The right thing to do would have been to spend months to prepare for our trip to Venice. I mean it’s Venice. The architecture, the food, the wine, the music, the culture. It’s the Italian City of Love for goodness sake. Well, none of that happened and we went to Venice dry. Luckily we had a hotel/apartment booked. At some point I’m going to write an entire travel book about vacationing with 5 people in a family. I’m sure 6 is even more difficult, but 5 is challenging. So challenging that you can’t really afford to stay on the main island of Venice (you would need 3 rooms) so you stay off the beaten path. This has its advantages also but I’ll get to those in a later post.
Luckily we arrived while it was still light out. Don’t be fooled. Venice is not all that romantic to get to. You have to cross a busy waterway, park in a crowded parking ramp, drag your suitcases down to the street, navigate construction, cross over to the water ferry, buy tickets in Italian and confirm with a less than eager ferry operator that the boat is going in the direction that you need it to go in.
For as passionate as the Italians are about life they are more passionate about tourists getting out of the way. Good for them. As a rule, most tourists are annoying.
I’m sure my college Art History teacher would be mortified but we chose not to partake in the guided tours of St Mark’s Basilica or Doge’s Palace. We chose the pizza, gelato, and gondola side of Venice and really enjoyed it. We knew that we would only be in Venice for a few days and we also knew that our children would not voluntarily wait in line to tour an old church so we took a pass on the obligatory stops and absorbed the more savory part of town.
If you have been following our blog you will know that gelato and ice cream are a staple of the Wychocki Family Diet. Coming to Venice is like hitting the Mother-load of gelato. It’s everywhere. Pizza, gelato, gondola, shopping. Repeat.
Once you get into the heart of Venice you can see what all the fuss is about. This is an amazing city. Like nothing else on the planet. I know that is obvious just from the pictures but it’s true. It’s a site to be seen and a place to be experienced. In reality no one under the age of 25 would be able to appreciate the history of this city. How Alder piles from hundreds of year ago support the entire city. How very little has changed since the 16th century. It’s hard to imagine a place like this having grown up in the US but I love knowing that it’s still alive and thriving in it’s authenticity after all this time.
Add Venice to your bucket list if it’s not there already.
-Suzanne
Luckily we arrived while it was still light out. Don’t be fooled. Venice is not all that romantic to get to. You have to cross a busy waterway, park in a crowded parking ramp, drag your suitcases down to the street, navigate construction, cross over to the water ferry, buy tickets in Italian and confirm with a less than eager ferry operator that the boat is going in the direction that you need it to go in.
For as passionate as the Italians are about life they are more passionate about tourists getting out of the way. Good for them. As a rule, most tourists are annoying.
I’m sure my college Art History teacher would be mortified but we chose not to partake in the guided tours of St Mark’s Basilica or Doge’s Palace. We chose the pizza, gelato, and gondola side of Venice and really enjoyed it. We knew that we would only be in Venice for a few days and we also knew that our children would not voluntarily wait in line to tour an old church so we took a pass on the obligatory stops and absorbed the more savory part of town.
If you have been following our blog you will know that gelato and ice cream are a staple of the Wychocki Family Diet. Coming to Venice is like hitting the Mother-load of gelato. It’s everywhere. Pizza, gelato, gondola, shopping. Repeat.
Once you get into the heart of Venice you can see what all the fuss is about. This is an amazing city. Like nothing else on the planet. I know that is obvious just from the pictures but it’s true. It’s a site to be seen and a place to be experienced. In reality no one under the age of 25 would be able to appreciate the history of this city. How Alder piles from hundreds of year ago support the entire city. How very little has changed since the 16th century. It’s hard to imagine a place like this having grown up in the US but I love knowing that it’s still alive and thriving in it’s authenticity after all this time.
Add Venice to your bucket list if it’s not there already.
-Suzanne
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