A Couple Days in Venice

Our cruise to the Greek Isles used Venice, Italy as it's port city. Therefore, we had 2 short days to explore around Venice before our cruise departed and then again after it returned.

View of the Grand Canal from the Rialto Bridge on a rainy October afternoon

Of the two days we had in Venice, one was foggy and the other had bouts of rain, but we made the best of our time wearing rain jackets. Our hotel was located near the cruise ship, but walking distance to downtown Venice's St Mark's Square. We used the foggy morning before the cruise departed to wander into downtown Venice. It was a quiet morning (probably because with children we are early risers), so the children had lots of space to run and explore without bumping into too many people.

On our way toward St Mark's Square we found a gondola ready to accept tourists on a small side canal:

We took the opportunity to get into his gondola and as he promised he could get us to the square by boat (and we wanted to take a gondola ride while in Venice anyway).

We wandered through small canals, crossed the Grand Canal and made our way toward St Mark's Square in the gondola - the ride was about 45 minutes in total (and very expensive - but how often do you get to do this?)! Plus, our driver sang to us along the way as well...

Once in St. Mark's Square we wandered around the center, bought a selfie stick (because we realized we had no family photos with all four of us in them) and ate a gelato.

After seeing St. Mark's Square we made our way over to the Grand Canal and admired Venice's primary mode of transportation - Boat.

We then wandered through (and got semi-lost) in some of the back streets and small canals. We also did this on our last day in Venice after the cruise ship docked. We loved wandering through the back streets and we also enjoyed a nice meal in a small pizzeria and a cappuccino in a back café. Lucas walked past the café and asked the server outside if he had any bread. We laughed at his assertiveness, but the waiter graciously handed him 2 breadsticks. We then decided to sit and have a couple coffees since they were so nice to Lucas and his request.