3 Days in Venice

We had breakfast at our hotel and headed to the grand train station in Milan. The station was enormous, impressive, beautiful with columns, marble, and carvings, and bustling with people of all nationalities. We were all wide-eyed. We boarded a train for Venice and tried to politely eject some nice little Italians from our seats until they helped us realize that we were on the wrong train. Oops. We ran and found the correct Venice train, which was great because we had our own little seating compartment; the kids noticed the similarities to the seating of Ron, Hermoine, and Harry on the Hogwarts Express.

We arrived in Venice and Noah suggested we walk, using our trusted Brit friend Emily as a guide, rather than take the water bus as suggested by the hotel. Several miles into our journey, Emily quit. Some might say her battery ran out, but we know that Emily was annoyed about being muted (we didn’t want to draw attention to ourselves), being away from her home in England, and having to figure out the best path through the tiny streets and canals.

So, after stopping for some yummy pizza and pasta, we used our excellent pantomiming ability and the help of a nice Italian man with a cell phone, and found our way to our hotel. Once there, the owner led us to our flat, which was around the corner. We basically had a studio apartment with a decent-sized kitchen with 2 tables, a bathroom, and a large room with a queen bed and 2 singles. It was quite nice.

We relaxed a bit and then headed out into the maze of streets, bridges, squares, and canals that is Venice. Liv and Noah delighted in the many touristy shops selling intricate painted masks and glass objects. Beyond that, Liv was especially awed by the buildings with their intricate carvings and the many narrow passages. She often stopped to point out the different colors of buildings and how they “fit together like a tapestry.” When I pointed at a gargoyle and said, “Cool!” Liv responded, “Dad, everything here is cool!”

We stopped at a little café for salad and sandwiches and headed back to our hotel. The kids loved the freshly squeezed orange juice and, of course, the gelatos on the way back to our hotel. As a bit of foreshadow, juice and ice cream are not the best mixture for a little girl so recently ill.

It was a rough night for Rachelle, Liv, and me, but mostly Liv. Around 2:30, Liv woke and headed full steam for the bathroom. She almost made it to the toilet before vomiting. Poor Liv. The rumbly tummy was back. Poor parents who had to clean the bathroom floor, door, shower and toilet.

We woke groggy and grumpy, but were somewhat cheered by the arrival of breakfast. The hotel owner brought over a big basket with croissants, rolls, crackers, hot chocolate, coffee, and orange juice (none for Liv). The caffeine and sugar perked up the parents as we all headed back out into Venice allowing ourselves to get sufficiently lost as we explored the many passages, canals, and bridges. We found our way to the impressive but highly touristed St. Mark’s square. Liv was feeling good, and had a great time feeding the pigeons bread, and letting them climb on her to peck it out of her hand.

We found a great little restaurant tucked into an alley, and enjoyed pasta and salad for lunch. We returned to our flat for a siesta before heading back out into Venice, including the famed Rialto Bridge. After dinner of pizza, salad, and tiramisu, we headed home for a good night’s sleep. We all slept through the night and kept the day’s meal inside.

We woke in good moods. Liv even appreciated the humor when I angled the shower nozzle so that it sprayed well above her head when she showered. We had our bonding, grooming, de-licing ritual with each of us carefully combing out each other’s hair, and we were pleased to see that only a few of the Brit nits joined us for our adventures in Italy.

Out into Venice again, winding and twisting our way through the alleys. We bought some fruit and bread from a vendor and enjoyed a picnic lunch in a square. Having opted to travel and sight-see by foot up to this point, we decided to go for a gondola ride. We slid through the canals, seeing the residences of Marco Polo and Casanova and hearing stories from our Gondaleer.

After stopping for cocoa and coffee, we began our trek to the airport to begin the Rome portion of the trip.