Big excitement in the early morning: A special boat came to pump out the septic tank (Anthony!) . We watched them work from the window :

The weather started out looking iffy.  We have weather apps that came with our phones and recently dowloaded 3B Meteo, an Italian weather app that Nan swears by.  Both said rain at some point but not too much.  So we put on our rain jackets and off we went. Also we are trying to track down another apartment for next year.  We had a possible meeting with some people but it didn’t work out.  

Le Stanze della Fotografia is a very new museum on San Giorgio. It just opened March 29. We walked through Santa Maria Formosa to San Zaccheria and got the #2 over to the island.

First stop was the Stanze del Vetro which is mostly closed but they are showing 3 large pieces made by the renown Venetian glass master, Venini. “the monumental polychrome polyhedron chandelier, consisting of around four thousand elements and designed by Carlo Scarpa for the Veneto pavilion at the 1961 ‘Italia 61’ exhibition in Turin.” (pasted from their website)

From there we passed the marina to the new Stanze della Fotografia. I love their branding–all pink and black simple shapes.

There is an extensive (about 300 photographs) showing of black and white works by Ugo Mulas and then upstairs the large scale color photos of Venice by Alessandra Chemollo.

The set up for the show was interesting. There were panels hanging from the ceiling and some works on the walls but all of the information was on a little ledge below the work. For the first 15 photos they gave us a paper guide of explanation.

I loved this unique take on the Piazza San Marco.

And this one of the invaluable works of Robert Rauschenberg loaded onto a boat to get to the Biennale years ago:

They were, for the most part large portraits–like about 10″x16″. Lots of famous Italians and many familiar names from the art world. We saw Andy Warhol and a very young Cristo in his studio. The close up portraits were my favorite part.

We really needed a break so we went out to the little cafe (the only place to eat on the island) and had a coffee and some lousy cicchetti. The upstairs part of the museum was completely different–large, like 3 feet by 5 feet, color photos of many well know Venetian churches and other settings.

My favorite: (I love how she put the column right in the center and caught the luminosity of the space)

We had just enough–no Stendhal Syndrome yet–although sometimes just walking around Venice I feel like I have it.

Anyway (allora…) we went back to the boat dock and got #2 back to San Zaccheria. I took this, waiting for the vap to come:

We came back home, easily walking, off map, back to our little neighborhood. I feel a little like a private eye, chasing down the possible apartment around the corner. After our rest time, we went there and took a photo of the tourist licence number. And to see if we could leave a note–but no mailbox. And we asked to man at the bar next door if he knew the owner–he was not very forthcoming. We also went to the Coop for a few little things and to the wine store.

Elisa stopped by for a nice little visit.

We had leftovers and pasta for dinner. And Prosecco, and a little Valpoilcella.

Finally the people contacted us and we have a meeting set up for tomorrow morning. Fingers crossed that this will work.

So—lots of art, some good food and wine and true love. Who could ask for more?