Venice - 25 and 26 April 2014

The only debate we had over visiting Venice during planning for this trip, was whether the effort involved in ensuring Xavier stayed dry would be worth it.  Fortunately, it was, and he did, although Grace was extremely concerned about his welfare throughout our stay.  Those readers also following Grace’s blog will already be acquainted with her grand vision to “pool fence Venice”.

Venice is one of our favourite cities, and this was our third visit.  However, as with Paris, we are certainly learning that visiting with young kids totally changes the experience.  It becomes difficult if not impossible to:

• queue to visit key attractions;
• do night-time activities;
• be agile and make quick decisions; and
• to delay meals. 

On the other hand, the more enjoyable aspects include:

• slowing down and enjoying different sights;
• answering questions about countries and cities; and
• selecting and sharing gelato.

Prior to leaving Melbourne, Andrew set Grace and William the challenge of finding a Gelato shop in Venice that did not sell limone.  The deal was that for every occasion they could do so, they won a “free” Gelato.  As expected, neither collected a prize, despite diligent observational efforts, however we all had three or four gelati over our two-and-a-half day stay (all of which we, ie Andrew and Elle, paid for, accordingly, Elle remains uncertain about the point of the “free gelati prize").

After piloting our way into Venice, queuing for the recommended high-rise car park, negotiating the crowded vaporetto with children and suitcases, and finding our accommodation, the evening of our arrival day was restricted to exploring the streets near our pensione in the SanPolo/Rialto Mercato area, having a nice dinner in Campo San Polo, and our first gelato (since Torino).

 During our wandering, Elle spotted the following calendar, which we assume contains photos of good-looking priests. 

Our first full day was the 25^th of April, a special day for many reasons: it’s our wedding anniversary and, obviously, Anzac Day, and, as it turned out, Italian Liberation Day and St Mark’s Day Festival in Venice.  There were several special Festival events in Venice.  We were fortunate enough to see one up close when our vaporetto cruise down the GrandCanal to start the day, was halted for five minutes to make way for a traditional gondola race.

After cruising the Grand Canal,

we headed to Murano.

Note: Andrew suggests clicking on the panorama photographs to blow them up for better viewing.

Shortly after disembarking, Xavier was drawn (as we have discovered he is wont to be) to a musician busking (on this occasion, a piano accordion player).  After we gave the busker some coins to thank him for the music, he turned into a balloon-twisting busker, creating a balloon sword for each of the children.  This was our best investment in Venice, as they provided hours of entertainment for the kids before bursting later in the day.

We were particularly taken by the crossed swords photo below, which Andrew captions “when it comes to travel difficulty, X marks the spot!”.

On previous visits to Murano we had enjoyed watching glass sculpture manufacturing demonstrations the area is known for, but our timing and guide books were all off on this occasion.  Despite this, we enjoyed walking the canals, and admiring glass sculptures in countless shop windows.  The photo below was taken for our good friend Kim, an anaesthetist.

After lunch we took a vaporetto and visited the Arsenale, which was driven by Andrew recently reading a history of Venice which discussed the Arsenale's importance to Venetian naval supremacy in 1300-1500.  The 25^th April is one of the few days the Arsenale is open to the public.  Despite some interesting sculpture, the visit was quite boring for the other four members of our touring party, but Andrew enjoyed wandering around and taking photos.

That evening while we struggled to locate a restaurant the pensione recommended, Xavier fell asleep on Andrew’s shoulders (a not uncommon event on this holiday).  Despite this, we had a nice meal in a Piazza we resorted to as Plan B (less than 100 metres from the recommended restaurant).

On the morning of the 26^th we decided to head straight to St Mark's Square and see if visits to the Doge's Palace or St Mark’s Basilica could be achieved.  Upon entry to the square it was immediately clear the answer to both questions was a resounding NO.  The square was clogged with tourists, more than we have ever seen. 

However, we managed to turn this negative into a significant positive, as it prompted us to take a vaporetto to San Giorgio Maggiore (the island directly opposite the square), which we had not been to on previous trips.  As far as we could see, there isn’t much to see or do on the Island, except to visit the lovely Church and take an elevator up its campanile.  Perhaps that is why there were very few people around, which was an immediate huge attraction for us.  Aside from not swimming in a crowd, it also meant no queues.  We went straight to the top of the bell tower and enjoyed the 360 degree views, particularly back to St Mark’s Square.

After leaving San Giorgio Maggiore we caught a vaporetto which went in a different direction to what we were expecting.  However, this too turned out well, as it started out with few passengers. (See photo below - no photo to compare it to, because it is impossible to see the vaporetto for the people on a crowded one.)

We all got seats on the front deck, and we ended up staying aboard for a circumnavigation, seeing areas of Venice we hadn’t previously seen, notably the canal between the island of Giudecca and Dorsoduro, and the cruise ship port area, where we saw three ships, including one monster (3000+ passengers), which no doubt contributed to the St Mark’s Square congestion.  So the morning turned out very well, and we returned to our Pensione for some quiet time, or sleep time for Xavier and Andrew.

After our rest, we again cruised the Grand Canal and returned to St Mark’s Square.  Too late to visit the Doges Palace and the Cathedral, but the Square itself was a lot less crowded, and we enjoyed an hour of wandering, listening to music, and another gelato.  After this we walked home via the Rialto Bridge, stopping for a great dinner along the way, and watching with interest the rising tide breaching the Grand Canal.