I really fell hard for Banksy in 2006 when we went to a show of his work in Amsterdam. Street artist, legit artist and political activist, I just love him! When I was reminded that there is a piece of his work here in Venice it seemed the perfect outing for the morning. It is just near Campo Santa Margherita. To get there we had to cross the oh-so-crowded Rialto Bridge. Too many people! But once over the bridge we had a nice walk through San Polo, stopped for coffee at Caffè del Doge, used our little shortcut from past visits:

walked through Campo San Polo and San Toma, turned left at Tonolo, continued on to the bridge, and we found it. I took a million shots but I think this is the best of them:

I love this quote from Banksy’s website: “For all enquiries, complaints, threats and hate mail visit pestcontroloffice.com. Banksy is not on Facebook, Twitter or represented by any other gallery or …”. He is just my cup of tea. Totally irreverent but serious as hell.

When we first got to the bridge this boat was there and it was interesting to see how they deal with the public garbage cans, which, by the way, were overflowing by the end of this Sunday tourist rush:

The trash collectors put all the bags into this big cart, which they roll to the canal, and the crane on the boat lifts it on. The bottom of the cart retracts and the garbage disappears into the bottom of the boat.

We walked through Campo Santa Margherita, all the outside tables full with spritz drinkers. And on to Campo San Barnaba, also very lively. We wandered a while in the back streets and finally went back over the Accademia Bridge, through Santo Stefano, Sant’Angelo and finally stopped at Bar Tiziano where Elisa tells us they make a great spritz and that it’s where the locals go. I don’t see how it can remain local being on the main drag from Cannaregio to Rialto but we seemed to be the only Americans in there. We got our good spritzes and some good tramezzini and rested our feet before heading home.

After our rest time, (I actually slept) we had to call Sullivan, our adorable grandgirl who turned two! She was still in her pajamas and looked happy as ever. Happy Birthday Sulli!

Our afternoon outing was walking over to Campo Giovanni e Paolo in the nice evening light. It’s fun to watch the families out there playing with the young children. I had a good stare at the facade of the church and ended up with these photos:

We came home and I cooked us a simple dinner, including some tiny tortellini stuffed with prosciutto crudo.

It was a beautiful, sunny day inside and out.