Feb 6, 2010

Venice, Italy

Venezia for the entire family

By Lisa T. Bergren, 2007; updated 2/6/10

Our entry into Venezia was less than auspicious. Our GPS wasn’t programmed right, so we weren’t sure we were heading the right way (signs were surprisingly unhelpful!); it was pouring rain, and we were almost out of time to get the rental cars turned in and our keys for the apartment in time. STRESS! Add to that the fact that we’d been traveling for over a week together (we’d been in ROME and TUSCANY), my dad’s international cell phone wasn’t working and we nearly lost each other repeatedly because  we were traveling in two cars in heavy traffic, and we were fried by the time we reached the city.

But It Got Better…A Lot Better

So…it didn’t start out well, but it got better from there. Rental cars turned in and apartment keys in hand, we bought 72 hour vaparetto (water bus) passes (excellent deal, also offered in 24 hour segments) and made it onto a vaparetto together, heading in the right direction. Note: You need Euros to purchase vaparetto tickets, no credit cards (for a family of seven buying 72 hour passes, that’s a lot of Euros!)

We rented an apartment right on the Grand Canal (through viewsonvenice.com), which was not easy to find in the dark and rain. But when we did find it and made it through the three sets of keys…HURRAH! It was amazing! (The furniture was a bit outdated and there was one fabulous bedroom on the canal side, and one cave-like bedroom with two twin beds room on the other side, but we didn’t care. We just all pulled up chairs in the sitting area of the best bedroom, with the canal view, from morning until night.)  We put the kids in the living room, on the sofa bed and couch. There was a teeny tiny galley kitchen, and we were so happy to just be there, safe and sound, we broke out the few groceries we’d brought north from Tuscany—two cans of tomatoes, cheese, pasta—and made a make-do dinner just to get us fed for the night. Then we moved into the front of the main bedroom, where the views were best, opened all the shutters to look out upon the canal, and hung out, drinking wine and watching the water traffic.

DAY 2:

The next day we went to the top of the campanile (elevator access; the kids were praising the saints there weren’t more stairs to climb) and through the world-famous San Marco basilica (be sure to pay to go upstairs and through the museum and out onto the roof; you can also see the bronze horses of Constantinople that were captured as treasures of war). We shopped for jewelry (museum gift shops are good for this—as is the Accademia district) and went by the famous opera house, because my mom and I had both read In the City of Angels—an intriguing book and great introduction to the real, behind-the-scenes Venice.

We were so exhausted after our Rome-Tuscany-Venice trek, we didn’t do half the things I wanted to in this fantastic city. Jack, our youngest, got sick with the stomach flu, so we had to lay low. This was nice in another way, however, since we had some of our happiest family times together and just enjoyed the apartment and the amazing, amazing view of the Grand Canal.

We ate at a trattoria right around the corner from our apartment which was excellent, and half the price because it was two blocks away from the Rialto. We also purchased items from a “take away counter” (lots of fresh sandwiches and salads, etc) and brought it back to eat at the apartment another night. This was a good solution with the kids.

For more ideas on what to do in Venice, see our other report—I’d been there six months before with my eldest daughter on a mother-daughter trip and we got a lot more “sight-seeing” accomplished then!

DAY 3:

We left the next morning via private water taxi (you can arrange it with a driver—find them all about the Rialto; about 120 Euros in March 2007), who took us right to the airport. It’s about a quarter mile walk from dock to airport.

Don’t Miss:

1. San Marco (upstairs and outside too): come back and see the piazza at night too
2. The Campanile ride to the top and get a great view of all of Venezia
3. Doge’s Palace: be sure to see the whole thing—amazing public rooms you won’t forget
4. Go across the lagoon via vaparetto to see Venice from San Giorgio; you’ll recognize the view in countless media images
5. Murano for a quick stop (pretty touristy, but fun for the glass-making); then move on to Torcello, the birthplace of Venice and often-overlooked stop. Fascinating 1000 year old church there!
6. Vivaldi concert (they sell tickets on the street; nightly event in amazing old churches)
7. Walk down to the end of town and peer into the old naval yard; Venice once sported THE naval power of the world and could fully build and outfit a galley in 8 hours!

What I’d do next time:

• Spend a minimum of five days
• Be sure to either take the vaparetto to the outer islands—Murano, Burano, and Torcello—or better yet, invest in a half-day water taxi ride all about

Have YOU been to Venice with kids? What were your favorites? Please comment below!