Italy with Kids – Venice!

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We drove down to the ferry stop near us: Punta Sabbioni, parked for €5.00, and hopped on the ferry. There are a number of term visit tickets you can get which each provide unlimited travel on the ferries (Vaporetto) and the buses to and from Mestre (not that we needed the buses). We opted for the 12 hour ticket which cost €14.00 each, no discount for children (no sconto per bambini).



From first glance, arriving by boat into Venice is as you'd expect: you see the domes of the churches outlined against the sky, with the buildings reaching down into the water, walkways over canals and gondolas scattered around. But closer inspection reveals a fascinating mixture of building styles and shapes, wrought iron balconies, lion's head door knockers, arches and fascinating lamp posts and decorative creations in stone, marble and iron.

And then there's the shops. As well as the standard tourist fare, offering assorted masks and glassware, there are enchanting shops with wooden puppets and dolls, amazing studios where the artists create masks from scratch, and the creations in glass! One was of a fish made of glass about 30cm long, sticking out of a large block of glass, and the part of the fish inside the glass was only the skeleton. (Another I saw later on Friday was of two sharks, each the size of a large cat in solid glass.)

But I've missed the first port of call. Our ferry landed at the Piazza di San Marco. Now, having already seen the Piazza Di San Pietro I was not blown away by this, as well as the fact that there were thousands of tourists (yes, like us) wandering around and lining up for things, but the Basilica di San Marco is impressive (we didn't go in due to the line that ran around 200m). Immediately in front of you as you arrive from the water is the corner of the Doge's palace, fascinating for the rose and white patterns in the bricks along the west and north sides.



We decided we'd head for the Rialto Markets, both the kids being still interested in collecting souvenirs, so headed down one of the common paths. As all the guide books mention, Venice's layout is very confusing and maps are difficult to read, but most of the piazzas have signs on them pointing to the main areas, eg Rialto, so you don't get lost for long. Eventually you end up at a dead end or a canal, so have to turn around anyway.





At the markets Liam selected a wonderful wooden pinnocchio puppet for €5.00, which he proceeded to walk down the path. Joseph picked up a plastic gondola model for €3.00. At one stage we were approached by a gondolier offering a ride, so we were all set to go for €80.000 for half an hour (which on reflection I think was too high), when Liam saw what we'd be hopping into, this little black thing rocking in the big waves of the canal, and he ran off in distress. So no gondola ride. Guess we'll save that one for 12 years' time (and maybe get a singing gondolier also? What do you think, Ky?).



For lunch, we took a vaporetto from near Rialto down to the Giardini Publico (public gardens). It has a nice little playground, tabletennis tables, and water fountain. But be warned: no public toilets! Kylie, with impeccable timing, decided she needed to go, so started following the WC sign up Via Garibaldi, and ended up about a kilometer away where she had to spend €2.00. Shortly after she returned, I decided I needed to go, so I went into the cafe', had a €1.00 cafe' macchiato standing at the counter, and used their toilet.



From the gardens we took another vaporetto to across from the Accademie, and went in to view the artworks. The kids again surprised me by being interested in some of the paintings. Joseph was drawn to one of the 1,000 Martyrs at Mount Ararat, which yes, shows 1,000 christians being crucified and tortured in various ways. I've decided we must find some books that depict the art for us so we can examine them more closely.

On our way to the Accademie we walked into a glassware shop, vending lamp shades, where we went all out and purchased a set of beautiful Murano glass lampshades for €800.00 (they're going to be posted for us). That's thrown a little spanner in our budget, but hey, we've spent over $6,000 getting here, may as well find something(s) amazing to bring back also!

We then wound our way back from the Accademie to San Marco, finding more and more wonderful mask and glass creations, and some beautiful chess sets, before hopping on the ferry again. We thought at first we'd stop in at the island of Murano, to see the glassworks, but Ky wasn't feeling well and it was already getting late so we stayed on it all the way round back to the Punta.

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