Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Trip Report Some notes from our latest Venice visit

This was the sixth visit for DH and I, for 2 weeks in June 2011. This isn't intended to be an exhaustive report, just some notes on what was new this year - or new to us - and which we enjoyed, with a bit of general info on where we stayed & liked eating.

Accommodation

Stayed in an apartment, 'Orseolo' on the Rio de San Trovaso in Dorsoduro, rented through Truly Venice and we were delighted with it - I've posted a review on TA. On our most recent trips to Venice we've really enjoyed staying in an apartment and pretending we live there - shopping daily at the fishmongers' (one trip to the Rialto but otherwise our local 3 stalls in Campo S. Margherita), greengrocer's (on Fondamento de San Basagio), delicatessen (Pantagruelica In Campo S. Barnaba) and most importantly the draft wine shop on Calle Lunga San Barnaba :-) Plus Billa for staples when necessary (the smaller Punto supermarket off Campo S. Margherita was closed for refurbishment but I daresay it's probably open again now.)

Eating

Lunches were mainly either cicchetti in wine shops or DIY with lovely things from Pantagruelica in the apartment's courtyard – or just had to be taken wherever we were, such as in the Giardini or Arsenale.

When not dining in, we mainly stuck to old faves – our favourite restaurant as last time was the Osteria Enoteca Ai Artisti on Calle de la Tolletta (not to be confused with the Bar Ai Artisti on Campo S. Barnaba, where we took our 2nd breakfast of an espresso & pastry most days plus the odd pre dinner spritz or Negroni). The Ristorante San Trovaso was reliable as ever for a spot of good value traditional Venetian seafood when we didn't feel like eating much or making an effort. We used to like Casin dei Nobili and even more so the newer one on the Zattere, especially when it first opened and had a raw fish menu : sadly however this seems to have gone downmarket and is not so interesting now. Went to the much-praised La Zucca for the first time and liked it very much – would go again on all future trips. Also tried a couple of new (to us) non-fishy options for a Sun/Mon night, La Bitta and Osteria Alla Biforca (cold plates only). I didn't really get a proper impression of the former as it was very hot and I wasn't feeling well (raining so couldn't sit in 'garden') but I have seen good words about it. Would go to the latter again.

Not sure we got to any ice cream shops new to us this time, but our favourites continued to be Lo Squero and Grom, plus I always make a point of going to the Gelateria San Stae for a Prosecco ice cream :-)

New sights to us, or new experiences of old sights

1. The Torre d'Orologio & Museo Correr

Took the guided tour of the Torre d'Orologio which was excellent and really worth doing – I'd actually recommend this even on a first visit to Venice . It's included in the Museo Correr ticket but has to be booked, which I did via the official website http://www.museiciviciveneziani.it/f...e=prenotazioni : effectively you book a tour and get a ticket for the Museo Correr, the National Archaelogical Museum & the State Rooms of the Biblioteca Marciana thrown in for your €12. You pick up the tickets at the Museo Correr which is also where you report for the tour. We also visited the Museo Correr which we hadn't done before : it was quite interesting but a bit lacking in information and I wouldn't say it needs to be done, certainly not on a first visit. We were getting tired partway through so skipped the archaeological museum : unfortunately we only realised at the end that the way to the Biblioteca Marciana was via the archaeological museum, but we were too tired to go back.

2. Olivetti showroom

Newly open to the public this year is the former Olivetti showroom on Piazza San Marco designed by the great Venetian architect Carlo Scarpa and now run by the Italian equivalent of the National Trust. Entry is something very modest like €2 and it's very interesting – and quite beautiful, IMO. I'd recommend trying to go on a sunny day in order best to appreciate the use of light. Don't miss the watergate at the back.

3. San Servolo

I'd wanted for a while to try to visit the island of San Servolo as it sounded very atmospheric and this time we managed it – it was very interesting but not quite what I'd expected. I'd found a phone number by googling and we rang up the day before we intended to visit, as instructed, to book a place on the guided tour. We got a normal vaporetto there from San Zaccaria although I'm not sure I can now remember the number – 13, maybe ? Like me, I expect what most people know of San Servolo is as the former lunatic asylum and I'd expected it to be quite derelict and creepy. However the buildings are all well maintained and nowadays the place seems to be some sort of residential study centre, with just one section upstairs devoted to a museum of the asylum. The tour was enjoyable although we didn't get as much out of it as we might have done, as it was only in Italian and we are not fluent; and although once we got into the museum proper there were boards with information in English too, there wasn't enough time to read it all. It's a shame visitors can't just wander round the museum on their own but no, you can only visit it as part of a tour. Anyway it was still very interesting and we got the added bonus of seeing inside the small church there – "un piccolo gioiello", as our guide said. Afterwards we were able to wander round for as long as we liked in the lovely grounds (the only place in the lagoon which can grow olive trees, apparently), and there were various Biennale pavilions & installations dotted about too. There was also a café which we could have used if we'd wanted to.

4. Basilica of San Marco

We'd visited St Mark's a couple of times before, once without booking on Boxing Day many years ago, and once with a booking on our first 'proper' trip 6 years ago. Last time I booked for something like 1145, turned up at the special door (the one used by tour groups) with email in hand, got let in on the dot of the appointed time and it wasn't very busy inside anyway, despite the long queue of non-bookers waiting. This time however I booked for opening time, we were behind a couple of tour groups, went in at the same time as they opened the door to the non-bookers and it was immediately packed inside. It was really quite unpleasant until we got to the altar and the extra cash desk for the Pala d'Oro (it had still been packed in the Treasury even after paying extra to go in there). From then on, for some reason, it wasn't too crowded anywhere - in the main body of the church as well as the areas you pay extra for. The exhibitions upstairs seemed more extensive than I'd remembered and we could have spent longer up there. (DH was worrying about the fact we were only supposed to leave our bag in the cloakroom for an hour, but I think that's just to deter people from using at as an all-day left-luggage. We were about 90 minutes and there was no problem) My concluson was that if I were going again, I'd book for lunchtime agin in the hope it's always less busy then.

5. Other churches

Managed for the first time to complete a Chorus pass full of visits (some visited on our previous trip last September – the pass lasts a year), plus visited various others we happened across. Can't now remember which we visited for the first time ever and which were particularly noteworthy, but it was all very worthwhile. We were greatly assisted by a brilliant website we'd found for the first time just before this visit - www.churchesofvenice.co.uk. I think we were pointed to this by a reference in John Freely's book 'Strolling Through Venice', which was also newly acquired and is a good and very exhaustive guide to the buildings you will pass along many routes. I think Freely said that the Churches of Venice website is the only resource to list *all* the churches (even those now demolished / collapsed !).

(As an aside, I read Jan Morris' 'Venice' for the second time before this trip – it takes me a while to get through it, but I think it may be the most interesting book I've ever read ! I may reread it annually for ever. We also bought the Jonglez 'Secret Venice' book this year; but although it initially looked exciting, in the end we didn't find it that useful and got a bit tired of its seeming obsessions with a few odd subjects such as freemasonry and Kabbalah.)

6. Murano

We had been to Murano a couple of times before, got off at Museo and just had lunch on their 'Grand Canal' and/or visited churches. All the glass shops we'd seen on those occasions had seemed just full of really horrible stuff, whether cheap or expensive – not my taste at all, anyway. On this occasion, though, we'd decided I ought to have something from Murano as a birthday present and thought that there must be more modern pieces more suited to my taste. We'd seen a couple of shops in town which stocked some things I quite liked, but eventually decided that perhaps we really should try Murano itself again, in an attempt to make sure I really did get something local. This time, we got off the vaporetto at Colonna as we were planning to follow a walk in 'Strolling Through Venice' ftom there, and what a difference ! The shops – some of them at least - were immediately much nicer, starting right opposite the vaporetto stop. Of course they all contained a lot of stuff I didn't like too, but I did start seeing the type of modern pieces I was hoping for. After a while we started mostly being able tell whether or not a shop was worth our going into or not, just by looking in the window. After much to-ing and fro-ing (and lunch :-) )I ended up with 2 nice sets of necklace and earrings from Cesare Sent, the posher and more unusual one handmade by the maestro himself

Biennale

Left this section until last since it's a bit long and probably of more limited interest.

As usual in odd-numbered years we timed our visit for the first couple of weeks the Biennale was open to the public, but it's not a great year. The curated exhibitions in the Giardini central (former Italian) pavilion and the Arsenale we found dull and the new Italian Pavilion was really bad (did they just invite anyone who wanted to, to send stuff in ??), except for the 'Museo di Mafia' which we quite liked. Individual countries & collateral events were a mixed bag as always.

Our favourites in the Giardini were Germany, Austria & Canada plus Denmark & France (once we'd found the notes !) to a lesser extent.

The only Arsenale sections we liked were Chile & particularly the Istituto Italo-Latino-Americano which repays spending some time in, as there are lots of different (but not too long !) videos, films etc. By the time we got there on our first visit to the Arsenale we were tired & pretty fed-up, but DH thought they looked worth going back to another day when we were fresh so that's what we did. (We find we need 2 tickets each anyway as we need separate days for the Giardini national pavilions and the central pavilion.)

My favourite offsite exhibition was 'Penelope's Labour', absolutely stunning modern tapestries, most huge, on San Giorgio Maggiore - but it's closed now. 'Real Venice' also on SGM not bad but closing 30 Sept. The Anish Kapoor installation in the church of SGM didn't seem to be working properly when we went.

Very impressed by 'The Future of a Promise' at the Magazzino del Sale - other shows there not really worth a visit.

Also very impressed by the Iraq pavilion in a derelict-ish house. Iran not very extensive but we thought good too. Thailand vg fun and also liked Estonia.

Liked some of 'Venice in Venice' which featured a small James Turrell piece not requiring queuing (we queued for 90 mins for the one in the Arsenale - nice but no better than ones we've seen before & definitely not worth the wait !!); also included Warhol 'clouds'.

We quite liked the 'mini Giardini' type area at the back of Palazzo Zenobio - interesting piece in the ?ex-library at the end of the garden, plus access to the rather wonderfully mad Iceland pavilion off to the right. The opposite exit from Iceland takes you into a small dead end calle (the other, open end of the calle comes out on Fondamenta de San Basagio) with a semi-derelict oratorio showing an OK small exhibition based on refugees (which seemed to be a theme when we were there - around International Refugee Day or similar, I think). In the same oratorio we'd seen our first ever offsite show 6 years ago, 'Ezra Pound's cage', but have never managed to make a note of who runs this space.

Good video by Polish artist in San Lio church, based on Breughel's 'Way to Calvary'.

We went to the 2 Pinault spaces and found the opposite to last time - didn't like much in the Dogana but liked quite a bit in Palazzo Grassi.