We drove into Venice to drop off the rental car -- that was another crazy trip... The rental car agent was so sweet... Apparently, they have been in the midst of construction on one of the bridges by the train station, which is where we had to drop off the car. So, many of the water taxis and water buses were canceled or delayed. He walked us over to an out of the way water taxi stand and driver and helped load us into the taxi... All of this he did without being asked and with a huge smile on his face... Love it already!
The ride was awesome... the girls were in heaven... A city on water... What could be better? We stayed on the Lido, which is the island right off of Venice. At the time, it was a great idea because our hotel had Venice on one side and the Adriatic Sea on the other, so we were beachfront. Now, in retrospect we would definitely stay in Venice and just walk wherever we wanted to go. While on the Lido, we had to take the water shuttles over to Venice and back... This was the best part of the trip for the girls, but very time consuming.
The main thing I can say about Venice is you have to see it for yourself. The people are fascinating... like the mask maker we met in a little shop when we bought our authentic carnival masks to take home... She actually closed her shop to take us over to another one to look at some other masks when we couldn't make up our mind. She was wonderful...
And, the waiter who stopped us and convinced us to come into his restaurant to have dinner... another great meal -- the food is really out of this world!
Or, the glass maker apprentice who educated us about the glass making done on the island of Murano. Here's a tip: go to Murano to watch the glass blowers, but buy your glass in Venice (it is less expensive and the same Murano glass)...
Our first water taxi ride... so much to see...
One of many gorgeous gondolas...
St. Marks Square and the pigeons (the girls loved this part, so we did it twice!)
A view from the bell tower of St Mark's Basilica...
We left when the sun was coming up and began our long journey back home... As our water taxi pulled into the train station, I was sad to leave and thought to myself, "We will be back again someday soon."
"Not soon enough..."
Copyright 2008
1 comment:
I am so happy for you that you are traveling with your kids and exposing them to lovely places like this in Italy. Pooh to friends who say wait till your kids grow up...
I've checked out the tuscany villas and can't wait to get to Tuscany myself.
More pics please!
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