Venice Biennale Architecture 2025

Venice Biennale Architecture

After a deferral in 2024, due to a crazy year of health issues, we have finally headed off for perhaps our final trip to Italy to visit Venice, the Dolomites, Lake Garda and then onto Switzerland to stay at Grindelwald.  With the Aussie Dollar being like it is (quite frankly very pathetic compared to the Euro and the Swiss Franc – basically 1 Euro/Swiss franc equals $2 AUD), it may just be ultimately too much to expend in 3 weeks and hard to justify. But we shall see….

The main point of these next few blogs is for Bob and I to remember our beautiful travels and to reflect back on them when we are not able to go anymore. So these blogs will be full of self-indulgent photos and very little pelvic health information.

Women’s Health Week 1-8th September

However, having realized it is Women’s Health Week starting 1st September, 2025, I am dedicating this blog to the women of the world, who are incredible. Women give so much of their health and well-being to populate this world. When I think of how many women just I alone have seen, with significant pelvic health damage from birth trauma, and then multiply that by a huge unknown factor, pelvic floor problems are massive. And yet we women just get on and carry the inconveniences, pain, the burden of shame, excruciating cost, life-changing upheavals as though nothing much happened…women are truly incredible.

I hope women get the opportunity to visit places of beauty and wonderment, like I have, because women deserve this reward for their amazing efforts in having babies. But lets face it, many women are never going to be able to do this. I have lived a privileged life. The women of Gaza are trying to scratch a home in dirt and with a plastic fly they try and call a tent, boil spices in water and call it soup, supervise their homework and comfort their kids as the bombs rain down and the women in Israel mostly loath the horrors happening to Gaza – because they are mothers and they just want peace. I often think about the women of Gaza and how are they managing their prolapse and incontinence and oh the risk of pelvic pain with the stress and duress they are living under!

For women suffering persistent or chronic pain – evidence tells us that using strategies such as listening to music, belly breathing and looking at beautiful images helps with what we call homuncular refreshment  – a way to downregulate the nervous system which can release inflammatory hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline, which can heighten pain. I am hoping that when reading this blog and looking at the photos of Venice, lots of mountain spam and some vistas of the magnificent Lake Garda you may enjoy the benefits of serotonin, dopamine and oxytocin release which may assist to help your pain.

The perfect, imperfect Venice

   

Every single building in Venice is imperfect, yet glorious in its beauty. Every time we go there we try and work out why the patches and broken bits make it look so special.

How wondrous is Venice?

Bob visiting the Australian Pavilion at the Architecture Biennale 2025

If travelling overseas, we always fly into Venice so Bob can visit the Venice Biennale for Architecture which is held every 2 years. It is mandatory visiting for him to catch the latest trends in Architecture at this world event. This year’s Australia exhibit was a wonderful collaboration between architecture students and an all Indigenous panel of architects, artists and landscape architects. We both loved the theme of Home – with 100 Architecture students from many universities around Australia creating a piece of art that was their representation of what home meant to them. One piece was constructed entirely of empty, used tea bags into a  container – symbolizing all the cups of tea she had at home to help her through her university degree. Everything in the display is meant to be handled and the the meeting place covered in sand encouraged to be disturbed.

    

Francesca was wonderfully knowledgeable about the Australian exhibit

The incongruous thing about being an architect in Venice is there must be so little new build. Francesca had a degree in architecture, but majored in historical restoration and then moved into art curation. The stories she told us helped create a wonderful visit to the Australian pavilion this year.

The biennale was fabulous and as usual we loved escaping to the Giardini della Biennale (the Gardens of Venice). It is a long walk, but so worth it as it is less crowded than the central parts of Venice and has some beautiful art works around the site, as well as gardens. We have our usual stop at the gardens shop to have a coffee and cannoli prior to walking into the Biennale. Traditions are important.

   

An installation in the gardens and the coffee shop for the usual caffe macchiato 

Here is the link to check out the theme for the Architecture Biennale for 2025 

This is really my own iPhone photo from our dinner table on our first night. It is seriously impossible to take a bad photo in Venice

Venice always feels like visiting an old, good friend – comfortable and familiar. It is so incredible to step into this magnificent city that sits on water and has done so since March 25, 421 AD – the date which commemorates the consecration of the church of San Giacomo di Rialto and marks the traditional birth of the city.

Here is a link to a beautiful SBS show called Venice from Above which gives you an insight into the history of Venice.

Peggy Guggenheim Collection

This year we decided to visit the Peggy Guggenheim Collection of art and sculptures. It was wonderful, although by the end of the day we were nearly out on our feet because we had flown for 24 hours from Australia and then walked straight to Peggy and stayed a couple of hours.

    

   

Visiting the Peggy Guggenheim Collection was a highlight this year

The Colours of Venice 

              

The colours of Venice never fail to please

Foods of Venice

Because we have been so many times to attend the Biennale, we love certain places to eat – often away from the usual areas where the crowds gather. We love having some Venetian snacks called cicchetti. These are small, savory dishes or appetizers, similar to Spanish tapas, that are traditionally served in bàcari, the Venetian wine bars. We always go to Osteria Al Squero for some Baccala Mantecati which is essentially whipped salt cod, also known as creamed cod. They are delicious and go nicely with an Aperol Spritzer. Having been virtually alcohol-free 6 months, I only had one so I could walk back to the hotel after this indulgence. There are no Ubers in Venice to get you home after a few drinks. It’s all leg power. I think we hit 20,000 steps on that day!

Arriving at Osteria Al Squero by vaporetto (9.5 euro per person – makes our 50cent fares in Brisbane look particularly attractive to overseas visitors. 19 euro is the equivalent of around $36. It was actually wonderful to do this long trip from Giardini to the stop for this square, but $36…)

           

Snacks at San Polo with a Negroni for Bob and an Aperol Spritzer for me. That puffy looking piece of deliciousness was their interpretation of one of my favourite foods – zucchini flowers. A better version was at La Porta D’Aqua on the first night. They were wonderful – light and filles with ricotta cheese. 

Random Photos of Venice to boost that Homuncular Refreshment!

As we make our way through the Biennale there are some striking vistas that are as constant here as the canals and the crowds. Some images follow:

       

Peaceful scene  and a crane standing tall overlooking the water

Lorenzo Quinn

Lorenzo Quinn is an artist who has contributed some significant pieces to Venice.  I have loved his works since I first saw Support, an installation at the Ca’Sagredo Hotel during the Art Biennale in 2017, but having since done some research for this blog, I love him even more. His philosophy needs to be echoed around this angry, hurtful world now, more than ever!

“I wish that if my art does anything, it provokes actions of kindness which will give hope to the world”

Building Bridges at the Arsenale, Venice Italy in May 2019 designed by Lorenzo Quinn

The next blog will be all about the relaxing, calming effect of mountain vistas and perhaps about the less calming driving on Italian roads where the speed limit is 130km and the nail-biting, hair-raising, winding narrow roads of the Dolomites.

The beautiful Sassolungo from our verandah when we arrived at sunset, 31st August, 2025.

Happy Women’s Health Week to the women of the world from Santa Cristina, Val Gardena, Italy