The itinerary for today included a visit to the Gallerie dell'Accademia (GDA) followed by the Biennale, we knew it was going to be a culture overload, but we were up for it!
The write up of the GDA in the Lonely Planet made this place sound AMAZING, and it was, for the first 30min to 1hr, after that, all the paintings of Jesus, Madonna and Child, the apostles and naked cherubs all started to blur into one another. The average time spent per room in the GDA dropped off rapidly towards the end! That being said, it was a special moment to have seen upfront the work of Bellini (and some other guys from the 1300s). We were wondering if in the year 2713 people will still be admiring Andy Warhol's soup cans.
After the GDA, Damo wanted to go mask shopping, and intended to go back to San Croce district (as he had seen masks there he liked). Mick was not overly impressed by this idea, as Mick and Damo had very different opinions on how far the walk would be. Luckily, 2mins into the walk, Mick found a Mask shop and Damo was happy with the mask selection available - saved ourselves a few extra kms of walking (we have very, very, very sore feet).
We walked through the back streets of Venice trying to find a more-authentic (less touristy) place to have lunch. We walked for ages, and settled on a cafe where Mick had a cheese, tomato and lettuce panini...so authentic. We then wandered and wandered around trying to find our way back to the hotel. Mick was getting frustrated as unnecessary walking is not appreciated. Not too long later we found a sign pointing us to the area of our hotel.
Once we got our bearings it was off to the Biennale for some more 'culture'. (The use of quotation marks has been used as most of the Biennale is modern art.) We saw many varied artworks and Mick pretended we were at Eurovision, and gave each Country's exhibit a score. Australia's exhibit started strong but finished weak (sticking circular objects such as bottle tops onto a wall is not art in Mick's mind) so they got 5 points. Russia was the winner on 9 points, they had a guy in a suit in a saddle positioned on a rafter eating peanuts, dropping the empty shells into a pile on the floor below; and in another room they had gold coins falling from the sky (apparently this exhibit was about greed). First runner up was Romania who had 5 artists re-creating previous Biennale exhibits with performance art. Mick particularly liked their rendition of 'Objects on Walls' where all 5 artists just leaned on a wall for 3mins. It was just so stupid, we could not hold in our laughter and someone told us (in a nice way) that we shouldn't laugh as its 'serious art'. We didn't get to see every country's exhibit, but we didn't mind as it would have meant more walking. We both have such sore feet, sore calves (Mick) and sore thighs (Damo).
After dinner we aimed to experience Venetian night life. We went to Harry's Bar - a bar frequented by aspiring auteurs such as Ernest Hemingway, Truman Capote and Orson Welles - after reading our blog, you would surely agree that we belong in such a bar. However after having a €20 cocktail each, we felt a little out of place and agreed that Hemingway would not come to this bar in its current pretentious form, so we left for a quiet night in.
Tomorrow morning we leave Venice for Florence! Arrivederci :)
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