Italy: Day 6 Venice

On our last full day in Italy and mom and I got up early to meet a friend. I have a Facebook friend, Anahid, who lives about an hour away by train from Venice. She was sending her kids off to school before coming in with her youngest.

Meeting international book buddies

She had claimed her English wasn’t good, but she spoke it amazingly well. Much better than my Italian! It was fun walking the streets, having my own personal translator, browsing the shops, and talking about everything from kids to books. A stroller in Venice is an experience, as almost all of the bridges have stairs. I got quite the arm workout!

When it was time for her to go home, I went with her to the train station. We ate lunch and sat, discussing books, until her train arrived. I’m so glad we were able to meet in person!

When I went back to the hotel, we hit the alleys again for more souvenir shopping. Tony found a t-shirt, I finally found a scarf I loved, and we found a mask shop. The shop was amazing, we were able to see them painting masks while we were browsing and they were all so beautiful. Mom, Tony, Chiara, and I all picked out a mask and had them bubble wrapped to survive the trip home. Tony and I went off on our own to wander. We sat by the canal for a while and were a little disappointed by the garbage in the canal. The sight that had us laughing was a condom floating in the water. Of course we got lost on our way back to the hotel, but we found a Lego gondola that we knew Arthur had to have!

Once back to the hotel, we packed up aand checked out. Our flight was leaving at 6am, you’re supposed to be at the airport 2 hours before international flights, and with the water buses schedule, we needed to be there the night before.

Riding the water bus

It was an hour and a half boat ride to the airport, and we played on our electronics after spending the first little while enjoying Venice at night.

Venice at night

We arrived at the Venice airport, possibly the smallest airport I’ve ever been to, and made ourselves as comfortable as possible till morning.

Italy: Day 5 Venice

Today we let ourselves sleep in a bit. We have been squeezing a lot of vacation into this week! Once we checked out of the hotel, we made our way to the train station and boarded our train to Venice. Another two hour ride and Chiara loved this one. She made friends with the Japanese teenager sitting across from her. They played with his go-pro, making short videos and immediately watching them.

Chiara and her new friend

Once we arrived in Venice, we made our way to the hotel. Well, we tried. Google maps struggles to find you in this city. The narrow alleys, the canals, and frustration briefly took over. Especially with the heat, everyone was getting hungry, so it was a bad hour and a half! We found a restaurant to have some lunch, and that helped immensely. Especially as there was a guy playing accordion. After lunch it took another hour to get to our hotel, but we were all in a much better mood!

We let ourselves take a short break, with some of us napping in the air conditioning. Then it was off to wander the city. It was really nice not to have any specific plans. We wandered the shops, picking out some souvenirs. Chiara found a shirt, very bohemian, that she wanted for the first day of school. Arthur got himself a gondola in a bottle. Mom was very excited about some of the beads she found for her Pandora bracelet.

Daily dose of gelato

Arthur had a bad moment in one of the shops that upset him a lot. He accidentally dropped a plastic rubik’s cube with scenes of Venice on the sides. Two of the pieces popped off and the shop keeper absolutely flipped out. It was only $25, so we bought the thing, at her insistence. Tony was able to pop the pieces back on as soon as they left the shop. Now we just say that Arthur accidentally picked out a souvenir.

Spidermen at the Rialto bridge

Since we had only seen the trailers of the new Spiderman: Far From Home, the kids were really excited about seeing the Rialto bridge. So of course, Josh and Arthur wore their Spiderman shirts, they brought them just for this photo op!

Gorgeous views

We ate a late dinner at a restaurant just down the alley from our hotel. We were all still adjusting to the slow pace of Italian meals, but the food, as always, was delicious.

We went back to the hotel for the night, I needed to be up at a decent hour the next day. It was no hardship to spend a relaxing evening there, as our room was essentially a small apartment. Aside from the frustration of finding the hotel, it was an excellentfirst day in Venice!