This time, I was a little fed up with the idea of going to Venise, but as my assistant Swannjie jie assured me that, yes, its going to be nice, since we decided to do it, why not do it? Its a good idea... ok ok.
So off we go, first try we had to turn back at the Mont Blanc tunnel... the radiator has given up the ghost. The Insurance people sent us a taxi to go get another car, taxi to pick us up again to take the train, no, you cannot drive all the way to Italy, only in France. Poooof
Second time, well, how about just tag this on after Linz?
Good idea. After 4 rainy days in Linz, its a nice idea to go to Venise.
Venise, such soft caressing air, everywhere beauty, beauty, beauty... beauty and more beauty. The beauty is a natural old, more and more beautiful with age.
By the time we got to the nth palace, looking at the contemporary art, then, stand at the balconies looking over the canals, and the sun shining in warm on our faces... no crowd... no noise... just the Adriatic sea... the water the lagooon, the green and pink marbles. And excellent coffees, and Aperol... Spritz, its called. white wine, selzer water and orange bitter. with a huge green olive on a stick, and sometimes they give you a little plate of potato chips. We had drinks with football fans, gondoliers, tourists, and no body in particular. One cafe bar we went to was deep and dark, beauty... there were 3 men at the counter, the bar owner ginergly prepared a baked cheese hors d'oeuvres on toasts for them. I said i drink whatever they are having and the same toasties. The men laughed and said, its very good. Very good? or Very very very good? He laugh, very very very very good! Be careful with the vino, he said, its dangerous! He mimiced someone walking with a zigzag. And he was right, after one glass, very unusual for me, I felt dizzy! hahahahaha
That is my favorite part about venice, we go into the little bars and have one drink and move on to the next place. So many palaces, so beautiful. The Singapore pavilion was in the Arts and Science building... with a most elegant barman in a white jacket, he had the look too, straight from a Viconti movie. Nobody at this "cafeteria" which ressembles a 5 star hotel lounge. Very good little sandwiches and drinks, with original hand blown murano chandeliers! I vowed to work very hard, so that i would get to work in a place of higher learning and have lunch in such a cafeteria!
The art will be covered in the next blog, as I think the most magnificent part is not in the Biannale, but in the setting. Which oeuvre could compete with ANY part of venice? None.
I bought some glass pens, at first, i got the metal ones, until i notice some pens are entirely made of glass, even the tip! So i started to buy the other ones. Each one more beautiful than the last... in our digital age, few pepole write even, now, every shop has a selection of these "plumes", with a traditonal nib that you dip into an ink pot. Why do we buy them? I will want to write with it... it has nothing to do with practicality, it has to do with pleasure of writing.
There was a small shop with all kinds of metal robots from the 70s, its all about pleasure. Venise is a city of soft pleasure.
As we pull away, Italy is generous, noisy, tasty, sunny, and down to earth. True beauty.
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