Before we left on our trip, my brother Adam gave us an AirTag which enables him to follow us as we travel. As we move from country to country, we have been posting the geotag.
Late into the evening, as you are laying in bed, you can hear the quiet hum of people chatting at the local cafes and restaurants. It is white noise for sleeping. But it is probably for this reason, that when mom, Michael, and I headed to the famous Rialto Market in the morning at 8am, there were very few people out and about. There were tons of fish and seafood, some eels still alive and slithering in their bins. We bought some fruit and then got some coffee and pastries at Farini. One of the many things I appreciate about Italy is that they serve their coffee very hot, so it stays hot as you eat your breakfast.
One thing about travelling is that you have to be prepared that some things work out great and other things fall through. We had planned to do a kid-version tour of how Venice was built but this did not work out so we had to read about it instead. www.allaboutvenice.com is a good website that provides more detail about the building and current infrastructure of Venice. Venice was built by driving pointed poles of wood down into the sea floor. Then two layers of horizontal wood planking were laid out. Finally, over that, layers of stone were laid to make the foundation of the city. This was an ancient technique (from the days of the Roman Empire) that was perfected by the Venetians. In lieu of the tour, we headed directly to churches, palaces, and museums.
First stop, the Doge’s Palace in San Marco square. This palace was the seat of Venice’s government for 7 centuries. Doge is the Venetian word for president. The palace has evolved over the years and has Byzantine, Gothic, and Medieval influences.
The boys enjoyed the prisons, where Casanova was once held and famously escaped. The Bridge of Sighs is also interesting. It is an enclosed bridge with windows with stone bars. Prisoners could peek through and see their last views of Venice (and sigh) before imprisonment.
Next we went to San Marco Basilica. We had “skip the line” tickets which turned out to be a really good investment because the line up to get in started well before opening time and was very very long. The boys were fascinated by the story of the church’s beginnings. In 828 AD, Venetian merchants allegedly smuggled St. Mark’s corpse out of Egypt in a barrel of pork fat. Venetians then build the basilica around the stolen saint. The Basilica is amazing! The walls and ceiling are decorated with millions of pieces of mosaic (made from 24-carat gold leaf and coloured glass) no bigger than the size of your baby fingernail.
Behind the altar is the Pala D’Oro; a golden screen studded with 2000 gemstones, including 100s of pearls, rubies, sapphires, and emeralds. Everything glitters, which is hard to capture on your phone camera.
The boys have developed a bit of a ritual; lighting candles in each church we attend in memory of Nannu and Grandpa.
Once inside San Marco Basilica, you can purchase additional tickets to go on the roof. This proved to be well worth the money. It was a beautiful day with great views of San Marco square and the Grand Canal.
We were starving and grabbed some sandwiches and Aperol (wine spritz) for a late lunch back at the apartment. While the boys rested, mom and I headed out to do some shopping. Mom’s mantra is “you can rest when you are dead!” We browsed the beautiful Florentine paper and Murano glass shops. Unfortunately, we were minimalist in our packing and did not leave any room for purchases.
After a couple of hours, Michael and the boys met us at Othello’s staircase. It was a gem of a building in the middle of a courtyard. Daniel described it as “underwhelming” but I thought it was charming. Mom was worried about climbing the staircase, but it was a breeze thanks to the architecture (the structure gets narrower and the arches shorter as it gets higher), which serves optical illusion that makes the staircase look much higher than it actually is.
Back at the apartment, we ate our fruit and played trivia. Daniel has taken to creating trivia games that we have played most nights. Today, he included some questions about San Marco Basilica and the Doge Palace.
Michael and I went out to enjoy the early evening, a glass of wine, and the view of the Grand Canal from the Rialto Bridge.
We were back to the apartment early for bed. We did squeeze in one blog post and a call to Nanna.
Our wake-up time was 3:15am. Yikes! We overestimated the time it would take us to get back to the airport. Our AirBnB host arranged for a water taxi, which took us directly to the Marco Polo airport in 15 minutes. We were almost 2.5 hours early for our flight!
Looks like you are packing so much in. Thanks for such a detailed blog post with all the photos. And your time lapse video – 👌. Love hearing about the routines you are creating too.
Love love Venice!!! So much research but so so worth it.