24 hours in: Venice
05/27/2026
9 min reading time
It’s that time again: The Biennale di Venezia opened its doors on May 9. Could there be any better reason to travel to Venice? Hardly, we thought, and got there in time for the opening. Here’s sharing some notes on legendary ice-cream parlors and hidden bars, not to mention off-spaces and stores where you’ll love drifting round – our guide to the perfect 24 hours, but without forgetting the art.
On foot or by small boat
Venice is the city of endless wandering. Best of all, simply drift with no schedule or Google Maps – meander through narrow alleyways, across countless bridges, and along the banks of the canals that run like an intricate labyrinth through the city. While elsewhere you would need sturdy walking boots, things in Venice are different: Here, people walk in friulane. The colorful velvet shoes, a kind of cross between slippers, ballerinas and loafers, have long since morphed from the favorite footwear of the Venetian gondolieri into it-pieces. They symbolize Italian craftsmanship, timeless elegance, and astonishing comfort. With their soft velvet surface and flexible rubber soles, you glide as good as noiselessly through town, as if walking on a cloud. You can buy the shoes all over town; simply stop at a store, such as Calzature Parutto close to the Rialto Bridge, slip them on your feet, and off you go!
And once you’ve exceeded your 10,000 steps for the day, why not switch to water-bound transport: The Vaporetto, Venice’s water bus, is possibly the most beautiful public means of transport on the face of the Earth.
La Biennale di Venezia
La Biennale di Venezia takes place every two years and has, since its foundation back in 1895, become one of the most important art events world-wide. The central venue is the Giardini della Biennale in the eastern district of Castello, where 29 countries are represented in their national pavilions. Countless additional nations present their contributions for the duration of the show at various spaces scattered around the whole city. Independent of the country pavilions, in the Arsenale there is a curated themed exhibition.
NB: There are often long queues specifically at the main entrance. So, it’s best to use the side entrances. And it is not really worth eating or drinking on the grounds. Because right behind the rear entrance of the Giardini you’ll find Osteria da Pampo, an uncomplicated in-place for good food, a relaxed lunch, or tramezzini to go.
1. Dayanita Singh at Archivio di Stato
Anyone who does not have black-and-white photography on their Biennale Bingo Card will be all the more surprised and taken by Dayanita Singh’s “Archivo” exhibition at Archivio di Stato. The show features breathtakingly beautiful black-and-white photographs that straddle documentation, memory, and silent poetry. The artist combines her own personal archive dating back over 25 years with insights into Venice’s historical municipal archive. The outcome: a poetic, sweetly curated exhibition on memory, photography, and archiving itself. Amidst Italian architecture, artworks, flowers, and encounters, Singh offers a view of Italy and it (hi)stories that is truly her own.
2. Yalda Asfah in the Ca’Buccari
Between the Biennale Giardini and the quite district of Sant’Elena, artist Yalda Afsah concerns herself with social rituals – in the city of the carnival. In “PAN” (2026), her latest film, Afsah focuses on a place where a different kind of community arises. Since 1920, every August thousands of people gather in the Bulgarian mountains in order to dance a paneurhythmy together, a collective choreography in which the individual subordinate themselves to a higher meaning. Watching this ritual through the artist’s eyes is as calming as it is fascinating.
3. Canicula photo exhibition in Complesso dell’Ospedaletto
In an old church we find ourselves no longer looking through the lens of faith at the world, but through that of the camera. The “Canicula” exhibition at Fondazione In Between Art Film offers one of the most impressive visual experiences of the 2026 art bienniale. The group show explores images, propaganda, crisis, and attention, and asks what seeing really means today.
4. Lydia Ourahmane at the Nicoletta Fiorucci Foundation
Lydia Ourahmane’s “5 Works” exhibition at the Nicoletta Fiorucci Foundation is not far away. Step in and be greeted by the fragrance of a warm, spicy soup. For a moment you might be forgiven thinking that a restaurant next door is busy preparing the evening meals. In the upper section of the space stands a classic hotel trolley full of white linen, in another a large pot of soup bubbles away. As so often, Ourahmane plays with physical presence and spatial orchestration. Her art creates situations that somehow combines Minimalist sculpture, monuments, and archaic rituals -and draw out directly into the work.
5. “Still Joy: From Ukraine into the World” in the Palazzo Contarini Polignac
With two videos by artist duo Roman Khimei and Yarema Malashchuk, the Pinchuk Art Centre is hosting a group show entitled “Still Joy: From Ukraine into the World” at the Palazzo Contarini Polignac. The 2019 video is juxtaposed to a piece from 2023 that arose in the context of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. The works “Dedicated to the Youth of the World I and II” feature almost identical scenes: Young people in a club and the moment when they leave the party come daylight. The actions remain the same, but the world in which they occur has changed radically in the intervening years.
