Trickie Lopa: Venice, where my feet take me to art
Art and running make up Trickie Lopa’s travel essentials. “I find that both enrich my experience of new places, adding a different dimension to how I see a city. I have run alongside the East River in New York, taken on the treadmill at a converted wine cellar in Madrid, counted off the bridges that cross the Douro in Porto. Last winter, I risked my ears falling off in the sharp November air with early morning sprints along the Seine, crossing into the Tuileries one day, heading towards the Grand Palais the next.”
“After this pandemic is all over, and the world turns right side up, I can’t think of a better way to celebrate than by heading back to Venice for the Biennale. Dubbed the ‘Olympics of the art world,’ La Biennale happens every other year, from May to November. The whole city serves as a backdrop to contemporary art: palazzos open up, the museums mount blockbuster shows, and public spaces convert to exhibition sites.”
Trickie says she likes to go in September, when the crowds have thinned, and you don’t need to line up for tickets. “For last year’s edition, a group of art-loving girlfriends and I rented a flat with a view of San Giorgio Maggiore and the Guidecca, in the quieter area of Dorsoduro. We lived right on the Zattere, the promenade that hugs the lagoon, arguably the most picturesque running trail in the city.
“Jet lag would see me up early. I would warm up right outside our door, and complete my 5K by going up and down the boardwalk, take a turn by Palazzo Grassi, and finish on the steps of Santa Maria della Salute on the Grand Canal, right before the sun shone too bright.
“When I think of Venice now, I feel both gratitude and disbelief. Immensely thankful for those wonderful moments, even as I can’t quite believe that the world has fallen on its head in the nine months since that last visit. Venice itself has gone through the wringer. I can’t wait for the world to put the coronavirus behind us.”
Her plea? “Please, by the next Biennale, may the only masks left in Venice be the papier-mâché ones sold as Carnevale souvenirs.”