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| The Accademia Bridge on the Grand Canal on New Year's Eve Day 2024 Photo: Cat Bauer |
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| Feast in the House of Levi by Paolo Veronese at Gallerie dell'Accademie, Venice Photo: Cat Bauer |
But there are also a handful of museums in the historic center of Venice overseen by the Italian Ministry of Culture, the branch of the State government in charge of national museums. Throughout Italy, these museums are free to the public on the first Sunday of every month.
Figuring out which museums in Venice are operated by the Italian State and where they are located can be challenging. Here's some help:
6 ITALIAN NATIONAL MUSEUMS IN VENICE FREE ON THE FIRST SUNDAY OF EACH MONTH
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| Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice - Photo: by concession of the Ministry of Culture |
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| Giorgio Franchetti Gallery at the Ca' d'Oro on the Grand Canal - Photo: Cat Bauer |
2. Giorgio Franchetti Gallery at the Ca' d'Oro - Ca' d'Oro, or Palazzo Santa Sofia, is an elegant, distinct palace in Cannaregio on the Grand Canal. It's one vaporetto stop past the Rialto Market on the other side of the canal. Ca' d'Oro means "House of Gold." Built in 1428, it is the best surviving example of Venetian Gothic architecture. The last owner, Baron Giorgio Franchetti, bequeathed his considerable art collection along with his palace to the Italian State in 1916. The view of the Grand Canal from the loggia is impressive, and the floor of the courtyard is astonishing.
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| Marciana Library on right - Photo: Veneto.Info |
In St. Mark's Square, things start to get complicated. Both the gilded monumental rooms of the Marciana Library designed by Jacopo Sansovino, and the
Archaeological Museum, are national museums under the supervision of the Italian
State. Both are located in Piazza San Marco in the enormous structure
that faces the Doge's Palace and then turns the corner at the Campanile and becomes the Procuratie Nuove.
To enter both museums, you normally have to go
through the Correr Museum far down at the other end of Piazza San Marco in the Napoleonic wing, the structure that faces St. Mark's Basilica. The Correr is a Venetian municipal museum under the umbrella of the Venice
Civic Museums (MUVE). It is not part of the Italian Ministry of Culture. It is run by Venice. Therefore, it is not free on the first Sunday of the month.
However, during normal operations, the Marciana Libary and the Archaeological Museum are included in the price of the ticket you pay to enter the Correr Museum because the layout is such that you can walk right through them all of them. But not on the first Sunday of the month!
The Italian Minister of Culture is very clear:
“Domenica al museo”: free admission to the National Archaeological Museum of Venice and Monumental Rooms of Marciana Library (NOT Museo Correr) for everyone on the first Sunday of each month.
If you think Italian bureaucracy is convoluted, just imagine when it’s layered with an extra labyrinth of Venetian bureaucracy.
So, what are you supposed to do? Luckily, the Marciana Library has an impressive separate entrance through which you can also reach the Archaeological Museum. It is normally closed to the public, but open on the first Sunday of each month.
Across from the Doge's Palace, look for two enormous, draped female figures guarding the entrance to an ornate door that says "Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana Libreria Vecchia." There you will climb a monumental staircase with wondrous treasures at the top.
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| Reading room of the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana Photo: Wikipedia |
3. Monumental rooms of the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana - One of the earliest public libraries on the planet, the Marciana was founded in 1468 when the humanist scholar Cardinal Bessarion donated his collection of Greek and Latin manuscripts to Venice. However, it took Venice some time to build the library, which was designed by Jacopo Sansovino and constructed between 1537 and 1588.
In addition to paintings by Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese, you can marvel at Fra Mauro's original 1450 map of the world. The last will and testament of Marco Polo is here, dated January 9, 1323 M.V. (according to the Venetian calendar).
When you first enter the vestibule, look up. In the center of the ceiling, you will see one of my favorite paintings, Wisdom by Titian.
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| National Archaeological Museum of Venice - Photo: Joan Porcel |
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| Domus Grimani - Sala della Tribuna at Palazzo Grimani - Photo: Venetian Heritage |
Let's start with this: the collection was first established in 1523 by
Cardinal Domenico Grimani. His father, Antonio (who would go on to
become the Doge) bought a plot of land in Rome where he was living in
exile. During excavation for the foundations, a number of ancient
sculptures were discovered, igniting the Grimanis' passion for
collecting fine antiquities. At the end of the 16th century, Giovanni
Grimani, Antonio's grandson, donated his collection to the Republic of
Venice.
Palazzo Grimani is right off Campo Santa Maria Formosa, about a 10 minute walk from Piazza San Marco. It rewards you with the breathtaking Sala della Tribuna, a room designed specifically to display the Grimani family's antiquities. Make the trip from the Archeological Museum to the palace to get a fuller understanding of the history of the collection, especially because instead of paying €14 to enter, on the first Sunday of the month, it's free.
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| Wood, lacquer & painted ivory Chinese chess set from the 18th century Photo: by concession of the Ministry of Culture |
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| EGYPT. Journey to Immortality - Photo: Cat Bauer |
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| Eyes for a funerary Mask (664-332 BCE) Museo Arcaologico Nazionale di Firenze |
That's a fascinating question. While the ancient Egyptians believed that the soul needed a physical body to exist in the afterlife, they didn't necessarily believe that the soul was tied to the Earth in the same way we might think of a ghost being tied to a specific location.
Here's a breakdown of their beliefs:
While the soul might need a physical body to exist in the afterlife, it wasn't necessarily tied to a specific location on Earth. The Egyptians believed that the soul could move freely and experience the afterlife without being confined to a particular place.
Thank you, Gemini, but I am still not clear. The body is mummified and stationary. It is wrapped in linen and placed inside a sarcophagus. The soul is free and wandering around. Why was the body mummified? Does the mummy come back to life?
That's a great point! The Egyptians didn't believe that the mummy would come back to life in the physical sense. The mummification process wasn't intended to resurrect the body.
Instead, they believed that the soul would use the preserved body as a kind of "spiritual vehicle" in the afterlife. It was like a spiritual body that the soul could inhabit and use to interact with the spiritual world.
Think of it like a car. The car itself doesn't move, but it's a vehicle that allows someone to travel. In the same way, the mummified body was a vehicle that allowed the soul to "travel" and experience the afterlife.
So, while the body was immobile, it was still considered essential for the soul's existence and activities in the spiritual realm.
So, the body was like a home?
Exactly. The ancient Egyptians believed that the body was like a home for the soul, providing a place for it to reside and interact with the spiritual world. It was a crucial part of their understanding of the afterlife and their beliefs about the soul's journey.
OK. But I still don’t quite get it. You die. You have a soul. But why do you need the body? Can you please delve deeper?
That's a great question! The ancient Egyptians had a unique belief about the afterlife that might seem different from our modern understanding.
They believed that the soul, or "ka," needed a physical body to exist in the afterlife. This body wasn't just for appearances; it was thought to be essential for the soul's activities and interactions in the spiritual realm.
Here are a few reasons why they believed the physical body was so important:
While this belief might seem strange to us today, it was a central part of ancient Egyptian culture and religion. It helps us understand why they went to such great lengths to preserve their bodies through mummification.
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| Mummy of a Baby with Sarcophagus (1st-2nd century CE) Museo Arcaologico Nazionale di Firenze |
"The ancient Egyptians believed that a person's Ka (vital force) and Ba (personality) left the body at the time of death. But they also believed that Ka and Ba could be lured back if an idealized re-creation of the body was offered. This re-unification of body and spirit was the ticket to the nether world....Egyptians stopped making mummies beteen the fourth and seventh century AD, when many Egyptians became Christian. But it's estimated that, over a 3000-year period, more than 70 million mummies were made in Egypt."
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| Canopic Chest (1550-664 BCE) Museo Arcaologico Nazionale di Firenze |
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| Amulets in the Shape of the Wdjat Eye Museo Arcaologico Nazionale di Firenze |
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| One to One: John & Yoko - Directed by Kevin Macdonald |
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| From the One to One concert in New York City in 1972 - Photo: John Skelson |
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| Imagine Circle in Central Park, NYC |
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| Recreation of John & Yoko's tiny one-room apartment on Bank Street - Photo: Mercury Studios |
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| Kevin Macdonald at One to One: John & Yoko premiere Venice Film Festival, August 30, 2024 Photo: Cat Bauer |
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| (Image: Matteo Borrini) |
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| Scientists have reconstructed the face of a 16th-century woman believed to have been buried as a vampire. Credit: Cicero Moraes, OrtogOnline 2024 |
It was thought that these vampires, who were buried next to the bodies of plague victims, fed on their dead neighbours until they felt strong enough to rise from the grave and begin feeding on the living, perpetuating the cycle of contamination.Gravediggers were therefore responsible for identifying possible vampire women among the dead by signs of shroud-chewing around the mouth and impaling them with a brick to stop them feeding, according to Borrini.The woman's skeleton was found in mass grave of victims of the Venetian plague of 1576 - in which the artist Titian also died - on the small island of Lazzaretto Nuovo. Venice authorities had designated the island a quarantine hospital in 1468 following an earlier plague epidemic.
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Photograph courtesy National Geographic Television |
That image you see of the man with a hat and a beak and a wand is a plague doctor. The beak was stuffed with medicinal herbs, etc. to keep the doctor from catching the plague. The island is open for visits from March to November, for guided visits only.
The visit lasts about two hours. It includes the historical-archeological itinerary of the Lazzaretto Nuovo inside the walls (the museum exhibit inside the Tezon Grande and the open-air archeological digs), as well as the naturalistic walk of the marshlands outside the walls ("The Path of the Barene").
Guided visits in English are scheduled every Saturday at 11am, from April 13th to October 19th 2024 (in August only exclusive tour). Reservation by email is required, no later than the preceding Thursday. The scheduled visits takes place only with a minimum number of reservations. We will confirm the reservation as soon as the number is reached.
Please kindly write to info@lazzarettiveneziani.it and wait for our confirmation.
This visit costs 10€ per person, 5€ for children up to 14 years. The contribution is donated to non-profit activities for the ecomuseum. Payment is at the entrance on the day of the visit by debit or credit card. The island can be reached by the ACTV Line 13: departing from Venice-Fondamente Nuove or from Treporti at 10.25 a.m. (return by vaporetto at 12.55 a.m.)
And don't worry. Venetian vampires do not drink the blood of the average tourist. After consuming too much McDonald's and other fast food, humanity's diet has gotten so tasteless their blood is almost undrinkable for our poor vampires.  |
| George Clooney & Brad Pitt at photocall for Wolfs Photo: Giorgio Zucchiatti - La Biennale di Venezia ASAC |
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| Renzo Rosso checking out the selfie he just took with Oprah Winfrey as she talks with Graça Machel at the DVF Awards Photo: Cat Bauer |
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| Winona Ryder & Michael Keaton in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice - Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. |
Beetlejuice is back, in a supernatural screwball sequel
Fortunately, there isn’t a whiff of cynicism to Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. Burton shows real affection for the first film’s characters and genuine curiosity about how they’re doing three decades or so later.
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| Nicole Kidman on the Red Carpet for Babygirl Photo: Giorgio Zucchiatti - La Biennale di Venezia ASAC |
Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson star in Halina Reijn’s erotic May-December dramaHalina Reijn’s third feature works better in the bedroom than in the boardroom. Babygirl is an erotic drama about a powerful CEO who embarks on an ill-advised affair with a much younger intern, finally accessing the sexual desires this tightly-wound woman has never permitted herself to enjoy. Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson are excellent as these carnal combatants, each of their characters jockeying for control. But the writer-director’s larger ideas — about sexism in the workplace and the feelings of shame surrounding sexual kinks — fail to burn as hot as the two leads’ fiery chemistry.
'One to One: John & Yoko' Review: An Exhilarating and Deeply Political Vision of a Year in the Life
Director Kevin Macdonald combines footage of a 1972 benefit concert with a rich assortment of archival material in his portrait of the former Beatle and his artist wife during their first months in New York.In its mix of remarkable archival material, the film is both tender and galvanizing, summoning up what New York felt like in 1972 (yes, I would know) and offering a fresh slant on a country’s upheaval and a generation’s countercultural awakening.
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| Jude Law in The Order - Photo: Michelle Faye |
‘The Order’ Review: Jude Law Shines In Justin Kurzel’s Brilliantly-Shot, Sweeping Slice Of Political Americana — Venice Film Festival
The Order was real, the investigation was real; the police characters, however, are not individually real. Terry Husk is hardly an unfamiliar fictional standby — a grizzled veteran cop who drinks too much, focuses on his job with such ferocity that he hasn’t realized his family has left him and is merely inches from being completely washed up: never was a character better named. He could feel like no more than a cliché, but Jude Law brings such a range of nuance to every exchange that he is always fully, complicatedly human.
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| Cate Blanchett on the Red Carpet for Disclaimer Photo: Giorgio Zucchiatti - La Biennale di Venezia ASAC |
‘Disclaimer’ Review: Alfonso Cuaron’s Vicious Apple Series Is an Astute, All-Consuming Thriller
Venice: Cate Blanchett's latest TV series is a methodical, magnificent mystery of complicity about an acclaimed documentarian whose dark past resurfaces in a vengeful widower's debut novel.Complicity. Narrative. Form. Cuarón isn’t shy in laying out his thesis, instructing the audience to watch carefully as his seven-episode adaptation of Renée Knight’s 2015 novel plays out. What information do we know, and what information do we only presume to know? Who’s providing it? How are they providing it? These questions are always top of mind, but the four-time Academy Award winner behind “Roma,” “Gravity,” and “Children of Men” trusts in his story — and his team’s storytelling prowess — to sweep you up anyway. Which it does, and they do. “Disclaimer” is a cunning psychological thriller with twists and turns enough to thrive as pure entertainment. But never does it drift from its initial portent, so that when the truth comes crashing down, it levels everyone involved, onscreen and off.
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| George Clooney (with Amal Clooney, center) & Brad Pitt at Sala Grande premiere of Wolfs Photo: Giorgio Zucchiatti - La Biennale di Venezia ASAC |
‘Wolfs’ Review: George Clooney and Brad Pitt Are Rival Fixers in a Winning Action Comedy Spiked With Movie-Star Chemistry
The two actors go at each other in Jon Watts's likable throwaway caper, which plays like an exercise in movie-star nostalgia.
These two have been stars since the ’90s, and no one, least of all themselves, is pretending that they’re young. Yet no one makes aging into the new cool more than they do. Clooney is the rare actor who has always worn his gray like the essence of glamour (when you catch a shot of him in the old days, the dark hair looks all wrong), and now, at 63, with a silver beard and hair not just two-tone but marbled, he’s achieved a kind of fine-wine mystique. As for Pitt, a mere spring chicken at 60, he kind of is ageless.
...Clooney and Pitt had this kind of chemistry before, in “Ocean’s Eleven,” where it was in the very detachment of their banter that they found a bond. In “Wolfs,” Clooney and Pitt revel in the crack timing, in the I-truly-do-not-like-you obscene banter, that makes even the most casual insult take wing. As the movie goes on, these two will learn to work together, but the film’s anti-grammatical title is saying that each one is a lone wolf. They have no desire to mesh like wolves. The joke, of course, is that from their stylish leather jackets to their secret Mr. Big to their reading glasses, they’re kind of the same man.Wolfs will have a limited release in theaters on September 20, then stream globally on Apple TV+ starting September 27. The reason to see it in theaters is to have a fun date night out if you're of a certain age and in a long-term relationship. Otherwise, it might be another reason to subscribe to Apple TV+. Grade: B
Master and Commander at 20: a miraculous masterpiece of action cinemaMaster and Commander is an action movie with a brain. Its thrills are never mindless. Weir’s recreation of life in the close confines of a warship in 1805 is meticulous, fascinating and sometimes, rightly, nausea-inducing. Crowe and Bettany’s interpretation of a friendship between two men matches such artistry precisely. As Gabriella Paiella said for GQ earlier this year, much of the film’s lasting appeal springs from that portrayal of male closeness.Peter Weir’s adventure didn’t find enough of an audience in 2003 but its old-fashioned sturdiness has given it a long life
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| Daniel Craig on the Red Carpet for Queer Photo: Giorgio Zucchiatti - La Biennale di Venezia ASAC |
‘Queer’ Finds Daniel Craig Cruising for Sex, Drugs — and an Oscar
Whether or not Luca Guadagnino‘s screen adaptation will change the book’s standing remains to be seen — but this sordid, steamy, and exceedingly swooning take on Burroughs’ novel will certainly move you to appreciate how he makes the author’s amour fou tale his own. And it will definitely alter your view of Daniel Craig. The British movie star had already been in the process of shaking off his association with a certain career-defining role, in addition to jogging your memory in regards to his range beyond Bond — his dandy sleuth in the Knives Out movies is worlds away from the antihero employed in her majesty’s secret service. Embodying Burroughs’ alter ego and cycling through Lee’s lust, jealousy, world-weariness, neediness, and bliss, Craig cracks this smitten, doomed romantic wide open. It’s the role of a lifetime if you hold nothing back. So he doesn’t.
The actor who redefined James Bond goes for broke in Luca Guadagnino's beautiful, filthy, extraordinary take on William S. Burroughs' novel
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| Lady Gaga & Joaquin Phoenix in Joker: Folie à deux Photo: Giorgio Zucchiatti - La Biennale di Venezia ASAC |
‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ Review: Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga Star in a Cracked Jukebox Musical — but It Doesn’t Let Joker Be Joker EnoughThe concept is audacious but the execution less so in a movie that takes a step back from the danger of "Joker."
...As a critic, I’ve experienced my share of debates, but I have never understood the morally judgmental quality that hung over the criticisms of “Joker.” That the film invited us to have a deep identification with a twisted sociopath wasn’t, in my book, a weakness; it was a strength. (It’s for that same reason that I love “Bonnie and Clyde,” “Taxi Driver,” and “Natural Born Killers.”) The movie was, among other things, an allegory of the Trump era, but it’s almost as if the critics were saying, “We don’t like the movie because Arthur is a nasty incel who leads an uprising just like Trump!” To me, the criticisms of “Joker” were sort of comparable to a studio executive giving notes that basically said, “Jake LaMotta in ‘Raging Bull’ isn’t likable enough.”Did the critics, with “Joker,” turn into cautious executive scolds? In my opinion, they did. But the upshot is that Todd Phillips, making what I think is a huge mistake, listened to them.
Venice 2024 review: TWST / Things We Said Today (Andrei Ujică)
“An intriguing and original way to look at our past and see how history is shaped once all the dust is blown off.”The film definitely meanders at times, and while scenes of (predominantly white) people enjoying Jones Beach or shots of workers at New York’s fish market have their function, they do break up the narrative thrust Ujică introduces through his two ‘characters’.
Conceptually, TWST / Things We Said Today is an intriguing and original way to look at our past and see how history is shaped once all the dust is blown off. Its execution is artistically sound, but at times too unfocused to keep its ideas at the forefront. That doesn’t diminish the fact that this is a relevant work, but one can’t shake the feeling that another round of editing might have delivered a tighter film.
'Love' Review: A Charming and Intelligent Norwegian Dramedy to Win Over Hears and MindsThe film, about two colleagues with very different approaches to sex and romance, is the second in a planned thematic trilogy from writer-director Dag Johan Haugerud.
The unfussy camera setups by DP Cecilie Semec, lit so as to benefit from the low-angle sunlight of Nordic summer nights, unfurl in long languorous takes that just sit back and let the actors do all the work. Fortunately, the cast here is well up to the job, and the dialogue, especially between Hovig and Jacobsen, have a charming musicality about them, like bright duets. Along the way, the film makes some interesting points about friendship as well as romance, especially when it comes to studying the reaction of Marianne’s art historian friend Heidi (Marte Engebrigtsen), who is scandalized by Marianne’s adventures in zipless fucks. Love, to quote that woozy old ballad, is indeed a many-splendored thing that takes many forms — a multiplicity that Love the film is quietly alive to.Love will be released on December 25 in Norway. At this time, there is no US distribution. I hope the next installment, Dreams, also premieres at the Venice Film Festival. And I'll keep my eye out for the first film in the trilogy, Sex. Grade: B+
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| Kevin Costner at Horizon: An American Saga press conference - Photo: Cat Bauer |
