Venezia... The Post with Many Pictures

Excited

Venice was not on my bucket list. I honestly thought that it was going to end up overrated and tourist-y, not to mention expensive. Going to the Venetian in Las Vegas was close enough, right?

I was very wrong. Venice is amazing.

We visited for a few hours at the beginning of January (picture here and Ethan's post here) and got a small taste of what the city was like. Riding the vaporetto (water bus) was exciting, but cold. The architecture was impressive, and the tiny streets were fun to explore. Lunch with our friends was fun and delicious. The boys were intrigued by the scaffolding they had around town for when there were floods. We knew we would return at least once, so we weren't worried about trying to do everything during that visit.

Also excited

When we told some of the other parents here that we were going to Venezia, they were concerned about there being 'acqua alta', or flooding. Dave checked the forecast, and I did some Internet research to learn more about it. Despite the concerns of the Padovans, everything we found suggested that the flooding would be within the norms. The weekend would be a fine time to visit, because the city continues to operate normally during small floods.

Immediately after leaving the train station, we could see that the Grand Canal was high. The boys changed into the rain boots that we bought at the market that morning while Dave bought vaporetto tickets. There were warnings that some of the stops were closed due to flooding, but we rode all the way to St. Mark's on the regular route.

St. Mark's Square. Look at
how few people there are!

The best part of our weekend, by far, was how few people we encountered. Had Venice been packed full of tourists, my opinion of the city could be very different. Between it being the first weekend in February, the acqua alta, and the rain, it almost felt as though we had the city to ourselves. The boys loved wading through the floods and using the scaffolding. At times we had to give them piggy back rides when the water was deep enough to go over their boots. We wandered across the city, noting a gelateria to visit later, and found our apartment.

The view from the Campanile (bell
tower) in St. Mark's Square. There
was only a five minute wait!

Just around the corner from the
apartment. The boys checked on
how high the tide was each
time we left.

We got a ridiculous deal
to stay here. It was gorgeous.

Our apartment in Padova
is nice, but not quite as
luxurious as this.

He finished this plate, and the
shrimp appetizer, too.

After we checked in, we wandered out to find lunch. Many restaurants have a person greeting tourists outside to draw them in. We found our lunch stop that way. The boys were excited to speak some English with the fun waiters. Ben has discovered that he loves shrimp, and there is a lot of good shrimp here because of how close it is to the Mediterranean Sea. Ethan had pizza, which is his order at about 96% of the restaurants we visit.

All of the food made us sleepy. We had siesta time at the apartment, where Ethan took his first nap of the trip. (Dave napped too, but it wasn't his first.) As the rain started falling, we set out to find the Accademia Bridge and do a lap of the city. In the shopping district, we found a candy store with barrels of candy. It was my idea to get something for the boys, and 20 euro later we left with a small bag of treats. There were interesting toy stores, glass stores, and stores with masks for Carnevale. Of course, we also found gelato and dinner, which was at an American-themed restaurant because they were showing a soccer game and the boys were exhausted. We also happened to be wandering in the neighborhood of a yearly orienteering competition. There were several hundred people racing around the city to find different marked points. It took us a bit to figure out what was going on, and we really wanted to join them.

When we woke up on Sunday, the water was at its highest point for the weekend. It was quite surreal to walk around the town at this point. It felt like something out of a dystopian novel. Venice has always dealt with periodic flooding due to the tides. The problem has worsened in recent years- I can't pretend to be an expert about it, (I'd point you to some other articles), but climate change and the accompanying rising sea levels are not helping.

All in all, it was a pretty perfect weekend. It came just at the right time as well, because we were comfortable in Padova but without the normal kid activities and friends that keep us busy at home.

Ponte Rialto

St. Mark's Square

St. Mark's Basilica

The wooden Ponte dell'Accademia