"As you look back on your time in Venice, you won't only remember what your experiences looked like, you'll remember how they made you feel. And that's what love is really, isn't it? Love is not how something looks but is an intensity that you feel to your very core."
I loved Venice from the minute we rode in on our vaporetto. Everything about the city is charming, mysterious, and full of tradition. Everywhere you look there is something unique to explore, from mask shop windows displaying elaborate carnival masks to crowded outdoor cafes and tables filled with seafood and pasta, unique architecture and Gothic art, and people from all over the world. I love wandering the alleys, some barely wide enough to walk through, and emerging into one of the many campos throughout the city. Venice is a city that appeals to all the senses, with the smells of good food any time of day and the sounds of church bells in the distance. Just like the water it sits on, Venice is a city with an ebb and flow.
The best way to travel in Venice is sans roller bag. Be savvy, pack lightly, and avoid rolling large suitcases over the cobblestone streets. This was NOT us AT ALL. We had carseats for the kids and Jaycob's bike to lug around from the earlier leg of our travel (see Part 1: Trentino), not to mention roller bags, rain jackets, fleece jackets, race gear, books for the kids, and way too many pairs of shoes. This led to a bit of a logistical challenge in getting to and from the city (especially since two of our travelers could only carry a small backpack). The most common ways of getting from the airport to the city are by bus, train, or Alilaguna water bus, but because of our luggage and the timing of our flight out on the last day, we opted for a private vaporetto, a more expensive (but also more glamorous!) option. If you travel in by train, there is a place for luggage storage near the train station so you can explore the city for a while before checking into your hotel.
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| Taking the private water taxi to Venice |
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Our first glimpses of the city
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| Our home away from home. Everything is so incredibly charming! |
There are no motor vehicles in Venice at all. No cars, trucks, busses, or motorcycles (and in fact, bicycles are prohibited as well). I knew this before we went, but I don't think I really grasped the significance of this fact until we were actually there. Venice is a very quiet city, in part because of the complete absence of motors, car horns, and normal vehicle traffic one would hear in most cities. This also means that all day-to-day operations from trash removal and ambulance transport to Fedex deliveries and commuting to work is done by boat or water taxi. If you aren't already impressed by the feat of erecting an entire city on wooden planks in the middle of a sea that has withstood centuries of survival, then you'll be amazed to observe the daily hustle and bustle of a city without cars.
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| Crossing over one of the almost 400 bridges in Venice. |
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| Meredith is mesmerized by the masks in the shops |
The whole city is only about twice as big as Central Park, and has a way of feeling very big and very small at the same time. There are six neighborhoods (sestiere) in Venice. We stayed at an Airbnb in Santa Croce, close to San Polo. A short walk away from the San Stae vaporetto station and centrally located in the city, it was a perfect location for us. Remember our luggage issue? Well fortunately we didn't have to traverse a single bridge from the vaporetto station to our apartment. We were able to walk to lots of cafes and restaurants, the Ponte de Rialto, the Mercato, and Il Frari, and it was a little bit longer walk to Piazza San Marco and the Accademia bridge, but still manageable. Traveling with kids (and grandparents!) requires flexibility and planning ahead to ensure comfort for all. While fit adults can easily walk everywhere in Venice and stand in line for ages, it's worth it to buy a vaporetto pass and plan ahead, and to get tickets for museums in advance when traveling with kids. You can also save money if you book tickets more than 30 days in advance. You can buy your VeneziaUnica pass here for all public transportation and museum passes, then print your pass at an ACTV station when you arrive.
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| Rialto Bridge |
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| A view of the Grand Canal with its water taxis and gondolas |
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| The girls' favorite part of Italy: gelato |
On our first day in the city, after checking into our apartment and dropping off luggage, we explored our neighborhood by foot and had our first Venetian lunch of zuppa di pesce, risotto, and margherita pizza. We made our way to the Rialto Bridge and admired the view of the grand canal before stopping for gelato. Later that afternoon we took a gondola ride! Although gondola rides are touristy and expensive, they're kind of a "must do" when in Venice. I recommend getting off the beaten path if possible (not at Piazza San Marco or the Rialto Bridge), go before 5:00 for a discounted rate, and make it an event by dressing up and bringing a bottle of prosecco. The gondolier is a highly esteemed profession, requiring extensive training to get a license, and these professionals are highly knowledgeable about Venetian history and architecture. The gondolas themselves are also quite impressive, all uniform in style and size, and each boat takes four to six months to construct. The girls loved the glamour of it!
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| All dressed up for a gondola ride |
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| Riding a gondola is an important part of Venetia culture and "must do" in Venice |
The next morning started with croissants and espresso at a bar on our street before making our way to Piazza San Marco. (In Venice, San Marco is the only "piazza" and all the other little squares are "campos.") We got an early start and beat the rush, which gave us the opportunity to take some pictures before the plaza filled up, and we even had time for cappuccino and macarons at Caffe Florian, the oldest Italian coffee shop. There's a lot to see and do around the Piazza. Bankier describes it as the "beating heart of Venice" and the Glam Italia! book describes it as "majestic, beautiful, and full of secrets" and dedicates an entire chapter to it. We started with "skip the line" tickets to the top of the Campanile (Bell Tower), offering stunning views of all of Venice and the lagoon. There are five bells in the top of the tower, and it was fascinating to see the details of the Moor's Clock Tower across the piazza and the top of the Basilica, which would be our next stop.
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| The Clock Tower at Piazza San Marco |
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| Campanile (Bell Tower) at Piazza San Marco |
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| View of the city from the top of the bell tower |
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| Caffe Florian: The Oldest Italian Coffeehouse |
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| Macarons and coffee at the Florian |
The Basilica San Marco, which was first established in 830AD, is one of the most historical, ornate, and majestic churches in all of Europe. The facade was under construction while we were there, but it didn't take away from the grandeur of the inside of the cathedral. As soon as you walk in the door you feel like you're inside a treasure chest of gold and jewels. The walls and ceilings are completely covered in golden mosaics, and there are so many things to look at with ceilings and domes so high that it can be overwhelming. There is a tomb inside the basilica that is over 1000 years old, and there are over 500 columns from the Middle Ages through Constantinople. If your kids are overwhelmed by the gold and elaborate decor, they might just like to see the candles burning in honor of prayers and dedications, or take a trip up to the roof to see the four bronze horses (Triumphal Quadriga). The Bankier book also offers some ideas for scavenger hunts, missions, and some trivia to pass the time while waiting in line and to make the basilica tour more fun for kids. As mentioned in earlier parts of our travel, we also had mini digital cameras for the kids to take pictures of their favorite things and help them focus on all the details of the space.
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Basilica San Marco
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| Close-up of the intricate golden mosaics in the entryway |
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| Mosaics, frescoes, and gold for days |
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| Every inch of the basilica is detailed and exquisite |
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| The Horses of Saint Mark |
After queues and fancy buildings, we were ready to let some energy out. Traveling with kids is challenging and after every educational activity we tried to incorporate some free-time and hands-on fun. After the Piazza we took a stroll along the Riva Degli Schiavoni (waterfront promenade) past the Arsenale on our way to the Giardini della Biennale, the largest park in Venice. Among other industries, Venice was a leader in shipbuilding with its assembly line style production system that was ahead of its time. The Arsenale is now owned by the Navy and not open to the public, but the kids liked seeing the shipyard featuring historical ships on display along the edge of the Castello district. The Giardini della Biennale has a playground, walking paths, and lots of trees, a perfect space for getting some exercise before lunch. When we were there, Venice was having their Biennale art exhibit, so there were a lot of sculptures and interesting art pieces to check out while we walked. After some playtime we walked back to Via Giuseppe Garibaldi, where there were countless restaurants with patios lining the street. We took a break from pizza and instead opted for sushi, gyoza, edamame and poke bowls at a Japanese restaurant.
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| Swinging our sillies out at Giardini de Biennale |
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| Sushi is a little harder than pizza for the 2-year-old |
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| Working on those chopstick skills |
As in many countries, Italian cuisine varies by region. (There's a travel blog I love that goes into detail about this: Full Suitcase.) There is pasta everywhere in Venice, but it's often not the main feature. Seafood is exquisite and fresh, and because Venice was an international center for trade, there are many exotic spices and seasonings that have made their way into traditional Venetian cooking. Pizza was not historically part of Venetia cuisine because the large wood-fired ovens were banned from the city because of the fire risk, but we found plenty of places that had good pizza per our naive standards! Other popular foods in Venice are risotto, polenta, shellfish, carpaccio, and cheeses. One of my favorite food traditions in Venice ("the quintessential Venetian experience," according to Glam Italia!) is cicchetti, or little nibbles of finger food enjoyed with a glass of wine. I would compare it to happy hour, but classier, and with dinner often served late in Italy, it's a nice way to satisfy the hungry kiddos between meals (and keep Mom sane).
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| The seafood in Venice is to die for |
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| This kid will stick to margherita pizza |
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| So many flavors and textures! |
After a vaporetto ride back to the Rialto (and a stop for some gelato, of course), four out of five of our family members needed a snooze, which gave me some alone time to explore the city independently, have a bite of cicchetti, and explore the Guggenheim collection. I'm someone who thrives on alone time, and a few hours to myself was exactly what I needed to recharge. Venice is an ideal city for wandering, for getting lost and then found again, and for randomly finding interesting and surprising things. I discovered an outdoor orchestra concert on the steps of a cathedral, a mass going on in another cathedral across the campo, a workshop where gondolas are built and repaired, and lots of groups of friends and happy families speaking languages from all over the world. The Guggenheim collection is a museum of modern art (Picasso, Pollack, Miro, Dali, Kadinsky, to name a few of the artists) on display in the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, where Peggy Guggenheim lived starting in 1949. Peggy once said of Venice, "It is always assumed that Venice is the ideal place for a honeymoon. This is a grave error. To live in Venice or even to visit it means that you fall in love with the city itself. There is nothing left over in your heart for anyone else."
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| The Guggenheim museum |
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| Back patio of the museum, overlooking the Grand Canal |
After my museum stroll, the family met me for dinner at Taverna San Trovaso, which turned out to be one of our favorite meals of the trip. Nestled in an unassuming building at the end of an alley, the restaurant is cozy inside, with exposed brick walls, vaulted ceilings, classic chandeliers, and a friendly atmosphere. I can't even remember what we ordered but it was a ton of food and we ate every last crumb, including the best homemade desserts we had in Italy. It was a long and sleepy walk back to our apartment and we got a little lost (as one does in Venice), but it is such a safe and quiet city that it was never scary to walk in the dark, even among the narrow alleys.
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| Much of the artwork depicts scenes from the plague |
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| In awe of yet another mask shop |
The next day was another jam-packed agenda. After espressos and croissants (you must be noticing a theme by now) we started the day at Basilica Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari (or just Il Frari). Even if you're not a religious person or if you think churches are boring, make the time to see at least a couple in Italy, as some of the most famous artwork and most ornate creative endeavors of various historical time periods are housed here. Il Frari is the largest church in Venice, and while it doesn't look like anything special from the outside, it's hard to not gasp when walking through the door. Every section of the church could be a museum in itself. There are tombs of former doges and religious and political leaders. Some of the most famous works of art include Donatello's sculpture St. John the Baptist, Titian's Pesaro Madonna and Assumption, and Bellini's Madonna and Child with Saints. The carved wooden choir stalls in the middle of the space are incredibly detailed and ornate. The pipe organ itself is incredible, and the ceilings are so high that it's easy to feel like you actually shrunk when you walked in. The kids got a little restless, noisy, and bored after a while though, so our next stop was the Leonardo Da Vinci museum (there are actually two in Venice!) for some hands-on fun with machines and inventions. Even the grownups enjoyed learning about Da Vinci, and I was especially mesmerized to learn about his contributions to our understanding of anatomy and medicine.
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| Il Frari |
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| Ornately carved choir stalls |
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| The Mausoleum Dedication to Titian |
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| Chapel Altar |
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| Trying really hard to be quiet in this fancy place |
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| Experimenting at the Da Vinci museum |
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| Learning about machines and mechanics |
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| We'll all be engineering experts by the end of the day |
We had lunch at a patio along the water before taking the vaporetto to the island of Murano, which has a long-standing history of glassblowing for the past one thousand years, with some of the most highly skilled glassblowing artists in the world. This was part of the trip that Grandma recommended and ended up being one of the highlights of our week. We had the opportunity to watch the artists in action, tour the furnace room and factory, and wander through the showroom at the Massimilliano Schiavon workshop. This particular art team specializes in sculptures, chandeliers, and other display pieces, but they also make some domestic pieces, and I came home with a full set of beautiful handcrafted glassware and a matching water pitcher. On our final evening in Venice we had dinner at Al Grill, a steakhouse near our apartment, before packing up and making plans for the next day of travel. The following morning we watched the sunrise over the city as we rode away on our vaporetto.
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| Glassblowing demonstration at Massimilliano |
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| The showroom |
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| My new Venetian glassware collection survived the trip across the ocean! |
There was so much we wanted to fit into our itinerary in Venice that it was hard to not feel rushed. When traveling with kids, I had to step back sometimes and remind myself that they aren't here for the sight-seeing, they are here for the joy of being with their family and exploring their world, and I take away from their experience if I am constantly telling them to hurry up or behave. Some of their happiest memories are not necessarily the artwork in Il Frari or the view from the Bell Tower, but the huge cone of mango gelato or the unicorn mask in the window of the shop. It's a good lesson in reflecting on the important parts of family vacations. Traveling with kids is fun, rewarding, and gives a sense of accomplishment and awe, but I had to let go of seeing everything on my agenda. I hope to make it make to Venice again in my lifetime! (Although next time with travel companions who can carry their own suitcase.)
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| Sunrise over Venice on our trip out of the city |
If you are on the fence about traveling with kids: just do it. They won't remember, but you will all accomplish something together. It will prepare you for other adventures. Just like parenting, traveling will test you and sometimes bring out the worst in you, but will also create memories that you'll cherish forever and strengthen you as a family. Even if they won't remember, you'll have stories to share, and joy in living through them and seeing the awe in their eyes.
These were the most useful travel guides for planning this part of the trip:
Venice, Verona, Lake Garda & the Dolomites with Kids 2022. Ariela Bankier, 2022.
Glam Italia! 101 Fabulous Things to Do in Venice: Fantastic Finds in the Most Unique City on Earth. Corinna Cooke, 2022.
Fodor's Venice and the Best of Northern Italy: Full Color, Fodor's Travel Guides, 2011.
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