Finding our way...Venetian style

It is so good to unpack and call somewhere home for the next week or so.

The palazzo in which our apartment is located is the site of one of the Biennale installations 'Beauty and the Beast' and there is a huge, slightly creepy structure in the courtyard.  There is more to the exhibition upstairs, but we're yet to explore.

The one drawback of our apartment is that it doesn't have a washing machine.  The weather has been in the high 20s, low 30s since we arrived in Zurich, so there's no escaping the need to wash.  We did some Google searching and settled on Lavanderia Gabriella - 15 euros a washing machine load - washed, dried and folded.  Other reviews of self service laundromats - and there are only a few - indicated costs of 10 euros to wash and another 10 to dry, so it seems good value not to have to wait around for the machines.

Now, Venice does not have street addresses as we know them.  For example, Lavanderia Gabriella has an address of S. Marco, 985, 30124 Venezia, but in reality it is located on Rio Terra de le Colonne.  Google maps attaches a caution to each Venice search that the results "may involve errors or sections not suited for walking" - hmmm.  After street-searching for an hour (and Google said a 15 minute trip), we asked a waiter who had stepped out for a smoke break.  He said, "Go straight, over the bridge, take a turn to the left in a tiny street, maybe the second, and not the smallest street but still very small, and Gabriella is there.  Hurry, she shuts at 12.00."  It was 12.30.  We took our chances and followed his instructions, more or less, and there it was.  Luckily Gabriella had remained open because there was no signage on the shop and it was only that we spotted the racks full of plastic wrapped items that we knew we had found the right place.  Brent charmed the ladies with his smile (I was met with a scowl!) and - great result - clean washing can be collected mid morning tomorrow.

Having off-loaded the washing, lunch seemed a good idea and then the vaporetto (water bus) home.  The views along the Canal Grande as the vaporetto bumps its way from stop to stop are nothing short of amazing - colours, shutters, watery entrances, rooftop gardens.

In a tiny calle (lane) as we exit at our vaporetto stop, there is an exhibition at Ca' Dandolo gallery as part of the Biennale.  We venture in for a look.  The exhibition, by UK artist Stephen Chambers, is 'The Court of Redonda' - a collective portrait of an imaginary court of writers, artists, film-makers and thinkers.  The intro to the exhibition states, "The installation of over 100 individual paintings articulates the role played by artists in envisaging a world not how it is, but how it could be."  We love it!  The paintings are whimsical, the colours soft and images flat - more like drawings.  The members of the court include characters such as The Prince of All  Mod-Cons, The Very Decent Harlot, The Duke of Vapour, Guardian of the Guano, Chancellor Where's He Been, Baron of Bonjour.  It made us smile!

Tonight we took the vaporetto to Lido for our first film of the festival - The Shape of Water by Guillermo del Toro.  A fantasy romance, filmed in muted greys and sepia tones with a small cast of characters and a monster you can't help but love.  Really enjoyed it.  The venue was the Pala Biennale, which is a huge tent structure with rows of flat seating and an outdoor bar.  We picked up a panino and a spritz (in a plastic cup, with swizzle stick and olive - a steal at 3 euros!) and dined in the nearby park.  Bliss!