Venice

We spent four big nights in Venice, our first non-daytrip after being based for six weeks at Brent’s farm. It started a little roughly as both babies screamed bloody murder in the full elevator as we descended ten stories from our place in the parking garage and then screamed even louder on the very crowded vaporetto ride into the city. But then we found our lovely and quiet B&B in the Accademia neighborhood — Ca’ San Travaso — with views of a narrow canal and lots of good restaurants and shops, and an easy walk anywhere we wanted to see. It was a good place, too, for wandering and getting lost. We settled in there well. The Accademia neighborhood is full of young families and students, lots of kids playing in the streets. Just down the way from us was a tasty and — like most places in Italy — very baby-friendly place we stopped by frequently, called Enoteca Cantine Del Vino Gia Schiavi with 1 Euro cicchietti(bar munchies) and wines. Around the corner was the gondola workshop where we watched the boats being refinished and some being built. We attended a Vivaldi concert in a beautiful church one night and also saw a great exhibit about violin making throughout the ages in Venice. We saw a fine exhibit about Leonardo’s inventions — did you know he came up with the glider, bicycle, gears, pistons? Loved the Peggy Guggenheim Collection housed in her amazing house on the Grand Canal. The Accademia Museum was also very wonderful. We enjoyed a Grand Canal tour by vaporetto and many good strolls along the canals and over the many, many bridges. Of course we saw St. Marks Basilica, the square, and the Rialto Market. It was cloudy but mild, which made the nights even more smeary and romantic with lights on and off the waters. On our last day as we were leaving for Florence the water was rising into some of the streets with the acqua alta — our B&B had even set up a steel blockade across the door to keep the water out.