First Looks, Venice 2013

  OK....I know I'm being completely spoiled here, but what can I say? It's Biennale time again in Venice, and we've had a good year. Soooooo....off to Venice for a bit. 

  Must see more ART. Nuff said.

  I will be hard pressed to complete many posts while here, as we are up and out at the crack-o-dawn, and home at the crack-o-midnight, but I'll do my best, and then do more posts when I get back home.

  For a start, I am just doing some shots of Venice as we love her, and I'll concentrate on more Biennale related things later. 

  This year we splurged and took a water taxi into town from the airport. It was a treat, and a good one....

  

Totally jet- lagged, but what a way to arrive. Especially at sunset....

First views coming into Venice proper.

The VERY Grand canal.

Johnny finally realizing he's back in Venice.

  We loved our water taxi ride into town, and then we were greeted by the wonderful Jambo, our contact person for the place we are staying. Jambo gave us the rundown on our apartment, and then we were ready to hit the cobblestones and start our adventure.

  We had just enough time to get out and about to enjoy the "Golden Hour".

Sun setting on the Doge's Palace.

 

 We had a guest arriving the morning after we landed, so first thing we did was some basic shopping...coffee, milk, wine, cheese...crunchies...you get the picture..then out for a little bite.

 We couldn't resist heading to our favorite cicchetti bar, Bacaro da Fiore.... Imagine tapas, but Italian style. A glass of wine, some fantastic small plates of goodies, a walk back home and we were both out like a couple of lights. 

  Big time sleep.

We go back to this place every time we are in Venice, usually more than once. It's classic.

  Next day we met our guest and spent some fantastic time seeing good art, eating good food and drinking good wine, and having many good conversations. Between all this we enjoyed the apartment's patio on a side canal and just had a great time being hosts. It was a splendid couple of days.

  We all enjoyed going to the main Biannale area, but Johnny and I want to go back to see more and take it all in again. More to come on that. 

  For those who don't know..the Venice Biannale is a major world class contemporary art exhibition featuring everything from painting to video to installation and even performance art. Very cool, very inspiring. Artists featured are from all around the globe.

 
In between all the art, food, and wine.....

Beautiful views....

Great neighborhood scenes...

Captivating moments......

More captivating moments, mixed with silliness...

  A taste of the scope of the art to see... this being a space in the Arsenale area of the Biennale:

I love this area because of these massive rooms with the original brick pillars.
What a great place to exhibit art...

  Of course there's the food...we have been stopping here and there for the cicchetti, which are small plates of this and that. We found a place near our apartment that has mostly crostini, which is crunchy slices of bread with various toppings. I love ths place because you can take your plate of yummies out to the canal and enjoy with a glass of wine. 

  How very civilized.

We have crostini with radicchio, walnuts and gorgonzola..cherry tomatoes, zucchini and taleggio,

artichoke puree with gorgonzola and some kind of yummy cheese with a fig jam. We'll be back. 

  

The apartment is sweet, with an outdoor space that looks onto a nice little canal that gondolas cruise by on. A perfect home to come to after hours of walking and walking and walking. My feet hurt! But it's all good.

Walking to the apartment in the Dorsoduro area of Venice.

This the canal we are on.....the apartment is there on the corner with the white sign...

Kickin' back on the patio.
Ummm...need I say more?

  I'm listening to boats cruising by right now, voices of the locals as they "drive" home on these fluid "streets"....it's heaven, and I feel ultimately grateful to be here again.
  I'm looking forward to sharing lots more art and food in upcoming blog posts. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do....Until next time...and feeling so damn lucky...... Ciao from Venezia!