We had a very good travel day yesterday - got up and had breakfast at the hotel (Abby takes down about 8 pieces of bacon! And some cucumbers - ha). We keep lucking out on the rain - it was supposed to be raining pretty good for our walk to the train station, but was totally dry. We sat around there (no chairs/benches anywhere!) for over half an hour since our train was delayed. But knew better what to expect and didn’t have the stroller (yay!).
I still had some surprises in my bag - I bought some mini play dough sets and the girls did that a bit and then watched tablets. We had lunch on board (PBJs, bananas, the snacks from the train) and arrived in Venice close to 1. We found a restroom - it took credit cards, which was nice, and I’d tap my card and then send the girls through one at a time telling them to wait for me on the other side!
Walking out of the train station right up to the Grand Canal, I couldn’t stop smiling! It was drizzling, but we got tickets quickly and hopped on a water taxi. We had maybe 8 stops before ours, but it was a fun (and dry) way to get our first look at the city. Our VRBO owner’s sister (?) met us at our taxi stop and walked us a few minutes to the apt to let us in. I honestly don’t think we would have found it otherwise! She showed us around and then quickly left since she had a cough and no voice. We had about 15 min to throw in a load of laundry and pack a day bag and head out to meet our tour guide.
Lucia met us near the Ponte Vechio and showed us around for 2 hours, leaving us in St Mark’s Square. Don’t ask me to retrace our steps - it was a total maze! She pointed out several good places to eat and Jeff kept dropping pins on his Maps app, so hopefully we can get back to them! The girls were dragging (and then ate too much of the candy I was trying to use to keep them moving and all felt sick), but we made it. Spent some time watching gondolas and chasing pigeons - I assume we’ll do a lot more of that the next 3 days!
Lucia showed us what she called “the most romantic table in Venice” (below), and had a little treasure hunt for the girls to keep them interested in what we were seeing. And the packet came in handy when we sat down for dinner and needed coloring material!
After she left us, we wandered around for an early dinner (with DST ending, it’s dark by 5ish) but accidentally made it all the way back to our apt without finding anything. So we dragged the girls back towards PonteVecchio and sat there. Jeff had carbonara and I had pesto (thinking Lauren would eat some but she didn’t, Abby did). We stared with a delicious cheese plate. I had a Hugo spritz and Jeff ordered a Negroni (it was next to the pina colada on the menu and he thought it would be similar! He literally gagged the thing down in 2 huge sips). The girls ate a little bread and those hard skinny breadsticks.
We got back to the apt and Jeff set about hanging all our laundry to dry (cannot figure out how the combo washer/dryers run for 3-4 hours and everything comes out super hot but not dry!) and the girls got into jammies. The woman who showed us the place earlier had (I assume?) opened the windows, which I closed before we left for our tour because of the drizzle, but I left the bathroom one tipped open a bit and we came home to a house full of mosquitoes - ugh. The girls played play dough a bit and then I read to them while Jeff walked around the house with a towel killing as many as he could. I’ve had one buzzing around my head since I woke up at 4:30!
The girls took a long time to settle down, Abby wanted “a person in my room that is a grownup … and a girl” … so I did a little light furniture rearranging and pushed their beds together. They giggled together for a long time and then I finally took my kindle in there and sat at the foot of their bed and they were both out in about 3 min. And then I fell asleep without writing this! Hence doing it in the wee hours when I can’t sleep - ha. There is still a mosquito buzzing in here. And this bed is super uncomfortable, the pillow more so. I think there are some extras in the girls’ room, I’ll have to try a different one tonight.
I have an alarm set for 7:30/8 - we are meeting Lucia near our apt at 9 to walk north (I believe) to see more of the city and then get a water taxi to Murano for a glass blowing demonstration and then she is leaving us at a workshop where the girls can make necklaces (I think they will be like millefiori - you can Google a pic).
It was so nice walking around yesterday afternoon without cars! And we’ll definitely get a leg workout with all the stairs over the bridges. And we have 2+ full flights to our apt with no elevator. We did stop into a grocery store last night so we have bananas and yogurt for breakfast. Maybe we’ll go out for breakfast tomorrow.
Last thing to figure out (and Lucia said she’d help us today) is a way to the airport - I think we will do a water taxi straight there to ensure we’re there on time for our early flight. I’m hoping I (and Abby) don’t get sick on the way to Murano! The taxi in the Grand Canal was totally fine, but not sure about once we’re out a ways. Lucia did tell us that they had the flood barriers raised yesterday or Venice would have been flooded. She did point out that in all the main streets they have these little platforms (about 12-18” high) stacked up - and they lay them all out to form a walking path above the floods when they happen. My white leather sneakers have already taken a beating this trip (and I haven’t worn my leather boots I packed at all!), so let’s hope we don’t have to wade (<- that just auto-corrected to Wade, for my #mubb friends) through Venice! Though maybe I should be on the lookout for some replacements while we’re here - Venice looks to have lots of good shopping 😊
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