The Venice Biennale & Beyond Palaces & Private Collections

Depart on an overnight flight to Venice.

Venice, Italy

Upon arrival, take a comfortable transfer by boat to your hotel. This evening, we will all attend a festive welcome reception.

Venice

A guided tour introduces us to Venice’s singular urban layout, a city of 118 islands connected by man-made canals. Afterwards, we will be initiated into a cherished local ritual at a bacaro, one of the city’s traditional wine bars. Here, we will taste cicchetti, Venice’s answer to tapas, perhaps sampling classics like baccalà mantecato (whipped salt cod) or sarde in saor (sweet and sour sardines). This afternoon, we will enjoy an exclusive visit to a historic Venetian palace and its private art collection in the company of the owner. A group dinner is planned for this evening.

Venice / Venice Biennale

Our first of two days exploring the Venice Biennale begins in the Giardini, the city’s first public park, created by order of Napoleon in 1807. Since 1895, this space has served as the heart of the exhibition, a unique architectural park where 30 countries have built permanent national pavilions. On a private, expert-guided tour, we will explore this open-air museum of modernism, from the Palladian
classicism of the United States pavilion to the organic modernism of Sverre Fehn’s Nordic Pavilion, built around the garden’s existing trees. With free time for lunch, the rest of the day is at your leisure.

Venice / Venice Biennale

Our guide leads us into Venice’s Arsenale, the world’s first integrated industrial complex, where a pioneering moving assembly line and standardized parts once allowed 16,000 workers to construct a fully armed war galley in a single day. Today, the Arsenale’s cavernous historic boathouses and ropewalks have been repurposed as a primary exhibition space for the Biennale. After experiencing the exhibits and free time for lunch, the afternoon is at your leisure. We will gather for dinner this evening, followed by a special after-hours tour of the Doge’s Palace, the city’s first ducal residence. In this 14th-century masterpiece of Venetian Gothic architecture, we will explore the seat of the Republic’s power, from the grand chamber of the Great Council to the infamous Bridge of Sighs, an enclosed, white limestone bridge built in 1614.

Venice

An exclusive, pre-opening visit awaits at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection. Housed in the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni on the Grand Canal, this is the former home of Guggenheim, the visionary American collector who famously saved countless masterpieces from the Nazis. Here, we will see seminal works of Cubism, Surrealism, and Abstract Expressionism, including masterpieces by Picasso and Jackson Pollock. This afternoon is devoted to the Gallerie dell’Accademia, the world’s most comprehensive collection of Venetian painting. In the company of a curator, we will see how the city’s unique, hazy light was translated onto canvas in works like Giorgione’s enigmatic Tempest and Titian’s final, haunting Pietà. This evening, we will celebrate our journey at a festive farewell dinner.

Venice / Return

After breakfast, transfer to the Venice airport for your flight home.