We had a busy day today. Everyone slept late, and we strolled over to Piazza San Marco this morning for overpriced cioccolato and biscotti for breakfast. The girls had fun chasing some pigeons before we took the water bus to the Giardini. That’s where many of the international art pavillions are set up for Biennale. En route, we found a fun playground with great swings.

The girls (all of us) had fun checking out the different pavillions- I think we all liked Belgium’s the best. A lot of the art was pretty conceptual, not passing Chris’s “is this truly ridiculous” test...he was the first to be arted-out. He did agree that the American pair’s piece with a treadmill on army tank treads was interesting.

After Biennale, we headed directly for pizza, and then on to find a gondola making factory. We got a little lost en route, but happened to pass through a 15th century church with beautiful Tintoretto paintings among others. Amory was able to identify some of the stories, like the visitation of the magi, and had fun trying to figure them out. Riley liked checking out the pews. Unfortunately, the gondola workshop was closed, but we made up for the disappointment with more gelato. 

While Chris and Amory chose to water taxi home, Riley and I were enjoying getting variously lost and finding ourselves in interesting places. We chose to meander home, and ended up in an interesting exhibit of renaissance musical instruments. Riley was thrilled to see cellos like the one Poppy had played, as well as tiny violins that she thought she could handle. We also explored another church, a couple of art galleries, and window-shopped our way home. Riley actually led the way on this- she was excited by everything she saw!

After a short rest at the hotel, we ventured out again to a simple trattoria for dinner. The girls had gnocchi, Chris lasagne, and I had spaghetti with marinara. The evening finished off with a chamber music concert in a small hall in P. San Marco. The group played Vivaldi’s Four Seasons among a few other short pieces. Vivaldi was a Venetian, and it was fun to think about him writing in a similar place long ago. Amory entertained herself thinking about what the musical motifs might symbolize- in spring, she thought she heard birds, bunnies, and a rainstorm. By the end, both girls were asleep, and we quickly brought them home to bed.