Discover the Punta della Dogana
Fondamenta della Dogana alla Salute • Mon & Wed–Sun 10am–7pm • Charge – combined ticket with Palazzo Grassi • palazzograssi.it
On the point where the Canal Grande and the Giudecca Canal merge stands the huge Dogana di Mare (Customs House), another late seventeenth-century building, which was serving as a customs office as recently as the mid-1990s but in 2009 became the Centro d’Arte Contemporanea Punta della Dogana.
Financed by François Pinault, the co-owner of Palazzo Grassi, the Dogana arts centre – like the Grassi – has been renovated to designs drawn up by the ever-subtle Tadao Ando. The exterior has been restored in a way that gives no indication of the building’s new function, and the shell of the interior has similarly been left unaltered, with massive wooden roof beams spanning walls of beautiful raw red brick.
Some three hundred works are usually on show at any one time, and Pinault has invested in many of the really big names of the current art scene, so you can expect to see pieces by the likes of Cindy Sherman, Luc Tuymans, Thomas Schütte and Marlene Dumas, to name but a few. Usually, exhibitions at the Dogana are twinned with equally vast shows at the Grassi.
Taste the best Venetian wines
The Veneto has been very successful at developing wines with French and German grape varieties (notably Merlot, Cabernet, Pinot Bianco, Pinot Grigio, Müller-Thurgau, Riesling, Chardonnay and Gewürztraminer) and now produces more DOC (Denominazione di origine controllata) wine than any other region.
The three famed Veronese wines:
- Valpolicella (red)
- Bardolino (red)
- Soave (white)
are sold all over the world, as is prosecco, from the area around Conegliano. Don’t miss a chance to sample the delicious Cartizze, the finest type of prosecco – and don’t turn your nose up at prosecco spento (without the fizz).
Wines from neighbouring Friuli are well worth exploring too: the most common reds are Pinot Nero, Refosco, Raboso, Merlot and Cabernet, with Tocai, Pinot Bianco and Sauvignon the most common whites.