Let's do a quick word association game involving world cities. What comes to mind whenever you think of New York? The Empire State Building? The Brooklyn Bridge? Central Park? Next, how about Paris? The Eiffel Tower? The Louvre? How about London? Sidney? Hong Kong?

For Venice, there are the gondolas, the Grand Canal, and San Marco, although Liebi, bless her art history student heart, doesn't think that way at all, having never been to Venice. For Venice, it's the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, which she was going to visit, come hazy heavens or high waters in the city of Marco Polo. We decided we would make a family outing of it.

Peggy Guggenheim, of course, was born to the wealthy Guggenheim family in New York at the end of the 19th century. A socialite in the days of non reality TV shows, she lived fast and hard, as her association with The Lost Generation of the Paris expats in the 1920's suggests. Having fled the Nazis on the eve of war in 1940, she eventually made her way back to New York, and from there to Venice, once the war had ended. Her numerous male conquests and her bohemian lifestyle aside, Peggy became an avid art collector, which she would eventually parlay into her own exhibitions throughout the city. Mostly, her paintings featured modern art, usually the first half of the 20th century. Upon her death in 1979, the Solomon Guggenheim Foundation (which, spoiler alert, also operates the Guggenheim museums in both New York and Bilbao) decided to operate Peggy's collection year round, from the place she called home for so many years along the Grand Canal.

Few art collections are as impressive, I have to admit. There are works of cubism (Picasso, including an exhibition dedicated to his famous beach paintings in the 1930's), surrealism (Dali, Magritte), or European abstraction (Kandinsky, Max Ernst). In addition, there's a fine Sculpture Garden with works by Giacometti or Henry Moore.

On the day we arrive there, it is revealed that the Guggenheim Foundation is celebrating an anniversary of some sort, and guests are asked to sketch, with paper and pencil, the one thing that comes to mind at the museum, later to be posted on the foundation's social network pages. We leave this endeavor to the ever eager kids, Axl and Bash, who choose one of the works in the Sculpture Garden (something by Jean Arp, as I recall). Unlike their papa, the kids have the eye and talent for art, which they are never afraid to display.

The entire collection can be viewed in a few hours, although you can't resist the occasional peek at the Grand Canal lingering outside. The Peggy Guggenheim Collection, is painting for painting, quite possibly the most impressive accumulation of modern art in Europe, besides its tasteful arrangement in Peggy's former residence. In particular, I remember the oversized Jackson Pollock paintings, in addition to the Sculpture Garden. We will even forgive the museum the occasional schmuck working the grounds at the Schulhof Collection. (That's you, tall bearded guy with the glasses and the high pitched voice who deserves to be punted into the Grand Canal. Even with your worst efforts, you couldn't ruin a great day at the museum.)

In between the gondolas and San Marco, make sure to include the Peggy Guggenheim Collection during your Venice visit. You'll be happy you did.