Today was the day we were scheduled to go to the Fondaco dei Tedeschi’s rooftop terrace, but that wasn’t until 2 PM. We needed to leave the apartment by about ten as it was scheduled to have its weekly cleaning. We decided to walk over to Campo San Samuele to see another of the free exhibits, this one featuring works by Evan Penny, a Canadian artist. We first stopped in at a Biennale free exhibit from Bosnia-Herzegovina called University of Disaster. If anyone has seen this, and would like to share what in the world it is about, please feel free to get in touch with us.

 

 

We then took the vaporetto from San Samuele down to San Marcuola which is the stop for the Venice Casino. We had never seen the Casino close up and were hoping to be able to go into it to see the Wagner rooms. Richard Wagner died there, on the second floor, but both the Wagner rooms and the Casino were closed. We did see the Courtyard and the plaque commemorating Wagner’s death.

 

We then walked down the Strada Nova and stopped for lunch at La Cantina. We had a good wine called Garganega and the mixed fish platter containing both raw and cooked fish. There were little tiny clams, scallops with their roe, raw branzino, a hot dish of fish and peppers, and one or two others I can’t remember. We also had a bruschetta of gorgonzola and walnuts. I had my phone on the table to take a picture of the fish, but got hungry and forgot to take anything after the wine and the hot bread.

We then walked down to the Fondaco dei Tedeschi, hoping, along the way, to be able to buy fresh pasta at Rizzo’s, but, of course, it was closed for lunch. The Fondaco is huge and takes up way more than a city block. We got there earlier than our 2 PM reservation, so we waited in the non-reserved line and were able to go to the terrace with the 1:30 group. What a view you get from up there. You are only allowed 15 minutes on the Terrace, but it is actually plenty of time to see everything. There are very good maps in all different directions to let you know what you are looking at, and we both feel like it is well worth going to see. We would do it again.

 

 

We wandered around the food court a bit, but the prices are ridiculously high, about twice as much as we would pay in our neighborhood. We did buy two croissants, one filled with pistachio cream and one with chocolate cream. Those are for breakfast tomorrow and are safely tucked away in the frig.

We took the vaporetto back to Ca’ Rezzonica and I waited in Campo San Barnaba while Alan ran to the market for pancetta, and to the barge for fruits and vegetables.

 

Back home, Alan napped while I read and now he is making a saffron-pancetta risotto for dinner. We will have a roasted Treviso radicchio with it. Yum!