Monday is the worst day of the week: five days of work are coming and  the weekend seems far away an…yet you will change your mind!

Rendez- vous at the Peggy Guggenheim Museum on 9, 16 and 23 of May for the most appreciated event by local people, when art, live music and fun meet together…in a world happyspritz@guggenheim!

Only 7 euro to enter in the suggestive location, for a unique aperitif from 7 to 9.30 in the evening . Jazz music, rock, black, electro, indie, post-punk, hip hop and latin sounds will be the background music of your chatting, with great artists coming from all over the world. Four soirée to discover the treasures at Peggy home drinking your cocktail in a charming atmosphere…you will long for the Monday to arrive!

Here there’s the program:
Monday 9 May – Happy Spritz Rock with Eva Poles (Prozac+, Rezophonic), classic revival mixed by Ricky Russo with the hit underground and finally Dj Stoner will play Gypsy music of the Balkans.
Monday 16 May – rythms more hip hop, r&b and reggae will be played by Dj Doubles, BQ:RAM and Miguel Selekta
Monday 23 May - Dj Spiller and DJ Ca$hmere will perform with disco, black and deep sounds.

Located on Venice’s Grand Canal, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection is one of Europe’s premier museums devoted to modern art. With masterpieces ranging in style from Cubism and Surrealism to Abstract Expressionism, the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni was donated to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation by Peggy Guggenheim . She used to say that it was her duty to protect the art of her own time, and she dedicated half of her life to this mission, as well as to the creation of the museum that still carries her name. She used to say: “It has always been taken for granted that Venice is the ideal city only for honey moon but this it’s a big mistake: living in Venice, or simply visit it, it means to fall in love with it and to fill your heart with it.”

What if you saw thousands of people running up and down the bridges all over Venice? Don’t worry, it’s not an hallucination! It’s “Su e Zo per i Ponti”, an t

raditional race taking place each year and involving young people, adults, families, school parties and sport groups in an amazing walk through the Venice calli (alleys).

This year the event takes place on Sunday 10th of April at 10 am, starting from Piazza San Marco (corner of Palazzo Ducale)…13 km of track, crossing 53 bridges, that circles all the island to arrive again in Piazza San Marco.

More than 600 volunteers will be there working at the refreshment points and along the race route itself to make sure everything is fine…and of course to slake your thirst!

At 12.30 don’t miss the Folk groups parade in Piazza San Marco that will entertain the runners and the visitors with artistic and musical exhibitions.

This peculiar walk is a funny way to discover Venice and its soul and to have great time celebrating an important festival!

How to get to Piazza San Marco from the Hotel Sant’Elena:

By foot: about 25 minutes along Rive dei Sette Martiri
By vaporetto boat: take the n° 1 to Piazzale Roma and you’ll reach San Marco in two stops

Map with the itinerary

Families with kids find sometimes hard to travel around museums and exhibitions in Venice…we would like to give you some advice to make children appreciate visits to historical places as funny and interesting experiences. During the springtime many activities are organized to acknowledge the kids of Venetian history with funny games.

DUCALE PALACE

Find the assassin at Ducale Palace. A haunting to discover the secrets of a mysterious murder throughout the Palace. Looking for clues, the participants could learn the several phases of the construction of the building, the apartments of the doge, the history of the institutional saloons so to relive a obscure episode happened centuries before today. Sunday 20th March – 3 pm, 8th March – 11 am and 3 pm, 22nd March – 11 am and 3 pm

The fear time. An itinerary in the Prisons of the Ducale Palace to discover histories and memories of the prisoners who were held for an entire life. Sunday April 3rd, May 1st and September 25th at 11 am and 3 pm

MUSEO CORRER

A meter of colored beads. An interesting experience to run over the history of a particular product of the glass art, called “ glass of the conterie”, that are pearls extracted from the glass tube. In labs the participants have the possibility to compose long string of pearls to create framings or necklaces and use their fantasy. Sunday 27th March – 11 am and 3 pm, 17th April – 11 am and 3 pm

CA’ REZZONICO

Sky, clouds, rivers and hills. Oil painting. After a tour of the most important paintings in the museum, the visitors will realize their own painting with oils. Sunday 10th April – 11 am and 3 pm

At the BEST WESTERN PREMIER Sant’Elena families traveling with kids up to 8 years have now aspecial room with special amenities and services…it’s the “kids room”!

The Italian Ministry of Heritage and Culture opens for ten days lots of monuments, museums, archaeological sites, archives, libraries with large popular events throughout the whole country.
Thousands of events: exhibitions, conferences, special openings, workshops, guided tours and concerts that will make more special the experience for all the visitors.
This year, the 12th edition of the “Culture Week” will take place from  April 16th to 25th.
The main purpose of this initiative is to promote culture awareness and to transmit the love of art to an ever wider audience of citizens that, for seven days, can choose from exhibitions, conferences, workshops, guided tours, concerts, shows , film showings and special openings in all regions of Italy.
Museums and Palaces in Venice will open their doors to experts and enthusiasts, through the organization of free guided tours and themed itineraries.

The main attractions that will open their doors free to the public are:
• The “Ca d’Oro” and the tour exhibition of Flemish tapestries of the 16th century.
• The Museum of Oriental Art and the opportunity to see some masks representative of traditional Japanese Noh theater.
• The  “Gallerie dell’Accademia”, where for the first time there will be organized the show of two drawings by Jacopo Tintoretto and Francesco Guardi, acquired in 2009.
• The “Palazzo Foscari”, last residence of the Doge Francesco Foscari and now seat of the Venice University, which hosted illustriouscharacters such as Henry III of Valois, King of France and Poland.
• The “Palazzo Grimani”, a noble residence in Venice of the sixteenth century.
• The “Libreria Sansoviniana”, with the inauguration of the exhibition ” Tesori della musica veneta del Cinquecento. La policolarità Giovanni Matteo Asola e Giovanni Croce”.
• The Provincial Museum of Torcello - Archaeological Section and Section Medieval and Modern, which includes ruins and artifacts related to the island and lagoon.
• The “Arsenale”, whose visit will be preceded by an introductory lesson by the architect Claudio Menichelli in cooperation with the Maritime Research Center.
• The house of the famous Venetian painter Jacopo Tintoretto.
• The National Archaeological Museum of Venice.

For more information or details regarding specific dates and opening hours, please visit the website: www.beniculturali.it

A new and enthralling way to visit Venice and its treasures: what  you need is only a map, a “whaiwhai” notebook and a mobile. “Whaiwhai” is an interactive story and a particular hunt to Venice treasures, to discover the most original and exciting aspects of the city.

In order to participate to this adventure, it is necessary to buy a whaiwhai notebook on the website or in one of the bookshops of the city. Once you bought the notebook that contains the stories that will drive you in the several places of the research, just to start, it is sufficient to send a message to a mobile number you find in the notebook.

To read the several stories about Venice, you should obtain the codes that will be sent you by sms: only in this way you could reassemble the pages, read what is written and know some peculiarities of the city where the discover will continue.

In order to proceed with the research, you should solve some riddles, sending the solution by sms to the number you find in our notebook ( the cost of a sms is the cost fixed by your operator). The notebook contains lots of stories and it will permit to play with whaiwhai till three times and to do different journeys in every treasure hunt. We will wait for you in Venice to look for some clues and to discover new hidden places of this wonderful and unique city.

Sunday Guided Tour: from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. than a suggestive aperitif in our Sant’Elena hotel.

Meeting point at the Hotel Sant’Elena of Venice for the tour “Between Convents and Gardens of Sant’Elena” escorted by the architect Mrs Gabriella Bondi part of the Wigwam Club Giardini Storici di Venezia.

Departure will be the grassy court of the formal monastic complex of Mantellate, built in the thirties which today hosts the elegant Hotel Sant’Elena.

A sophisticated aperitif, arranged by The Chef Giovanni Montella, will be served between the splash of roses’ colors and officinal herbs.

An introduction to the History of this marvelous part of Venice still not assaulted by tourists, will be offered on the spot.

A guided walk will take us to the near Sant’Elena island, located at the oriental extremity of Venice, where we will visit orts, fifteenth-century kiosk and the Church of the Convent complex dedicated to the mother of Emperor Costantino.

For centuries a thriving cultural and artistic center with very well furnished library of the venetian lagoon, its origin are very ancient and date back to XI Century.

We’ll walk through the recent area born from drainages Vittorio Emanuele III, crossed by rows of big linden trees of the Viale IV Novembre and the breezy pine wood facing the Basin of San Marco reachable crossing a bridge from the Gardens of the Biennale.