venice: day three

our last day in venice began with a walk down the main pedestrian road back to st. mark’s square to get in an early visit at st. mark’s basilica since we weren’t able to make it the previous day. the basilica is one of the most beautiful churches we saw, and anne and corinne were glad they dressed appropriately (“modestly” with covered knees & shoulders) so they didn’t have to wear the ponchos being handed out which were basically just paper hospital gowns.

afterwards, we walked across the grand canal to the dorsoduro district where peggy guggenheim lived and where her personal art collection is now housed. peggy was an heiress of the guggenheim fortune who built an impressive collection from her network of friends in the modern art community including pablo picasso, jackson pollack, max ernst and other famous surrealists, cubists, abstractionists, and futurists that were painting and sculpting in the early 20th century. we also learned that after france became too dangerous for peggy to live during world war II (because she was jewish), she asked the louvre to hold her collection but the museum refused, dismissing them as “household objects.” so she was forced to hide her collection in a barn while she left for america. this was definitely an interesting stop on our tour.

after learning about peggy’s life, we ate lunch at a local café. at this point we were all tired of the 100 mph pace, but we decided to make one last stop at the customs house at the entrance to the grand canal. during venice’s trading days, venice was a major shipping port and the customs house was where incoming vessels paid their taxes. we then headed back to the hotel for a nap before dinner.

our final mission was to find a gondolier who could help make our experience in venice complete. We couldn’t have found a better guy for the job: he was a fifth-generation gondolier who loved singing and dancing while he maneuvered through the narrow back canals with ease. not only did he give us great tidbits of venetian history and point out historical buildings, but he also sang michael jackson songs, showed us where madonna shot a music video, and told us about his time meeting sting in the venice train station. this continued the “celebrity” theme of our travels, and was a great end to our time in venice.

~anne, chip, corinne & nick