Yesterday and today were again lovely days.  You all are probably tired of hearing that, but the weather has been so nice here and, to tell the truth, for this time of year, that’s unusual.

Yesterday we decided to try again to go to the Guggenheim Collection.  Last week, if you have been following this blog, you may remember there were about 200 people in line waiting to get in.  This time we walked right in.  Peggy Guggenheim was an expat living in Venice in the middle decades of the 20th century.   She “knew” lots of the modern artists, many in their early days, and was a huge collector of modern art.  The Collection is housed in her home on the Grand Canal and that alone makes it worth seeing.  Add works of the most famous 20th century artists and you have a perfect combination.  We have now been there 5 times over the course of our 4 visits to Venice and have enjoyed it every time.  Here are only a few of the works available for viewing.

We stopped for a quick lunch on the way home and then had two hours until we left again to meet Monica Cesarato of Cook in Venice for a cichetti tour.  Monica is another of my SlowTravel friends and she does both cooking lessons here in Venice and several different tours including a ghost tour, a chocolate tour and this cichetti tour.  Cichetti are Venice’s equivalent of tapas and are only found in the Veneto region.  First we started with amazing hot chocolate with a scoop of gelato of our choice.  I know, not cichetti, but it did coat our stomachs for the wine we would be drinking.  We were scheduled to go to three bacari or bars where cichetti are served, but called a halt after two.  We were just too full to go on.  For those interested, the two places we did go were Aziende Agricole di Roberto Berti and el Sbarlefo.  Both were neighborhood places in Cannaregio and not in the least touristy.  In each we had four cichetti each and a glass of wine each.  Again, good thing we weren’t driving.  There are absolutely no pictures because we were all so busy talking and laughing, eating and drinking, it didn’t even crossed our minds to take pictures.  Monica came back to the apartment with us to see it and visit some more.  What a great evening!

This morning we met Christy and Paul during their morning walk.  First we walked over to the Palazzo Contarini del Bovolo .

Then we went over to Christy and Paul’s friends’ glass store Atmosfera Veneziana.  We have been there several times over the years and always enjoy the beautiful Murano glass there.  We left Paul and Christy and went to get some lunch.  One of our favorite restaurants in the Campo San Marco area is Alla Rivetta da Lino.  We again had a great meal, antipasto of mixed fish, zucchini cooked with garlic and parsley, linguine with clams for Alan and liver and onions for me.  This picture of empty clam shells is the only picture we took.  We were hungry!

We then walked over to San Marco and since there was practically no one in line to get in, went into the basilica.  We had been there in 2008 and again in 2013.  It is glorious and allows no pictures.  We did take a couple outside.

We saw this on our walk to San Marco.  Pizza crust masks!

Home on the vaporetto.  Later since she was grocery shopping in the neighborhood, Christy stopped by for a glass of wine.  Dinner was left over pasta with tomatoes, burrata and pesto.  Hopefully an early to bed time so we can get up early and beat the crowds at the Ducal Palace.  We’ll see if that really happens.