Venice 

It started with a ticket to Venice, Italy (I found on Rome 2 Rio.com) for just eleven euros. I decided to fly into Venice, then travel by train to Milan and Lyon. 

My first time flying with Ryanair budget airlines and first time flying out of the airport in Marseille. While I was looking forward to my trip, my energy has been in the toilet for the past month. I decided to take it easy and play by ear, with a few ideas and no firm plans. 

I woke up at 4am, October, walked to the bus station and boarded the bus to Marseille airport, at 5:15 (which arrived 10 minutes late.) Boarded my 8:30am flight to Venice, Italy. 

From check in to landing everything was comfortable and punctual. Aside from the incessant announcements from the onboard crew, selling everything from beverages to duty free perfume, the experience was pleasurable, landing in Venice Italy on time at 10am.

I love visiting Italy. To date, I’ve been to Rome, Sorrento, Positano, and Florence. Venice did not disappoint. I booked a stay at the Michael Angelo hotel just 15 min away from the airport and famous canals. Like most European countries, you are surrounded by history.

Operating off just two hours of sleep from the previous night, I walked in a daze observing my hotel’s surrounding area. The poster bills advertising museum exhibits plastered the wall across from the café where I was enjoying a cup of cioccolata coalda, (a rich cup of warm drinking chocolate.)

“Afro” art during the 1960’s from America to Italy. Great! I would love to see the art of Afro-Italians. Mind you I am an American child of the 70’s, the term afro was a term used to describe a person of African descent, Afro-American, Afro-Latina, Afro hairstyle etc.

Excited and determined I set out to see Afro at the International Gallery of Modern Art (in Venice.) I took the bus and a water taxi to maximize my experience on the romantic canals. Colorful uniform buildings were interrupted by the commercial center with a prominent KFC. Tiny newly constructed pedestrian bridges, connected the canals. 

After locating the museum, making my way to the top floor (where the exhibit was located,) I found myself surrounded by calligraphic, abstract art of neutral colors punctuated by gashes of crimson. After scanning the walls of two large, sun capped rooms supported by a sea of wood floors, presenting large to mid-size pieces of varying textures, I stumbled into a screening room showing a mini biography.

Afro Basaldella was an Italian artist a member of the resistance party, and influential artist. In that moment I learned that Afro was not just a description but a name. I sat watching interviews and commentary, as Afro instinctively navigated a large canvas with messy deliberate strokes. 

The other pieces were of varying interest. My favorite piece was entitled “Sewing the Sail”, a large-scale oil on canvas by Spanish impressionist Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida 1896. The painting depicts a team or a family of five, repairing a sail on a sundrenched patio. Hard at work there is undeniable spirit of jubilation. I can feel the bulk of the white canvas, laying in thick luscious layers accented by shadows and light. 

I opted to have dinner on the canal, and wait out the crowded ride back to the hotel. There is no such thing as a bad meal in Italy. A tiny non-descript restaurant with six booths of dark solid wood frames, tables adorned in traditional red table cloths lined the canal. Interesting fact, the color red is known to increase the appetite. A small fish plate of tiny shrimp, anchovies, crabmeat, fresh sardines, polenta, a side of roasted potatoes along with a glass of red table wine hit the spot. Time to head back to the hotel, heading to Milan in the morning.