We really didn’t have a plan for Venice. We’d seen the most popular attractions and didn’t need to see them again. We did want to go to the Peggy Guggenheim Collection and with not much more in mind we headed off for the Academia Bridge. Once on that side of the Grand Canal, we wandered in the direction of the museum. It turned out that the line to get tickets was long. Since we weren’t in the mood to wait, we decided we’d come early tomorrow and kept walking toward the end of the island. The last building at the point is the large, former tariff building from Venice’s hay day. Directly across from San Marco Square, it is a great place for a panoramic view of that end of the city.
We decided to walk back along the GiudeccaCanal, less interesting, but certainly not as crowded with visitors. We were vaguely searching for a gondola maintenance shop we’d stumbled upon on another amble and eventually cut back into the city. Soon we came out into a square I recognized immediately. This is the place that gave the world the word “ghetto”. In the old days, most of the Jewish population lived on Giudecca Island and around Campo San Agnese where there were and still are two synagogues. But one side of the square was bordered by iron wright shops. The word ghetto means foundry in Italian.
While stopped for a rest and some coffee, we looked through some of our information and learned that the Guggenheim would be closed on Tuesday. We hurried back and lucked out. No line. The museum is in Peggy’s old house and most of the contents were part of her personal collection. But being in a house, some of the rooms – including a hallway – just don’t work well for displaying paintings. That being said, Connie and I agree that it is the best collection of early and middle twentieth century for any museum of that size.
By the time we were done we were tired and decided to walk back to the restaurant we liked for an early dinner. Turned out it was crowded with 3 couples waiting out in the street (alley, really), so we just went back to our hotel. After some rest up time, we ate a nice meal at the restaurant closest to our hotel and then went back in for the night.