Our European Adventure

We accidentally got on the wrong Vaporetto to the Guggenheim museum. It took ages and the cold wind stung our faces. Mel hasn’t been well so it was a disaster for her. By the time we got off all we wanted was a warm cosy room with a hot drink, but it was not to be. We were here to see the Guggenheim collection!

Peggy Guggenheim was clearly a little bit weird, but her art collection: AMAZING. She had a pretty nice house too, with direct access to the Grande Canal. We really loved looking at the Kandinksy, Ernst, Picasso, okay let’s face it, we loved ALL the art. Saphira did a few fantastic sketches of her favourite paintings, and passersby loved watching her and commenting on her drawings. A few even took photos, which she of course thought was excellent. We ate lunch at the museum and bought a few postcards of our favourite artworks.

After lunch we headed to the Piazza San Marco where we got to go into the cathedral. No singlets, shorts or mini skirts allowed! (So naturally I had to wait outside. Not even Jesus himself is ready for these thighs. Should probably have left the mini skirt at home.) Anyway the mosaics were absolutely amazing. So huge, and so many tiny pieces of tile, stone and gold in each one. Eek! I can’t imagine what a person is thinking when they decide to create a 3 storey high mosaic, but whatever floats your boat! Really gorgeous. Most of the mosaics are replicas because the originals got destroyed – a common story with many European artefacts and buildings, but we got to see some of the original bits and pieces of mosaic which were just as intricate and beautiful.

We ended the day with a stroll through the cobbled lanes back across the Rialto bridge and home again. On the way, Mel picked up an awesome pair of Macbeths!