Everything that comes in and out of this place is by water. That means, every roll of toilet paper, every bottle of wine, every tourist, every block of Parmesan cheese, EVERYTHING! Our hotel was on the island of Lido, just across from the mainland of Venice and right next to the beach. Lido feels nothing like Venice, but it is definitely a nice place to escape to, where the tourists and pigeons don't run wildly through the streets.

Our trip to Venice was mostly for the purpose of walking through La Biennale di Venezia, an international art exhibition featuring some of the most cutting edge and visually stimulating peices in contemporary art. There are two parts to the Biennale: the Giardini and the Arsenale. The Giardini gardens feature about 30 pavilions of different countries, each with a very unique exhibition. From paintings and drawings to claymation and real to-scale houses illustrating something fun and corky about life, I saw a little bit of everything. Some of the peices allow for the audience to participate in the art. For example, one of the exhibitions included hundreds of free postcards of "Venice." But the pictures on the postcards were of things that had nothing to do with Venice. Some of you will be recieving those postcards soon...

The Arsenale, old shipyards and warehouses that used to build and fit the fleets of the Venetian Republic, was much more of an interactive exhibition with video, and peices that involved more patron participation.

Aside from the Biennale, we ate dinner in a not so touristy part of Venice, and took the boat at night back to Lido. Venice is a different city at night. It is quiet and romantic, peaceful and special. It is something that everyone should experience at least once in their lives. As the boat left Venice headed for Lido, the lights of Venice left me feeling tranquil, completely at ease and content with where I was going.

Ciao! Pictures of the Biennale soon...