Venice, Italy

We had 4 nights in Venice, Italy and LOVED it! This city really did live up to its amazing reputation.

 But one huge plus for us: we have had family join us for most of our Italy travels. And we have our (almost-3 year old) niece with us now, who makes us laugh and reminds us to see each new experience through eyes of enthusiasm, joy and wonder.

I was really impressed with how our family adjusted to the time change and still managed to have so much energy for sight seeing.

FYI we intentionally arrived the day AFTER Carnivale ended, so that we avoided the craziness of that event. We could still see confetti filling the street and still enjoyed seeing all the masks and costumes for sale.

We spent our first day walking around seeing some typical highlights of the neighbourhoods San Polo, Costello and San Marco. I absolutely loved walking over each little bridge canal, ducking through alleyways, window shopping, and finding our way around. It’s like a giant fort for adults!

We got to see the fish and produce markets, Rialto Bridge, and walk toward San Marco square. Window shopping was also really fun - we each voted on our favourite rubber ducky (clearly the hedgehog duck was the best, right?)

Our family on the Rialto Bridge

Chocolate fountain as chocolate fills the boats

We went to "Liberia Acqua Alta" which is a bookstore that has called itself 'the most beautiful bookstore in the world'. It has some displays where the books are inside canoes or bathtubs, to represent saving books when the city of Venice floods. You can walk over the book staircase and meet the store kitty. It was fun for sure, although I think to include it in a list of one of the most beautiful bookstores or libraries in the world is a bit of a stretch.

Books in a boat

walking the staircase made of books

Trying cichetti (Venice tapas) - fun to do and some were really yummy!
Ava says the octopus was gross.

We ended up going to San Marco square a few times. Going inside the basilica was amazing - the mosaics and the grand decor was fantastic. Some of the group went up the tower, hoping to get a view of the city, but unfortunately the fog rolled in and clouded over the whole tower so that didn't quite work out.

One of my favorite buildings in Venice was called "The Snail". We enjoyed peeking at that (it wasn't open to go up). 

Catching a water taxi (gondolier style) 

Laughing in the water taxi

RowingVenice.com

As a Christmas present, our family had gifted us a rowing lesson to experience traditional Venetian rowing: voga alla veneta. Our two female leaders were both super kind, very knowledgeable, and fun. Each of us had a turn rowing the front and the back of the boat. RowingVenice.com is a nonprofit that helps support this style of rowing and it was a really cool experience.

We also rode the water bus on the grand canal, went to a jelly fish art exhibit, and did I mention that we loved walking around the city and seeing the canals, boats, and bridges?

The 'Bridge of Sighs'

We did two other cool things while we were sleeping in Venice that get their own blog posts: Murano glass experiences and a quick trip to Verona.

Thanks for reading along. It's so cool that people are following our trip and friends like Kim from Penticton, Sean F in Victoria, Karen's friend Claire, my friend Kristal's mom Gail, and die hard fans like Grandma and Uncle Jim are following our trip and cheering us on. Thanks so much!