Sunshine and snow this lovely Sunday morning.  We headed out confident and covered up.  A dozen Santas sailed by on two gondolas.  

 

After disembarking at Salute Station we walked to the tip of the Dorsoduro sestieri to take in the view.  There we meet an odd young fellow -

We continued on our way along the canal until we arrived at destination number one for the day - the Peggy Guggenheim Museum.  Now Peggy, aside from her collection, was quite an interesting gal.  Her dad, Benjamin, had died on the Titanic when she was a young girl and Peggy grew-up as a "poor" Guggenheim. She worked and hung out with artists throughout the 1920s in both New York and Paris and eventually founded her own art gallery in London 1938 called the gallery Guggenheim Jeune.  Man Ray photographed her; she was the collector and the collected.  She had multi artist/husbands and affairs with others.  Her first exhibit was dedicated to Cocteau; the next to Kandinsky.

Eventually she bought (and we entered) the Palazzo de Venier de Leoni on the Grand Canal.  Lovely gardens; incredible art.  Walking through this treasure trove, sitting on Peggy's sofas and staring, dumbfounded at a regular who's who of modern art felt delicious.  Best in show?  Hard to say.  Perhaps the bird sculpture

by Brancusi.  The light hit it just so, and the story of how he and Peggy fought bitterly over the price just added to the piquancy.

(this picture does NOT do it justice...)

We had lunch at the museum, bought a pair of those groovy glasses (see above) then headed out, planning to cruise the Grand Canal.  Alas, the temperature had sunk and Elle's shoes had soaked through so we decided to return home for more clothes and to regroup.  Ted, sick from being on a boat, begged off, but Joe, Elle and I, padded and covered, took the vaporetto out into the mysterious fog in search of Murano and the history Venetian glass.

The museum was so-so, nevertheless it gave us the basic ideal of how glass was made and showed samples from the 1st century A.D.  I can barely keep 8 unbroken water glasses in the house; image finding entire vases still intact 2000 years later?  Later we did a bit of a shopping, including buying six Venetian crystal and gold goblets (yes, the price was okay; Ted will return to UofC.)

Following "the hunt", we sipped grappa and waited for the vaporetto back (it was early...who'd have believed it??) Back home we savored the warmth, but had forgotten to shop for dinner and by 7:00 P.M. nothing was open. I made a humble of meal of what was left over and we began to pack for Rome.

Tomorrow:  The Italian train system.  Keep posted!  Buona Notte.