When the skies opened at the precise moment that Fondazione Prada's opening night party for John Wesley was scheduled to begin, some people got superstitious. We were in Venice, after all, so why had the Frenchman's fête been blessed with a stunning sunset the previous evening, while the Italian's was burdened with such terrible weather? "But of course Mrs. Prada would get the rain," explained former Venice resident Olympia Scarry as canals flooded and the Piazza San Marco became a lake. "This is traditional Venice weather. It's good luck!"

The downpour did push back the festivities by about half an hour, but let's face it, that's more or less on time in this town, and it didn't seem to discourage anyone from attending. Cindy Sherman and Rem Koolhaas hoarded the freshly iced strawberries, while Tina Brown took a guided tour courtesy of Larry Gagosian. Only Mrs. Prada herself didn't linger: The evening had barely started when she was spotted strolling to her water taxi. "Art is everywhere," she said, as she pulled off into the stormy night.

Later at L'Uomo Vogue and Gucci's opening party for the magazine's Art Issue, Naomi Campbell and her Russian beau, Vladislav Doronin, mixed it up with the likes of Marc Jacobs, Lapo Elkann, and Charlotte Casiraghi. "Not a bad venue, not at all," said the supermodel, surveying Palazzo Grassi's light-up disco floor and the contemporary art marvels twirling above it. Watching cobbler Nicholas Kirkwood meet Margherita Missoni and Gloria von Thurn and Taxis introduce her daughter to Carla Sozzani, we had only one thought: Why doesn't the Biennale happen every year?

— Derek Blasberg