Venice, September 2018, a trip report, 17 nights

Have fun! We had our tenth visit there last September. Spent 6 nights and was sorry to leave!

23 September 2018.
Getting to Venice is a bit of a long haul venture, Australia to Italy, crossing some 83.2 degrees of latitude and 102.6 degrees of longitude, I guess that’s why we are called the Antipodes. I flew with Emirates, Melbourne to Dubai with a couple of hours on the ground in Singapore, four hours in Dubai then the leg to Venice. All quite simple, arriving at Marco Polo around 1.45 PM, and while immigration was pretty quick as Marco Polo now recognises “Smart Gate” passports, baggage claim was very slow. My passport failed after about 5 attempts, and the officer said that Australian passports are a bit unreliable, perhaps a comment on our convict history; however I do have an entry stamp which I quite like. About 50 minutes from touchdown to exiting the terminal. No 5 ACTV bus to Piazzle Roma and hello Venice.

Transacted with a Bancomat, getting a bunch of euros; the sound that the machine is counting out your notes is one of the happiest sounds for the weary and jet lagged traveller. Walked to my apartment, which is just over the bridge in front of the Frari, in Ramo Cassetti. There is a Palazzo Cassetti down the way, my apartment is not so palatial but it does the job. Hand over a bunch of euros, carta on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, vetro on the other days, if you miss the rubbish collection take it to the garbage boat round the corner, WiFi password and I’m good to go.

Ramo Cassetti ends at a gate preventing people falling into the Rio di San Stin. From my open front door, I’ve seen several groups of people walking down Ramo Cassetti, eyes glued to their iPhones, and then retracing their steps. Paper maps have a lot going for them in Venice.

Sunday 23 September.
A big day, or maybe I’m still jet lagged. Headed out to San Marco around 5:30, I wanted to see the Piazza without the day visitors that arrive around 10:00. The Piazza was all but deserted, a few photographers waiting for dawn shots, and very few others. I took some iPhone shots but no real photographs. I’m shooting black & white film with a vintage camera, and 400 ASA film won’t cut it, half a second at f2.8, impossible with only a monopod.

Strolled over to the Rialto in search of coffee, found none until I was back at the Frari, where I was bitten 3.00 euro for a cappuccino al banco. So that’s a bar that I feel no need to visit again.

Today was all about San Giorgio, to see the Vatican contribution to the Architecture Biennale, and also the Homo Faber series of displays in the Foundation Georges Cini; both Vatican and Homo Faber were great.

The island of San Georgio is much bigger than one would expect, roughly twice the size of the Piazza plus the Doges Palace On the south side of the island there is open space, avenues of trees and an amphitheatre, the Teatro Verde. The exhibition is titled the Sacred Forest, perhaps also the Unknown Forest, as few Venetians and no tourists visit there. So there are ten chapels by ten architects, all exploring the concept of “chapel” and the three essential elements, an altar, a lectern and some seating. The ten results are beautiful, ranging from a suspended doughnut through to a mass concrete structure that seems to express adobe through to a structure made of compression elements and steel cable tension elements. The last was designed by Norman Foster, a UK architect, and in some way reminds one of a Bucky Fuller geodesic, with a graded processional entrance.

Really worth a look.

Next, the Homo Faber.

Definition of homo faber. 1 : the human being as the maker or creator. 2 in Bergsonism : the human being as engaged in transforming both the self morally and material things —contrasted with homo sapiens.

So the Homer Faber exhibition was all about creativity and skilled crafts. I lasted about an hour and a half and then sensory overload kicked in. https://www.homofaberevent.com/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI3IiVsrvR3QIVhojVCh2QFgUAEAAYASAAEgLZV_D_BwE gives a good overview. A few examples of displays that I saw.

Photographs of venetian and Veneto craftsmen (OK, for the purists, craftswomen also). This is a series exploring artefacts, tools and processes, and the photos are most intimate and poetic. Whether it is a shot of a ladle of hot metal, the tools used to hammer and roll gold into leaf or a carpenters mallet, they all tell a story about skilled people doing extraordinary things.

Centuries of shape, a story told gently through a collection of a couple of hundred vases – curated in the old library. “Space is explored by containers that hold it, silence is explored by music”, so it’s the void of the vase that expresses meaning.

People doing the most remarkable works. A man doing marquetry, and when I saw the program I thought that might be a bit ho hum. But he was working on a marquetry ring smaller that a two euro coin, and I watched as he selected a piece of wood and cut it down to the size of a tenth of a grain of rice. Amazing.

A woman doing book edge painting. First, find a volume that has gilded page edges, clamp the book so that the edges are fanned, and then paint a miniature. Accuracy is important, all the work is done with watercolour and mistakes cannot be rectified as white watercolour pigment will stick the pages together. Once the work is completed, close the book and polish the gold edge to remove any paint traces. Hold the book and you just see gold edges, fan the pages and the scene appears. Magic, just magic.

A woman doing marquetry, but not with wood, but with straw. Incredibly fine work, vivid colours, beautiful patterns.

That’s just a sample of what I saw, and the architecture alone of the Foundation makes it worth a visit.

On to the Palazzo Tre Oci photo gallery. We seem to get lucky with Tre Oci, last visit was a retrospective of Fulvio Roiter’s work, this time a retrospective of Willy Ronis from 1934 to 1998, a huge volume of works. Willy was a dedicated Marxist and this is reflected in his work, political protests, people on strike, French POWs returning in 1945. Much of is quite bleak, and maybe Willy was anticipating the bleak political landscape that we now encounter. One could imagine his photographs being used to illustrate Orwell’s book, “The Road to Wigan Pier’, or Alan Sillitoe’s novels like “Kes” or “The Lonliness of the Long Distance Runner”.

Photography comes from the Greek, photos means light, graphos is writing, so hence “writing with light”. Willy certainly had a sharp pencil. As I write about Willy’s bleak view of the world, I am listening to Leonard Cohen, “Songs to Slash Your Wrists By”, so to speak, dark music,

Seems fitting when looking at Willy’s work.

Monday 24th September
I went over to the far reaches of Cannaregio for a Canova exhibition at the Abbazia della Misericordia, and I have to say it did not reach my expectations. I think I was expecting to see some actual works, but the exhibition was more about Canova’s thought processes, his detailed anatomical drawings and the way mythology was expressed in his works. Two years ago I’d visited the Canova Gypsoteca at Possagno, and seen many works in the flesh so to speak, so my time was not really wasted, but it might have been better spent.

One thing that did come through was how Canova had studied anatomy, and he must have looked, maybe dissected, some cadavers; that is displayed in his sketches, how muscles work and are attached.

There was a good explanation of how an idea transforms itself into marble, starting with a clay model, then a full sized clay model. Cover the full sized model with gypsum plaster, and dress it to the final form. (The client may intervene a little. “Hey Antonio, sure it’s to be sculpture of the wife, but that hooked nose, it’s a bit in your face, and maybe lose an etto or three from the hips and add it to her breasts. Sure, realism is great, but I have to live with her.”)

And so, once client sign off for the gypsum is achieved, many bronze pins are inserted at salient points, finger tips, point of the nose (hooked or otherwise), toes, several hundred reference points. The sub-artists will rough out and finish the marble with reference to the bronze bench marks, Canova then does his magic.

I always thought that if Michelangelo was just sculpting David, just chop all the bits that are not, well, David and you’ve got it. It is not that simple.

Strolled back to the Frari via about 500 metres of Strada Nove. While I love Venice, I find it hard to love Strada N. However there is a perfume shop on Strada Nove, so one must.

A bit more shopping near San Zaccharia, a spritz at the Ai Artisti in San Barnaba, and that’s a day.

Tomorrow, the Archi Biennale at the Giardini.

Tuesday 25th September.
Rialto market to buy scollops and breakfast at the small bar near the Pescheria, then off to the Giardini for stage 1 of 4 for the Archi Biennale.

The theme for this year is Free Space, and sad to say that for many of the national pavilions I was underwhelmed. The GB pavilion was completely empty, white walls, nothing. Erected over the top of the pavilion was a scaffolding altana, the roof of the pavilion poking through. Maybe that’s a reference to the walkways that are erected when there is acqua alta, tea is served there at 4:00 PM. It may be at height; I doubt it will be High Tea.

The Russian pavilion was all about railways, the Trans Siberian in particular, so there were drawings and renderings of Stalinist Brutalist railway stations, also references to how the land along railways often becomes a wasteland. You see the same often looking out the carriage in Italy.

Germany was the interface or architecture and politics. The Berlin wall went up in 1961, came down in 1989, it’s now 2018. So the Wall has been down now for as long as it was up, and the question is what to do with the dead zone once occupied by the wall. Sure, there are Westies and Osties still, some in Berlin still think of the East as Druben with an umlaut, the lack of Trabbies notwithstanding.

So Checkpoint Charlie is a tatty tourist thing, Checkpoints Alpha and Bravo not recognised, and do you memorialise the Wall, or be glad it’s gone. The same goes for other guard posts along the old border. So Deutschland still has a problem. And I still don’t much like Albert Speer’s Nazi architecture for the pavilion at the Giardini, it looks like Leni Riefenstahl is about to call “Lichter Aktion Kamera”.

One moves on, say to Israel, their theme being “Status Quo”. The Israelis take Status Quo to mean the informal agreements between the Abrahamic religions as to how sacred sites are managed in Jerusalem, Bethlehem and so on. I think that one of the Abrahamic faiths gets a pretty raw deal there. In English usage, Status Quo mostly means settled and agreed, clearly in israel the meaning is different.

The Swiss pavilion is surprisingly fun, Swiss + Fun being my entry in the Oxymoron of the Year competition, just easing out Friendly Fire. Their display is called Svizzera 240: House Tour. There is something of a world standard for apartments, white walls and ceilings at 2.4 metres, and there is a genre of architecture photography that takes images of such apartments, apartments devoid of any objects that might give them scale, completely empty. So the Swiss have constructed a set of rooms without scale, rooms with crazy proportions, ceilings at 1.8 metres, benches too low or too high or at the usual 900 mm. But if you took a photo of those rooms it would appear that they are normal.

The Scandinavian pavilion had three large inflated things the size of a water buffalo that had air and water being pumped in and pumped out, perhaps a comment on the fact that, well, air and water are really important; you might think about that. I think my thought was, whatever they were smoking when they dreamed that up, might I have some please.

There are the usual models of what to do with re-purposed buildings, and it seems that 3D laser printing has made it too easy to create a bunch of models, add a bit of laser projection and hope that it is engaging. But somehow it misses the mark for me.

I had in mind a comment that I saw at the Homer Faber exhibition. A volume is defined by what contains it, silence is defined by music. Similarly, you can’t have an island without water. Given the theme of the Biennale is “Free Space”, the Free Space is defined by whatever surrounds it. I found the definition lacking.

Peter, many thanks for this detailed running account of Venice sights most of us would never know about otherwise. I'm going to try to see the Sacred Forest when I'm there next month. Looking forward to your next installments.

Wednesday September 26th.
Today was the Arsenale chunk of the Archi Biennale, and I think it followed on from the Giardini. It seemed quite esoteric, all about some vague theory of “Free Space”, without really addressing what space is all about. Maybe it is the theory of architecture, and in that respect I am something of a Luddite.

The Italian pavilion was good, though, exploring how facilities can be brought to the more remote and difficult parts of Sicily and Sardinia. Interesting concepts, and a story well told. Also in the Arsenale, a gigantic bamboo structure, demonstrating that bamboo might be one of the most valuable building materials of the future. I think it’s hard for Westerners to wrap themselves around the concept of bamboo, we are more a bricks and mortar mob, but in the Orient, it is seen as viable.

The UAE pavilion was interesting, in that it seemed almost apologetic for the way Dubai has been developed. Models demonstrated that the very high rise buildings that Dubai is identified with are almost on a single axis, and that once one leaves that axis, there is a more real Dubai. I think that is a hard story to sell.

Another presentation seemed to be homage to The Corb, showing how development could reflect the concepts of le Corbusier. This seemed so backward, the Corb, Mies van der Rohe et al came up with totally dehumanised built environments. Unfortunately those environments were realised in developments like Thamesmead that failed catastrophically. Sometimes lessons have to be learned all over again.

I think that technology has made it a bit too easy to create presentations. 3-D laser printing, video presentations, put a couple of thousand words in 3 point font on paper and that’s a wrap. It hard to engage with, though.

I’ll be interested to read some serious critiques of this year’s Archi biennale.

Thursday 27th September.
Day trip to Padua. You can get lucky in this life. My daughters half sister is a gastroenterologist, doing a training course in Milan, looking at how ultrasound intersects with gastroenterology. Her mother Jane joined her in Milan, and brought my grand daughter Violet with her. So we met up in Padua.
A very happy day, strolling around the central market, and then the Orto Botanica, the Padua Botanical Garden, a ENESCO classified site, created for the study of medicinal plants in about 1500. It is really worth seeing.

The oldest plant in the gardens is a palm tree, planted in 1585, and Goethe was inspired by that tree. It resides in a purpose built green house, recently refurbished and extended. In the garden, there are sections for medicinal herbs, poisons, carnivorous plants, a huge variety and beautifully maintained. It really is very special. Jane is a gardening enthusiast and loved it.

There is also a huge greenhouse there, divided into five separate climatic zones, from humid tropics to arid desert. Lou and I saw it just before it opened and it looked a bit sparse; now it is dense with plants. The micro climate supports insects as well as plants, so you might see lizards and tadpoles, certainly mosquitos in the humid tropics, and water lilies about one metre across. It is really great, demonstrates how humans have changed plant biology, and also how plant biology has changed human behaviour.

A walk through the church dedicated to Saint Anthony, born in Portugal, died in Padua in 1231. All parents of teenagers should offer frequent prayers to Saint Anthony as he is patron saint for lost things, phones, sports uniforms, sneakers and so on.

Venice has Saint Mark, Padova has Saint Anthony. I can’t help but think that Saint Anthony is venerated and prayers are offered to him, saint Mark, not so much. St Anthony’s tomb has a board covered with photos and invocations. By contrast, I think that Saint Mark is more political and mercenary, his body being brought back from Alexandria in 828 AD, to replace St Theodore who was never going to draw the pilgrims and their coin. Saint Marks body was lost in a fire that destroyed the old Basilica but, joy of joys, his bones burst forth from the plaster encasement of a column in the rebuilt Basilica.

Cynical? Moi?

I left Jane and Violet at the Scrovegni Chapel, a chapel built by Scrovegni Jnr in the hope that his father, a money lender would escape the flames of Hell. Giotto’s frescoes depict in some detail what Hell might be like, also what Heaven could be, so he was having a bet each way. Art books explore the frescoes in detail; for me I am intrigued by the process of creating them. Yes, Giotto has his paint brush, and there must have been a team of painters filling in the background, clouds and such. But there must have been a team of scaffolders, men mixing plaster, men on the trowel, some means of feeding them, it must have been like building site. And what of the contract, was is fixed price, did Giotto contract for the whole job and subcontract the scaffolders et al? The books are mute on that, but in some archive somewhere, the contract docs exist. I’d love to see them.

So, Padua, and a happy day. Yes, you can get lucky.

Practicality – there is a tram that runs from the station to the centre of padua and then down close to St Anthony’s Church and the Botanical Gardens. There is a ticket office to your right as you exit the station, and the tourist info place is in the station, also to your right. Get an all day tram ticket, costs about 3.00 euro, and saves some pretty boring walking.

Friday 28th September.
Another dig at Homo Faber. Homo Sapiens is all about “Man” (including women, I haste to say) as a thinking, a sentient being. Homo Faber is all about Man as a doer and creator of physical things. Homo Faber is without a doubt the absolute best exhibition I have ever seen. Not just in Venice, but anywhere.

I was talking for while with one of the attendants, asking why it only ran for two weeks. She explained that part of the reason was the cost of insurance. There are a couple of restored sports cars there, a Ferrari and a 24 Hr Le Mans job. Each valued around 20 million euros or dollars, to say nothing of a couple of bicycles with sterling silver detailing. And that’s just a small part of it.

I had been several days prior, and there were different artisans at work. A man engraving the housings for knives, superb detailing. Another grinding glass. A woman painting porcelain, using a brush with about three hair from a babies head; ground pigments in turpentine and when the piece was fired, the glaze would incorporate the pigments. Mont Blanc fountain pens, detailing the dozen or so steps that go to making a bespoke pen nib. Bespoke spectacle frame makers, a dozen cranial measurements are taken before they start making frames that will fit perfectly. A saddler, again making saddles to measure, made to fit both horse and rider.

The George Cini Foundation, for some reason, had a swimming pool built in the 1960’s out the back of the main cloisters. It is empty and one prays to God that it does not try to float should an unexpected acqua alta come along. The pool was the venue for a display of fashion, and the detailing on some of the garments is extraordinary. Tens of thousands of embroidered knots, making the dress look like is is covered in soft beads.

A woman making artificial flowers, each petal individually applied, stamens in the centre, looking like botanical specimens. Silk weaving, using a loom about 200 years old. Traditional basket weaving. Engraving glass, freehand. The variety of skills displayed there is quite mind blowing.

Three or four art restorers, and that is a discipline that you don’t often see in action. Restoration of a marriage chest, the size of a coffin, being cleaned using tiny cotton buds and gilt being applied. Fabric restoration, no Singer sewing machine in play there, but needle and silk thread, about fifty stitches to the inch, a couple of Tiepolo panels being cleaned and touched up. Good descriptions of the technology in play, micro injections of binding agents and so on.

We buy stuff from Ikea not infrequently, procure mass produced iPhones. It’s good to see that these crafts are alive, flourishing and most importantly, valued.

In the meantime, I have a tiny workshop and shovel bits of wood through the band saw. I have a long way to go.

Thank you Peter for your Trip Report!

As I will be arriving in Venice this coming Friday, you’ve given me a lot of information I never would have even thought to seek out.

Peter, as one who loves Venice and has spent a lot of time there, I always enjoy reading your reports and "following your footsteps around the city. And I glean ideas for our next trip.

It I have to say, if you think the Swiss have no sense of humor, you must not have seen the mountain-cleaning video.

http://hoaxes.org/af_database/permalink/association_of_swiss_mountain_cleaners

The Swiss Mountain Cleaners. Love the way they floss the rock!

Saturday September 29th.
Friday evening I took a short tour of the Foscari University, celebrating its 150th birthday this year. There are two main buildings, Ca’ Foscari and Ca’ Dolfin, just over the bridge. Doge Foscari was a significan political figure in Venice, and was Doge for 24 years, an exceptionally long time; he is buried in the Frari. So he had Ca’ Foscari built as a statement of political power, facing the broadest reaches of the Grand Canal, a façade which is square and symmetrical, and the courtyard is the second largest in Venice; only the Doges Palace courtyard is larger. The massive brick walls to the rear and to the Rio Foscari (what else) look defensive, but are mainly to convey the impression of political impregnability.

The main hall upstairs looks out over the Grand Canal and is light and elegant. Carlo Scarpa did a couple of interventions there, the first being the glazing to the Grand Canal, furniture and marble detailing. The glazing has Japanese references, very slender verticals and horizontals, set back a little from the façade. There are a pair of oval marble columns to either side of the main stage, once they carried busts of Mussolini and another Fascist. Possibly said busts now reside at the bottom of the Grand Canal.

The main hall is separated from the lobby area by a set of moveable screens, a later Scarpa intervention, and these are pure Frank Lloyd Wright, both organic and angular, built from hardwood salvaged from the first works there.

We hired an apartment in Calle Lunga San Barnaba three times, the top apartment in a building of three apartments. The building had been renovated by a student of Carlo Scarpa, and it had Scarpa’s architectural handwriting all over it. Fine joinery, metal details, everything thought through so well. Interestingly, I believe that Scarpa was never a registered architect, and was trained as a designer. Perhaps that’s why there no monumental Scarpa buildings, but all his works that I’ve seen are beautifully detailed, even down to the little brass door that gives access to a heater valve.

The main attraction at Ca’ Dolfin is the Aula Magna, the grand Hall. Problem there, as there was a convention of some sorts happening, perhaps not a very exciting convention as one attendee was watching football on his iPad. Conventions can be like that, and it’s better than dozing off and snoring I suppose. We could however get glimpses of the Tiepolo ceiling frescoes and they are magnificent. Also from the roof terrace there is a great view of the Frari.

Saturday I was back to the Giardini for the Main Pavilion, works by a bunch of different architects, showing actual proposals and built projects, a little less of the Free Space ethic that is the theme for this year’s Biennale.

There was a collection of what could be described as heritage architectural models, a hotel for the desert in the Atacama desert in Chile, a house in the UAE and many others. These were all mounted on frames at about eye height, so there was a sense of the true perspective. Often models are mounted at low level, so one gets a drone’s eye view, but with the higher elevation there is a sense of approach.

And of course, if you head left from inside the main pavilion, there is the Scarpa designed courtyard, a concrete roof that appears to float.

Sunday September 30th.
Church in the morning, St Georges Anglican in Campo San Vio, all Christians welcomed.
Sir Henry Wotton’s embassy from King James I to the Most Serene Republic brought the first Anglican Chaplain, Nathaniel Fletcher, to Venice in 1604/5. Anglican Chaplains always accompanied both resident and extraordinary diplomatic missions until the Venetian Republic was ended by Napoleon. So the Anglican in Venice have quite a history, and have had the Church in Campo San Vio since 1892, the building previously was a glass warehouse.

I was pretty keen to get there, the usual priest being on holidays and the service conducted by Philip Jones, well known Venetian author. (Go on, treat yourself, buy his books, Phil’s a friend). Phil’s a Reader in Training, and fortunately has a good singing voice – he sings in a couple of choirs in Venice – and compensated well for the warbly contribution from the rest of the congregation. Phil’s sermon was based really on, there’s enough horrible stuff happening in the world, for everyone’s sake and God’s sake, be kind to each other.

Service concludes with prosecco, most civilised, followed by lunch at Trattoria de Sara, formerly Trattoria de Silvio in Santa Croce, Calle de Pistor. We were four for lunch, and all had seafood risotto which was very good. Risotto is a treat for me, being a solo traveller and risotto only being made for two or more guests.

Sunday afternoon I took myself over to Forte Marghera for an architectural thing and more importantly The Architecture of the Motorcycle. Forte Marghera has been a bit hard to get to in the past, but now the tram goes pretty close, second stop after leaving P. Roma. If you ever think of going, when you get off the tram walk about 50 metres past the stop, and you’ll see a gravel path running off to your left. That leads to the fort.

I’ve visited all the lagoon forts over the years, including the fort on Mazzorbetto which never fired a shot in anger and at best might have been able to land shells on Torcello. Marghera is pretty big, there are still many military buildings there in various states of repair and disrepair, and despite the military leaving years ago, if you listen carefully you might just catch the echo of a bugle.

The architecture installation is a little timber folly beside the canal, a place for sitting around, lounging, dozing, and there were many people doing just that. There were many more standing around drinking beer and generally enjoying the sunshine and open space; there are several bars on Marghera, one playing Dire Straits.

The Architecture of the Motorcycle was a story told through some fifty machines, bikes and scooters. The oldest, a 1000cc 14HP Mars A20, the newest a Ducati 1103cc 226HP monster, engine size 10% bigger than the Mars, but 16 times the HP. Pretty impressive for this 200cc two Vespa rider.

Monday October 1st.
Quiet day, with many of the Archi venues closed.
Lunch at Cantina Sciavoni just opposite San Trovaso. Chichetti are goo, and it was remarkably uncrowded. Watched the guys sanding and painting the bottoms of gondolas for a while, and then walked the length of the Zattere, with rain threatening, and then took a vaporetto up to Ca’ d’Oro, for an exhibition that I wanted to see.

The exhibition is at Palazzo Mora on Strada Nove in Cannaregio. Interesting stuff from young architects, including a bunch of projects from Australia. The exhibition hangs off the back of the Young Architect’s Awards, and they were not as constrained by the Free Space focus of the remainder of the Biennale. Lots of creative work, and quite a few domestic architecture displays, infill housing and some pretty spectacular houses in the most remote areas.

Traghettoed it back at San Sofia to Rialto, and found to my pleasure that if you show a Venezia Unica card you get the cheap 70 cent rate rather than the two euro that others pay. Someone must have heavied the traghetto guys as a couple of years ago, they would not accept the Unica card as any sort of proof, demanding that one is a resident. That’s pretty rough, as a number of non residents who work in Venice have to use the traghettos.

Rain for most of the later afternoon, a bit inhibiting.

Tuesday October 2nd, so I have less than a week left.
Regulation breakfast of coffee and croissant at Al Archivo, and then back to the Arsenale. I think that the exhibits in the Corderie made more sense on the second time through, the first time was a bit overwhelming.

I was particularly keen to see the exhibit by the Victoria and Albert, a display of what to do with buildings when they reach the end of their useful life, the building in question being the robin Hood Housing Development in London.

Robin Hood was designed in 1968, completed in 1972, comprising some 213 apartments in an seven storey and a ten storey block, with a garden in between, wide balconies at each level to simulate streets. It has been recognised as a fine example of New Brutalism architecture, all precast concrete an metal framed windows. When demolition and redevelopment was proposed, there was a campaign to preserve it. You have to think a little what London 1968 was all about, swinging London, giving birth to a whole lot of ideas, shaking off the dismal past.

So that was 1968, roll forward to 2008, and socially the development had failed, as many such developments do, and demolition foreshadowed. Robin Hood was intended to be Streets in the Sky, however without a diverse group of residents using the “streets” social dislocation happens inevitably. A parallel would be the Thamesmeade development in London, featured at the 2014 Biennale. The residents moved out, heavy metal aficionados and junkies moved in, Stanley Kubrick filmed A Clockwork Orange on site, demolition followed.

At the Biennale, the VAA have erected a portion of the building so one can experience the feel of the Street in the Sky. The question, can you preserve a massive and unusable building because of its architectural heritage, is moot.

Going to Vignole has been on the agenda for this trip, today was the day. Sunny, lunch at the trattoria there would be not unpleasant. So vap from Celestia to Fond Nove then No 13 to Vignole. 13 is of course not a lucky number. There are two main industries on Vignole, horticulture and the erection of signs saying “Vietato l’ Ingresso”, the signs are everywhere. Anyway, strolled to the gate to the trattoria, closed, the “Chiuso” sign fixed with a dozen self tapping screws, so it was not as if I was too late for lunch, or if I had missed the luncheon service, I’d missed it by months. No 13 vap back, and a unique experience – I was the only person to board at Vignole.

I have crossed Vignole off the list.

Wednesday October 3rd.
Took a boat trip around the back canals and out into the lagoon with a friend and it was great. The boat was an ex-fishing boat built in Chiogia around 1935, quite lovingly restored and looked after, still able to carry sail. We had the benefit of an outboard motor, so were spared having to talk like pirates, Heave Ho Me Hearties and all that.

We started in the back canals in the north of venice before heading out into the lagoon and it’s interesting. I know my way pretty well around the streets of Venice and I don’t often take advantage of the frequently heard recommendation to just get lost. The canals are a different matter altogether; I have no idea where we went before emerging into the Canal di San Marco near the Arsenal and it was like going through a maze. We often had to back up to let other more important craft like water taxis get through, and our skipper Francesco would let out a piercing whistle at the blind corners.

Once out onto the lagoon, you quickly come to realise just how much Venice is a city made of water, just how vast the lagoon is, and how many islands there are. We motored our way south west past San Servolo, San Lazzaro, the Lazzaretto Vecchio and around Poveglia. Poveglia has been fenced to discourage visitors like us, and the scheme floated a handful of years ago to turn the island into some sort of hotel was surely insane. Sure, San Clemente has been turned into a very up-scale resort type hotel, but it’s doubtful that the tourist trade could support a second such hotel on Poveglia, especially given the island’s sad history. The island was a lazaret for some years, plague sufferers were taken there at one time, and two plague pits are estimated to hold the remains of some 100,000 souls. Later the island was a lunatic asylum, and that closed in 1968.

So a vibrant resort hotel site, well, perhaps not so much.

Coming back to Venice, one can see how busy the south side of Giudecca is, multiple small shipyards, and that is where the fishing fleet get their bottoms scraped and rudders welded up. The vaporetti get slipped in the yards east of San Pietro, along with the vaporetto pontoons. It seems strange to see a bunch of pontoons still labelled Ferrovia or whatever east of Castello.

A bit more architecture, and the Biennale has drawn me all over Venice. Followed up with a couple of spritzes at Paradiso. Sure Quadri and Florians have pride of place (and top billing) in the Piazza, but for an evening drink with sun and a great view, Paradiso can’t be bettered.

Thursday October 4th.
A pretty laid back start to the day, breakfast at the Ai Artisti, then moving over to the other bar for more coffee in the sun. It’s not common for me to take breakfast al tavolo, I’m more an al banco kind of guy, and it’s interesting just sitting there watching the passing parade. Hard to know where a couple of hours went to, they just seemed to evaporate in the morning sun.

A day more or less strolling around, ventured into the Piazza and then to the Prison for a Chinese / Taiwan architecture thing. Interesting how infill works and buildings have been done, and the social conscience of the architects shines through. Also a display of works by young Latin American architects who are doing good work. Nothing like the architectural monstrosities that mark Brasilia, but much more on a human scale, buildings that blend into the environment, both the natural and social environment. It’s quite exciting stuff.

Gazed into the Olivetti showroom, where there is an exhibition of glass designed by Carlo Scarpa for Venini in the 1930’s. I must confess that I find Scarpa a better architect than I do a glass designer, but then I’m not really across the 1930’s design ethic. Someone, I think James Morris, said once “There is an awful lot of glass in Venice, there is also a lot of awful glass in Venice, much of it of a bilious hue”. Scarpa’s designs don’t really grab me, although one could never say they were awful.

As you face the Piazza from the Olivetti showroom, and then go about four arches to the right, you’d find my personal Venetian talisman, a bronze survey mark about 40mm diameter, let into the Istrian stone that edges the Piazza. The mark indicates the exact axis of the Basilica, finding it each visit seems to bring me good luck.

An evening concert of Baroque music in the Fondaco de Tedeschi and it was good. I am not sure who sponsored it and it was free, and going by the look of the audience, I doubt that too many of the shoppers would have been shopping at the Fondaco on a regular basis.

A chamber orchestra, three violins, a couple of violas, cello, double base and a harpshicord and they gave Baroque music, a couple of pieces that I recognised but can’t name. There were several pieces for orchestra and trumpets, one with flute, another with flute and oboe. The flute and oboe piece was good, the two. Instruments in dialogue with one another. And finally two pieces for orchestra and clarinet, and he really let rip. Maybe he is a frustrated jazz player, and he was great.

A pair of Vivaldi (of course) encores to finish a most satisfying evening, and later a glass of prosecco to round it out.

Just curious Peter, if you speak Italian? You might have said and I maybe missed it.

Friday, October 5th, and the days are flying past, it seems.
An early start for a 7:30 breakfast engagement at the point where Via Garibaldi turns all liquid in Castello, and I’m residing in Santa Croce, nearest vap stop San’ Toma, and a 6:50 vaporetto. But that early vaporetto ride is pretty special, the early travellers are tradesmen with trolleys, not too many people, mostly engaged with the latest tragic news from il Gazzettino, editorial focus mostly centrist miserableness, and it is quiet. There’s something about the early rising mob of people, a sense of calm before they face the day; maybe that’s why racehorses are exercised in the half light of dawn. In any case, the 6:50 No 1 vaporetto ex San’ Toma is worth taking, even if it means you miss the hotel breakfast and I suppose it’s a “real” Venice thing. And anyway, traversing the Grand Canal for a mere breakfast has to be seen as a good thing, and why wouldn’t you ….

So breakfast taken care of, better to move on to the totally trashed Campo Santa Maria Formosa. The latest Spiderman movie (working title “Bosco”) has a scene set there. There is not a single chair upright, the campo filled with rubbish, the fruit and vegetable store upended, tomatoes and bananas everywhere, shop awnings torn, and the whole scene dampened down with fire hoses. Various chunks of stone and brickwork placed strategically, and the whole scene looks like your worst nightmare. About fifty security guys strolling about, just in case some busybody takes to a broom and starts cleaning up, destroying continuity. Total devastation, and meanwhile a drone about the size of a serviceable umbrella hangs overhead, droning away.

There is a bar in Campo S. M. Formosa that we have patronised, against the Rio Paradiso (no relation to the café of the same name in Castello). It is a free standing building, and is closed for the duration of the film shoot, doubtless against some sort of compensation. That bar should be in the movie, historically it served as a mortuary, and for a Spiderman flick, there will surely be multiple cadavers.

Lunch at Cantina Schiavoni (again, don’t dare tell me I’m a creature of habit) and then the Accademia museum where there is a “young Tintoretto” exhibition, 2018 being the 500th anniversary of his birth. It is very well curated, in that besides about 30 works of Tintoretto (I believe he got that nock-name because his father was a textile dyer) there are also works by his contemporary and notable artists of the time. You can see where he is coming from, the growth of a genius. Those early works are full of the exploration of light and action, a bit of a dig into how architectural motifs are used, and you can plainly see how he was on a path to being the painter d’jour of his time.

The Accademia is having work done, yet again, so some rooms are closed. It is predicted that the works will take, per the construction signage, 900 days to be completed. So some of my faves were not on display, faves like the odd Tiepolo, and the St Ursula cycle is being restored also. The care and science that goes into restoration never ceases to amaze me.

Close out the day with a spritz at Paradiso, watching a couple of cruise liners depart. The ship’s company waves with great enthusiasm; I found it in myself to raise my glass to them by at least a millimetre to return the salute.

Dinner at Trattoria de Silvio, spaghetti followed by calimari, and that’s a wrap.

Thank you, Peter, for enlightening me about the Homo Faber. Maybe in 2020. I love taking my friends to Venice, but the thought of a solo trip of art immersion is mightily calling me. Always enjoy your writing. Thanks for taking the time for this one.

Ruth, Homo Faber is to happen again in 2020. God knows who is planning on putting up the million plus euros to make it happen, and all credit to them.

Link to the Homo Faber website.
https://www.homofaberevent.com/en#footer

We are planning a 2020 visit already!

Divaloonie, you asked if I spoke Italian. Not a whole lot, I have enough to get around, buy tickets, order meals, sort of understand a little of what people might be saying. But sadly, I can’t conduct a real conversation in Italian.

Wow, Peter! What a wonderful visit and a great trip report. I've bookmarked it ... we're about due for another trip to Venice.