Sunday and a slower pace.........barely!

 One thing that will slow us down a bit is the amount of content in the blog!  The less we do, the less time we will spend assembling the blogpost (and more time for sketching and painting)!  Yesterday was a bit crazy!  Sunday is a good day to change the pace.  We did our normal morning process, including a huge amount of stretching and yoga.......as yesterday managed to 'freeze' our muscles and bones a bit!

The plan was to head over to Dorsoduro and walk to the Punta della Dogana and the Pinault collection.  This was an easy vaporetto ride and a reasonable walk.  It was another wonderfully sunny day, so the outdoor meandering was quite enjoyable.  We were able to find a table at the waterside cafe at the Accademia Museum.  This is the only outdoor cafe/bar that is on the Grand Canal in Venice.  Other locations are all restaurants with full meal service only.  This is a fun place to have a coffee and just watch the boats on the canal. 

We then wandered 15 minutes out to the point of the Dogana.......and entered the museum  It is an amazing restoration of the customs building that had been abandoned for 30 years.  It was designed by Tadao Ando and financed by the Pinault family from France.  The restoration was wonderfully conceived and executed.  The current exhibit, entitled 'Liminal' by Pierre Huyghe........was quite unusual.......actually somewhat disturbing.  In the artist's words, the "exhibit is an unpredictable ritual, where new possibilities are generated and coexist, without hierarchy or determinism.....calling our perception of reality into question; as if we were becoming strangers to ourselves, from a perspective other than human - inhuman."

The visitor experience starts by being immersed in a totally dark room for 4-5 minutes to allow your eyes to adjust.  You then proceed through the entire show in virtual darkness.  There are marginally illuminated video projections and exhibits which seem to imply bones and archaeological references.......but you are never quite sure.  You are also unnerved a bit, wondering if you will walk into a wall or another person!  Enough said.

After that escapade we drifted back to the Zattere Fondamenta.......always nice in the morning as it faces south over the Giudecca Canal and has wonderful sun.  We were able to grab a table at Nico's, conveniently close to the vaporetto stop.  Lunch was great, but the best part was the gelato (Nico's is known as one of the most famous gelato makers in Venice). 

This is our shared painting table in the apartment

Corridor leading to our apartment

View walking from the Residenza to the front of San Giorgio Maggiore and the vaporetto stop.

Main entrance gate where the Concierge resides, opening into the primary grounds of the Cini Foundation.

AND BACK TO SAN GIORGIO!

A quiet evening........a bottle of wine on the roof terrace overlooking the Borges Maze (don't forget to click 'full screen' on the video).......and in house cooking of cacio e pepe ravioli with a butter and cream sauce with pizza from Majer!  What a fun ending to a great day!