blog d'europe

still in venice, but i thought this part of our visit deserved its own post. the peggy guggenheim collection is a modern art gallery made up of the american art collector, peggy guggenheim's personal collection of works.
she acquired a heap of works that she viewed as the most important art from the first half of the 20th century. lots of surrealism & cubism - max ernst, henri magritte, joan miró, man ray and even a salvador dali painting.

the collection had a garden filled with modern sculptures including this impressive mirror & glass triangular prism that was a real life optical illusion. so trippy..

the garden is also home to venice's wish tree (the brainchild of yoko ono, titled 'to peggy with love x'), where visitors are invited to jot down a wish onto a slip of paper, then attach it to tiny branches of the tree. a novel concept with a magical effect - the hundred's of little pieces of paper all ripple in the breeze. we had a cheeky stalk of everyone's wishes. some were deep & meaningful: 'paix sur la terre', some were fun: 'to fly' and some were just.... odd: 'puppy'.

i'd definitely recomend a visit to peggy guggenheim if you're in venice. it's a refreshing break from all the dramatic venetian paintings & it's in a really peaceful corner of venice - the sestière of dorsoduro. it's right near the santa maria della salute church.

arrivederci ...(can't say that without imagining brad pitt in inglorious basterds),

S.

a ridiculously early flight out of paris had me staying over at a friend's teensy-tiny apartment the night before (thanks neesh!), as she's a good lot closer to the airport than me. nonetheless, i was up at 5am to get myself to the airport in time. several easjet queues later (checking-in online to save time queuing is a bold-faced lie) and finding out that i am actually the queen of packing (only 10kg, win!) - i was en route to venice.

this magical italian lagoon island is exactly how lonely planet describes it; never-never land. spiderweb-like, winding turquoise canals. elegant gondolas in black, red and gold. artistically crumbling buildings lining narrow alleyways. italian flags, hung from window sills (surprisingly not cringe-worthy wog patriotism...) & rippling in the soft, warm breeze. gelaterias boasting a never-ending selection of delicious flavours. the smell of wood-oven pizzas wafting out of shops...

i came to venice to catch up with friends from back home in australia. it's been a good five months since i've seen them, so it was such a great opportunity to kick back with them... in italy, of all places. the epitome of 'the hard life' - with lots of 2.20€ gelati pit-stops (my favourite flayva combo: fragola & stracciatella), cheeky slices (aka pizza) & delicious pasta... it's safe to say that we ate well while here.

it is widely-known that no matter how good your map-reading skills are, you will inevitably get lost in this labyrinthine city. there's no cars, motorbikes, bikes, trains or buses here (well, there's water buses along the grand canal...€€), so to get from A to B becomes a matter of just winding your way through the alleyways - following spraypainted arrows & sharpie'd directions. everyday was a new adventure.

sad news: being the clever person i am, i've somehow managed to wipe half of my photos from venice. more than slightly devastated, i'm in the middle of raking the internet for ways to recover some 400 odd photos. suggestions are warmly welcomed! fingers crossed i manage to bring them safely back home - but in the meantime, here's a random bunch of snaps (aka photo overload - all the photos were gorgeous, i couldn't choose!) from our first couple of days in 'the floating city'...

ciao!

S.