Tag: Venice

Venice Biennale Architettura 2021

The rains finally moved in on our last day in Venice. This gave us a chance to do some indoor exploring with a visit to the Palazzo Ducale and the recently opened Biennale Architettura – taking place across the city but with permanent headquarters at the Arsenale complex. The exhibition’s tagline for this still unusual moment in history was ‘How will we live together?’

I’ve long dreamed of being in Venice for the Biennale events and the timing during our visit was complete happenstance. It took a while to find the main entrance and then even longer to ‘safely’ buy our own tickets online, but once inside, we were inspired, impressed and occasionally, as with all great art, perplexed.

The themes of ecology, togetherness and inequality seemed to infuse almost all the installations. The pandemic clearly pushed the intensity of these contemporary concerns even more to the forefront and led to engaging, challenging and hopeful visual statements.

We putted around as Aleksander napped and discussed the subjects presented, realizing that we really should have carved out some more time for this event. Eventually he woke up and we double-stepped to the exits as the daily opening hours were winding down. We hustled home as the rain clouds darkened overhead, all the architectural insights almost as top of mind.

It would be great to get back to Venice over the rest of our time here in Italy and even greater if it coincided with more Biennale exhibitions. Either way, it’s nice to see large global events that have become marginalized or cancelled returning to some semblance of normal. I suppose, in answer to the Biennale’s theme, we just all want to live together ‘normally’ again.

The Most Colourful Place on Earth – Burano

Since we had four full days in Venice, we decided to spend one of them on a nearby island. Researching travel plans has become a much more difficult task with an infant but my wife came across some positive reviews of the island of Burano, a 45 minute ferry ride from Venice, and so off we went for maybe the most colourful afternoon of our lives.

I can’t tell you many clever things about Burano or even the reason for the colourful homes but usually that has to do with sailors being able to identify their location in poor conditions. Either way, the colours of Burano have been saturated for the Instagram generation and the hundreds of colourful home-fronts did not disappoint.

We strolled, ate more wonderful seafood and, of course, took loads of pictures. We got a taste of the returning tourist crowds on our way home, waiting in line for an hour for the ferry home. But the stroller came in handy and we were plucked out of line and got to board first. Aleksander was a champion as always, letting us enjoy the day while he mostly snoozed.

If you find yourself in Venice with some spare time, hop on a ferry to Burano and enjoy this jewel of a find.

Venetian Magic

The first springtime long weekend in Canada is an almost mythic ritual where one heads out of the city, pretends it’s warmer than it is and looks forward to the approaching summer months. In honour of that tradition, we Italianized our plan and headed to Venice for four late May nights.

Dalia and I honeymooned in Italy for one full month in September, 2017, but mostly due to routing challenges, never made it to Venice. Now, as travel slowly re-opens in Europe, it was a perfect time to visit the famous city before the tourist throngs return.

I’ve often pondered where the magic of childhood disappears to once we become adults. It gets harder and harder to be astonished, enchanted and surprised. But I can now conclude that one place where magic continues to abide is in Venice. What an incredible, unique, unlikely and charming city. Seeing it for the first time really makes the heart marvel. And seeing it for the first time towards the end of the pandemic only reignites the desire to discover and explore that much more.

We ate, we wandered, we floated around for three days, wondering if it would even be worth returning once the streets, alleyways and canals are overcrowded again. For now, there was no dampening our spirits (even if the last day was rainy from start to finish) and we enjoyed the beauty and opportunity both under our feet and gondolas.

Is this a dream?! Fairytale Venice.

The challenges of travelling with an infant were on fully display in Venice also. We wanted to practice taking Aleksander on another trip and the train, plane and boats to get to and around Venice provided a great opportunity. Daddy was kept busy hauling the stroller over a selection of Venice’s 300 bridges but otherwise we powered through and made the most of a visit that would have looked quite different in our pre-parent days. I’d advise not to be discouraged and adapt as needed to see this world class city, with family in tow.