Out of the Belly of the Fish

Aerial view of Venice
 (not our photo!)

The clouds parted, the sky was blue and ...... it was  time for us to leave Venice for Milan.  But we didn't want to go!  So instead, we sneakily stole some extra time by calling today a "Venice day" and only leaving at the very last minute. Poor rejected Milan.  We used the extra time to admire the city sparkling in the sunlight and visit the Peggy Guggenheim museum which had somehow fallen off our agenda previously.  Once we got started with our bonus time, though, we couldn't stop ourselves.  As well as the previously mentioned itinery we managed to squeeze in another traghetto ride, the view at Customs House, Chiesa Santa Maria Novella, some shopping, re-photographing various bridges and canals - "they look different in the sunshine"... all before lunch.  Even lunch was eaten as we went (thank goodness for spinach and cheese pastries) and we refused to walk straight back to collect our bags - there is always time for one last detour down the picturesque "calles" and over the bridges of Venice.

How could we have ever thought of missing the Guggenheim??  Especially on such a sunny day, the gallery was a refreshing change from all the dark renaissance paintings we had been visiting in various churches throughout the trip.  The light filled rooms were a perfect backdrop for her wonderful collection of modern art.  Some of our favourite artists had work there - Miro, Calder, Picasso, Cornell and Chagall were all represented.  The works were interspersed with photos of Peggy herself showing the rooms as they were when she lived there, with the artworks in situ.  We also enjoyed the sculpture garden a lot.  There was a particularly fun statue out the front of the gallery - there is nothing like modern art meets Venice canal...

...except maybe contemporary art meets Venice canal!  The sculpture in the photo was standing on the extreme end of the top jaw of the "fish" at Customs House.  Stunningly beautiful and gleaming white in the sun (did we mention it was sunny today??),we took many photos, much to the disgust of the guard who was standing nearby for no apparent reason.  Perhaps he was hoping a tourist would tumble into the canal whilst walking backwards to take the perfect shot.  That would liven up his day no end!

One last trip on the vaporetto got us to the train station.  It was really hard to drag ourselves away from Venice - it is so beautiful, but in the end we escaped from the fish's belly and took with us some of the best memories of this trip.