Day 6: Museum and Rain

Watching the lightning and rain off in the distance, knowing it's coming our way.

We slept through the night, despite the thunder and lightning.

We knew we were in for a day of rain, so it's a perfect day for museums and being inside. After breakfast, we left with a few umbrellas and rain jackets to walk to La Biennale, located on, from what I can tell, what seems to be, the greenest part of the island (so many trees!) There are several smaller buildings on the property, each dedicated to a different country. Just as we go into line for our tickets, the raindrops began to fall.

We are not a big "art" family, or "museum" family, so many of the exhibits we saw were confounding. Very modern interpretations of philosophical concepts. Or too bloody and violent for the sensitive souls. But some displays were cool and interactive.

Denmark's take on sustainability and identity

Weird representation of whatever.
We just liked how it created static in our hair.

On a recommendation,  we were really here to see the art from Shiota, a Japanese artist, who, we found out at the exhibit, now lives in Berlin! So amazing. His art is something we could all enjoy. The message (that we are all connected through time, love, and more) is a concept we can all grasp and appreciate. It was stunningly beautiful.

Close up of some keys (left). A great shot of two boats (photo by Chris).

But, Xander wasn't feeling well. He persevered through Shiota's exhibit, but then we figured we'd better head out. It was raining pretty good now and we had a looooong walk back to our hotel. Just to give you and idea, I normally walk about 6,000-10,000 steps a day (I use a Fitbit to track). On days like today, I walked over 17,000 steps. So, it's a lot of walking, and praise to Xander who made it back to the hotel not feeling the best.

Before the rain (left). During the rain (right).

So, we made it back to our hotel. It felt good to get back and rest. We all took off our soaking wet clothes, got one some dry clothes and relaxed for a few moments. Xander was feeling better. Yay!

BUT... we found a leak in our room! Yes, the hotel is old, but this leak was pretty bad. Water was dripping down the corner of our room and pooling behind the TV, falling off the counter and puddling on the floor. Yikes. Chris called maintenance and, after seeing the leak for themselves, said that they'd move us to another room, for safety.

We packed up quickly, and headed to our new room. The new room had pros and cons. One door into a small hall, then two doors, one for the kids' room and one for ours. Privacy! And because the areas are smaller, the air conditioning seems to work better. But our room is much smaller, and you have to use different keys to the different "second" doors. Kind of a pain. But, we get two bathrooms. But, no bathtub or bidet (which we all tried in the first room, by the way, with lots of giggles and comments). [edit: I am reminded by Venice, that we DID have bidets, doh! and the kids' bathroom did have a bathtub, just not ours.]

And now, it's super late, as we weren't anticipating a room change, and we're starving for a late lunch (3:45pm). Xander really was craving a hamburger, so we went to the Devil's Forest Pub. The hamburgers were delicious. The fries were good too (the kids were not convinced to try the mayonnaise dipping sauce and stuck to the ketchup). And, by the way, the kids were feeling better now that they found a place that serves Shirley Temples (although they were mixed with ginger ale and they have been used to 7-Up/Sprite).

Bridge of Sighs (left). I "heart" Venice (middle). More Bridge of Sighs (right).

By now we were feeling drier and better. We split up. Chris and Xander went hunting for espresso and then back to rest in the room. Venice and I went on a "hedgehog" hunt. She had seen a cute glass hedgehog, but couldn't quite remember where the store was located. We hunted up and down the crazy maze of streets. I am starting to memorise the streets and ways, but it's still so hard to keep the shops separate in my mind (they all look so similar). We finally found the right store and, of course, it's located towards our hotel and only a few streets away (we had been hunting in the wrong direction). So we got the hedgehogs and... got caught in the rain AGAIN. So, we got soaked again. To paint a picture of how wet we got, our shoes were squishing out water as we walked through the hotel lobby.

Due to the rain, we decided to eat downstairs in our hotel. Not our best meal, not much choice. We were ecstatic to not have to put on wet shoes and get rained upon again. But, did you know, it's a moral imperative to have gelato EVERY DAY while in Italy? So of course, we did slosh in our wet shoes to find one more perfect gelato to end our day.

Still so beautiful, even in the rain.