Given our 2pm train back to Lausanne, we had a half-day left to explore Venice. The weather in the morning was beautiful, as last night's storm had passed through by the time we got up.
We began the day at the Accademia, a museum with Venetian masterpieces through the 18th century. Titian and Tintoretto were the artists that I was most familiar with (at least in terms of their names), though I recognized a number of other paintings that I must have seen before in textbooks. The museum also houses Da Vinci's drawing of the Vitruvian Man, which unfortunately wasn't on display.
After our museum visit, we walked to Harry's Bar -- a bar / restaurant near St. Mark's known for introducing the world to Carpaccio and Bellinis that was a favorite spot of Ernest Hemingway. Unfortunately, it wasn't open when we arrived (or we simply weren't able to successfully open the door), so we left with merely a picture.
Our next stop was the Museum of Modern Art, which Emilie wanted to vist. Here's one of the canals that we crossed along the way.
As with every other MOMA that I've visited, I either didn't like or didn't understand 99.9% of what I saw. I guess the artwork was "interesting" to see, but I don't think that I was able to fully appreciate any of it. The following is an example from the lobby area -- basically a massive cloth-type monster puppet. How the artist thought of this, I have no idea.
We then went back to the hotel to grab our belongings and head to the train station. The following are some pictures that I took as our boat made its way down the Grand Canal.
The trip to Venice went quickly, but I think we did a good job of seeing a lot in our short time. It really is a unique city given its aquatic environment and lengthy history. If only it could do something about the foul canal smell...
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