This mini-series of posts relates to my trip over the weekend to Venice for the opening of the 2025 Biennale. I took so many photos that I’ve decided to split it into three parts. The first being about my trip across to Venice with the second two focusing on the Biennale itself. My main purpose for visiting Venice was to attend the last in-person session of the Neuroscience and Design class I've been attending.
On Thursday afternoon of last week I took the train to Zurich, while doing my best to participate in the course’s last virtual session. I dropped my suitcase off at an airport hotel and then headed back into town to attend a concert by Stereophonics, one of my favourite bands.
It was a great concert - I really enjoyed it a lot. Afterwards I headed back to the hotel to catch a few hours of sleep before an early flight out to Venice. (It ended up being much cheaper to stay in Zürich than to stay an additional night in Venice... I imagine the Biennale hasn't helped keep local hotel prices down).
Bright and early the next morning I took the tram a few stops to the airport.
It was the first time I'd come to the airport by tram - and used this entrance - so it was interesting to see an overview of an airport I’ve navigated many, many times from below.
For once I didn't need to reverse a selfie image (as it has naturally reversed the text on the outside of the building). Although I probably should have rotated this one by a few degrees.
The short flight to Venice was operated by Air Baltic.
On the plane I met Christoph Hölscher - a professor of Cognitive Science at ETH Zürich and the head of the Future Cities Laboratory - who also happened to be attending the class with me. We decided to take a water taxi into the center of Venice together.
It was actually a bit longer than either of us had expected to get into Venice this way, but it was fun and very scenic.
Arriving at the Guglie ferry stop we headed towards the railway station.
It was a nice opportunity to chat with Christoph - we've connected by Zoom a few times since first meeting in Milan at the course's kick-off session - as I really appreciate the work his lab is doing.
There were signs for the Biennale everywhere in the city.
By chance - although I did know about it in advance - a member of my team, Marco Fiocco, was visiting from Singapore. Marco grew up near Venice, so was a great local guide.
He introduced me to Venetian canapés - called “cicchetti” - and a spritz made with Select rather than Aperol.
The presentation of the cicchetti on the table next to us was really beautiful.
For dessert, Marco took me to a gelateria called Venchi - part of what's now a large chain, apparently.
Their ice cream was really good. I had “Azteca” - made from 85% cocoa dark chocolate - and extra virgin olive oil flavours. They were both good, but the olive oil one was something really different (and delicious).
Walking in Venice can be really challenging with luggage. I was very happy to have Marco helping navigate, as there are lots of bridges to take and you can easily end up in a spot where you have to take a boat (more on this in the next few posts… I really missed Marco on Saturday!).
There were some lovely sights to be seen, along the way. I love the fact a group of teenagers is taking a selfie on the next bridge along.
On the way Marco showed me some local pastries through a bakery window. They have different shapes for the same basic biscuit: the bussolà is the donut shaped version while the essi are s-shaped (like the river going past).
Marco kindly got me all the way to the hotel, which was just off St Mark’s Square and had a real old-school elegance.
It even had proper keys and pigeon holes for messages!
I had to wait an hour for the room to be ready, so popped across to St Mark’s Square.
Here's a view from the square into an alleyway that leads to my hotel.
On my way to meet members of the POLI.design class, I snapped some photos of a gondola park.
I’m really happy I had the chance to connect with my fellow students from the course. Most of them have a formal background in architecture, so over the weeks my questions must have been a bit strange to many of them. But we share a passion for making sure more buildings are designed with their occupants in mind.
I left the table a little early to head across to an MIT party being held at the Palazzo Diedo.
I started by heading up to the first floor, where various projects were on display. Here's one relating to the use of natural elements as structural support.
I headed back down to the ground floor quite soon, to meet with Fábio Duarte from the Senseable Cities Lab. I really enjoyed getting to talk to Fábio - we couldn’t get back up to the first floor, as there was a massive queue of people wanting to head up - but actually I didn't mind, at all. We had a lot of fun chatting.
By the time I left the party I was really ready for food.
I took a few snaps of the canals by night before finding a restaurant for a quick plate of pasta.I’ll talk about my time at the Biennale itself in the next post.
