Next: the Biennale.  For those that don’t know, the Biennale is a bi-yearly art show that takes place in the Giardini and the Arsenale in Venice.  The Giardini contains lots of pavilions of various architecture and size and each country gets one to fill with (usually) one artist’s work.  We began in the Belgian pavilion.  The artist, Jef Geys, requested that people from all over the world send in samples of medicinal plants and their locations.  He arranged them nicely and I snapped a pic of the ones from New York (below).  Finland’s pavilion showcased a man’s obsession with firemen and firemen memorabilia.  The American pavilion displayed lots of flashy neon signs with different related words on top of each other.  There was also this cool neon piece of two people poking each other in the eye.

Another cool piece displayed in the general exhibition showed the silhouettes of random objects turning on numerous carousels.  Very nice.  Let’s see, mats made of human hair, 100 euros each, a man with chin-balls, a man who drowned, an extravagant bathroom to symbolize overindulgence, and someone stretching oddly on a bench near the end of our delirious art tour.

We somehow made our way over to La Fenice and bought three tickets off old Italian women.  I’m not sure they were even trying to sell them but my mom can be very intimidating when she wants something.  It was worth it, I sat next to a little bambini and listened to the symphony orchestra play George Handel’s Musica sull’acqua (Water Music), Bach’s Suite n. 3 (which includes my favorite Bach piece, Air, Pachelbel’s Canon in re maggiore (the wedding song) and more Handel.  It really was amazing and I would recommend going and maybe even getting tickets in advance to avoid the craziness that ensues just before show time.  If you don’t get tickets, however, definitely try about half an hour before.  Here’s a little audio recording I made of the last Handel piece: Georg Händel – Musica per i reali fuochi d’artificio

After the show, we went back to Oliva Nera for another Fritto Misto and this time it was huge.  So good.  Schie.  Perfetto.  Mouse-over any image to see a description and click on any of them to see them huge – apologies for the no-roto.  May I suggest picking up your laptop and turning it clockwise or counterclockwise, appropriately.

We quickly left the apartment before passing out and got espressos and then went and found some chichetti for a snack. Chichetti are like tapas but better. Okay they’re the same, just Italian and they are typically Venetian, and they are usually different kinds of fish, and that is awesome.

We visited a bunch of churches for my mother’s project and explored our new hood. Later we met our friend Max, who stayed with us while getting his masters in Architecture at Berkeley, and his baby daughter, Margarita. Very cute, loved by all, with a powerful baby-cold.

We had dinner at Oliva Nera and it was incredible. We started with fried zucchini flowers stuffed with mozzarella and served on top of mushrooms (stiga, not sure what that translates too). Next we had anchovy pasta and cuddle in its own ink served over a creamy pollenta. For a main we split the mixed fried fish which consisted of everything they could find at the market that day, fried, including (not sure how to spell this) schie, my favorite, which are like little tiny baby shrimp (see below on fork). To finish everything off we had panna cotta with raspberry and preserved and dehydrated orange slices served with desert wine. I might put up some recipes but I can’t divulge all their secrets.