Damien Hirst - Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable

Early start this morning...first stop, rubbish boat!  Every morning between 6.30 and 8.30am (except Sunday) the rubbish boat parks alongside a small campo a few minutes walk from the apartment.  We take our rubbish down and throw it into the appropriate receptacle on the boat.  Mon/Wed/Fri, the recycling is paper, on the other days, plastic and glass.  I never thought rubbish disposal could be such fun!

Next stop...coffee and pastries at Bar ai Nomboli - bliss.  Then home to collect the towels for washing, vaporetto to Rialto stop and the short walk to Lavanderie Gabriella.  Brent has definitely won those ladies' hearts.  I try to get a look in so I can practise my Italian, but they only have eyes for Brent - he has them at "buongiorno"!

While the washing is in progress, we walk to the Palazzo Grassi to see one part of the Damien Hirst exhibition 'Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable".  The exhibition tells a story of treasures that lay submerged in the Indian Ocean for 2000 years before being discovered in 2008.  The sculptures are exhibited prior to undergoing restoration, encrusted in coral and other marine life, together with re-imaging of the works in their original undamaged forms.  It was easy to get lost in the story and forget that it was all imagined.  We particularly loved the sculputures in red marble and lapis lazuli, and it was hard not to be in awe of the size of some of the sculptures.  It must have been a miracle of engineering to deliver the sculptures into the Venice galleries.

Picked up the washing - "ciao, grazie, ciao" - vaporetto home, lunch, and then more of Damien Hirst.

The other part of the exhibition is at the second of the galleries owned by François Pinault, the 'Punta Della Dogana'.  I love this gallery.  The building was formerly customs house and it sits on a spit of land in sestiere Dorsoduro, opposite San Marco.  This was my favourite part of the exhibition, I think because of the gallery.  The towering rooms of open exhibit space give onto smaller, darkened rooms housing the gold and silver works, polished concrete floors and huge wooden roof beams, and the windows along both sides of the gallery give views across the laguna - it gives the sense of being on a ship.  Fabulous.

Home for a quick break before we head off to Lido tonight to see the film 'Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri'.  The film is by the director of In Bruges, Martin McDonagh, and is a dark comic-drama starring Frances McDormand and Woody Harrelson - there's nothing in there not to like!  Can't wait...