Craft and a city seen through attention.
During the opening week of the 61st Biennale di Venezia, we turned to Dr. Amin Jaffer, curator of the India Pavilion and Director of The Al Thani Collection, for a guide shaped by scholarship, beauty, and a deep sensitivity to cultural memory. This season he presents Geographies of Distance: remembering home, the Pavilion of India’s return to the Biennale after seven years, bringing together artists who explore home not as a fixed place, but as an emotional and material condition.
His Venice moves between Renaissance churches, quiet gardens, modern art palazzos, and lagoon-side meals. From the restored paintings of Carpaccio at Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni to the glassmaking traditions of Giberto Venezia and the stillness of Giardini Reale, the guide traces a city where craftsmanship, history, and daily ritual remain deeply intertwined.
A Venice experienced not through spectacle, but through attention, conversation, and the enduring dialogue between past and present.
CA’PESARO
The city’s museum of modern art in a place by Longhena, currently hosting an exhibition of works by Jenny Saville. One of its charms is the excellent Grand Canal-facing cafe.
LE STANZE DEL VETRO
Museum dedicated to the art of glass, with ambitious programming. Combine with a visit to the adjacent Fondazione Cini.
SCUOLA DI SAN GIORGIO DEGLI SCHIAVONI
Home to a cycle of 9 paintings by Vittore Carpaccio (c.1465-c.1526), recently conserved, which reflect Venetian taste when the Republic was at its most powerful.
SANTA MARIA DEI MIRACOLI
A jewel-box of Venetian Renaissance architecture, reflecting the mastery of marble by architect Tulio Lombardo, who built the church between 1481-9.
SS GIOVANNIE E PAOLO
Vast Venetian gothic basilica housing funerary monuments of numerous doges.
GIARDINI REALE
A place of tranquillity behind Piazza San Marco, redesigned by Paolo Pejrone under the auspices of the Venice Garden Foundation, with an Illy Cafe to one side.
REDENTORE GARDENS
A newly restored Renaissance monastic garden, with cafe, overlooking the lagoon.
DO FARAI
The charming new restaurant of Marcantonio Brandolini, with a home-style menu and candlelit tables, where I am sure to meet a friend.
DA CELESTE, PELLESTRINA
Delicious seafood restaurant in an outlying island on the Adriatic Sea, making a perfect meal before a walk on the beach.
GIBERTO VENEZIA
My favourite Venetian glassmaker, especially the model engraved with architecture.
FERRARI BRAVO CORNICI VENEZIA
Hand-made photo frames with glass elements and woodcarving.
#74CityGuides takes us across the globe with voices from our cultural community, tracing cities through lived experience, personal rituals, and the places that continue to shape them.
