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Sam, Justin and me

Today it was a little warmer than the yesterday. We caught the 9am ferry to Venice again, to have plenty of day light, as it was the last day there. My last important visit in the city was the Peggy Guggenheim collection of modern art, by the grand canal. It has a permanent exhibition of paintings and sculptures, some of which are in the nice garden, as well as a temporary exhibition. I spend about an hour in there and then I continued my day with wondering around the city.

One of the churches, that I don't remember its name

The big boy with the little frog...

Even Venice has graffiti

Loads of laundry

Last minute souvenirs

While wondering, I was always checking the Biennale map for additional near by exhibitions that are scattered around Venice. They are small, so I think I visited more than 15 within these days. The only problem was that they were hard to locate, as the map in the brochure was not very detailed and in general it is hard to find your way in Venice in the first place.

In one of the Biannale exhibitons held within a palace

Magnetic art

After 12 hours of walking it was time to head back. Before heading back, I went to the supermarket for some shopping, as this time it was my turn to cook dinner for Justin and Sam. Their little caravan has a small kitchen with everything you need, plus it’s warm so I was happy to spend an hour in there.

Late in the afternoon

Sunset by the port

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I woke up with the nice view of Venice, but also some big boats crossing. We had already said with Justin and Sam that would cross to Venice together, so we got ready and took the little boat.

The sea in between the camp site and Venice

I got a little bit annoyed with the amount of money I spend with within the morning. The reason I chose this campsite was because it is just opposite Venice, so I thought with the 3 days vaporeto pass I would be fine, but I wasn’t. The pass didn’t cover the boat from the campsite, so I had to pay an extra €25 for these three days. But I guess that’s Venice

for you, so I just had to deal with it.

Approaching Venice

We finally got to the city which is as interesting as I had expected. You can only agree that it is a very strange but beautyful place. It is also packed with tourists and all the central places are saturated with souvenir shops, very expensive restaurants and cafes and gondola owners chasing you for a romatic boat ride, within the canals.

At the grand canal

The famous Rialto bridge

That reminds me I have to do the laundry

Venice is famous for its masks

During my stay, it happened to be the 53rd Bienalle of Venice, so I though I should take the opportunity and visit it. There are two massive exhibition spaces that require a ticket, but also several smaller venues that are free. I bought the ticket and since I wouldn’t make both places in one day I decided to start with the smaller one, which is located in Arsenale which is the place where they used to make boats. The exhibits were all kind of modern art, some very interesting, others not as much.

Colorful art

Repetitive art

It took me about two hours to go around it and by the end I was starving, so I left in a desire for one of those big and cheep sandwiches that I was seeing all day. Luckily the exhibition takes place in a quieter area of Venice, with more cosy cafes and bars, so I jumped into one of them and apart from food I took advantage of their toilet. As I said, Venice is a little bit expensive and one of the things that I find a little extreme is the €1.50 charge to go to one of the public toilets. I think they also accept credit cards.
After a little bit of wondering around the alleys, I ended up going to the National Modern Art Gallery for more art…

Bright art

I had my typical ice cream and started making my way to the south to catch the boat back to the camping. One thing with Venice is that it is a lot bigger than you first think. The small alleys and canals, gives you the wrong impression, but in fact it is big and with the amount of dead ends, you end up wasting time which are dangerous for missing the latest boat.

opst... wrong way

I made it back to the camp site at around 8pm, where I met Justin and Sam again and they kindly offered me food, which I was very glad to accept.