– art, family and yes, crowds..but hey! –
This was a very quick visit to Venice over the course of a weekend towards the end of the summer. We hoped that the worst of the crowds would have left – and for the most part they had, but Venice being Venice, there were still crowded streets and queues to contend with.
We spent most of our time wandering around the Arsenale on this visit – this time to see the 2019 Art Biennale. I’ve always felt a special connection to Venice and the deeper I’ve delved into family history, it’s become clearer why that might be. It turns out that a branch of the family, the Alberghetti, were one of the two families who dominated weapon manufacturer in the Venetian Republic from the 1400’s until the late 1700’s when Napoleon Bonaparte put paid to the long family tradition.
Arsenale, which was the military powerhouse of the Republic, was at the heart of the family’s fortunes and their home. The large halls which today house the major works of the Venice Biennale were in fact the enormous and at that time, highly technologically advanced foundries in which the family operated. A little like the Silicon Valley of the Renaissance.
I’m not going to say much but rather just feature some of the more memorable works of art, with some location shots along the way.
In the photo below, the three storey house on the right across from the entry to the Biennale was the Alberghetti family home. Luckily, it was open for an exhibition and I had a chance to wander through a few of the rooms. How special was that…
