By surprise, the big kids had an elongated weekend off of school (school dismissed on Friday at noon, and they also had Monday off). So we (along with the Piccos) took the train Friday afternoon to Venice. Saturday morning in Venice, we started by heading out from our apartment to Campo Santa Marina and a bar on the side of the square. We had some delicious and varied brioche (and pane, burro, e marmelata, for Maya) before we wandered the Calle to reach Piazza San Marco.
The kids chased pigeons for a bit before we got in line to go inside the Palazzo Ducale.
Once inside, we awed over the governmental rooms, saw the prisons, and found Il Paradiso, which we learned is one of the largest paintings in the world in one of the largest rooms in Europe.
This compartment was just outside an ancient locked gate--it's a "break in case of emergency to access the emergency exit ancient skeleton key" compartment.
Upon leaving the Palazzo Ducale, it had become lunchtime, so we wandered up along the water alongside the Palazzo Ducale until we decided it was reasonable to duck back in a small street and find a random cafe for restaurants. We had a mix of panini and pastas and enjoyed being off of our feet for a bit.
The girls' stuffed animals are obviously hitching a ride on their shoulders.
After lunch, we walked the tourist route to the Rialto bridge (which Milena had been looking forward to all week). Unfortunately, it’s under restoration, so we didn’t get great views of it.
After crossing the bridge, we hopped on a vaporetto that took us under the bridge and up the Grand Canal.
We got off at a stop in Canareggio and started a game wherein the girls took turns choosing a direction. The littles took brief naps, and when they awoke we all had some delicious gelato.We continued our wandering (finding, accidentally but notably, Campo del Ghetto Nuovo, a piazza that takes up an entire island in the canals. The girls found some leaves/seed pods that they had fun tossing in the breeze.
We grabbed a coffee before continuing our wandering back to our apartment.
That's a cantaloupe floating in the canal...
We had dinner at a lovely osteria (Osteria da Alberto) in Canareggio not far from our apartment.
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