Venice | Magical Travels with Barb

We returned from Venice on Thursday and only had that afternoon and Friday left.

We visited some relatives and had a fun and delicious dinner at my aunt’s country house. Her 4 kids, my cousins, were all there with their families. My boys got to meet my cousins kids, a few who spoke a bit of English. They went from ignoring each other to not wanting to leave a few hours later.

Before that, we visited my uncle who is a master cheese maker. He travels the world helping cheese makers perfect their cheese recipes. A Belgian company just put his face on their latest cheese calling it, Nonno’s Cheese. We sampled some delicious mozzarella at his house.

While we were in Venice, the kids had a good time with their Nonni. They visited some family, got to swim in a cousin’s pool and jump on their trampoline. They also hiked up Nonno’s beloved mountain. Nonno couldn’t handle the 30 minute hike so waited at the church where you can drive the car to, and my uncle Carlo took the boys up to the top where there is a pretty interesting looking Jesus on a cross.

Friday we did a little local sightseeing. We went to the birthplace of grappa, Bassano del Grappa and stopped in Marostica as well.

Marostica is known for having a human chess game they play a few times a year. The chess board is in the middle of the main piazza. It has a cool castle up on the hill which makes up part of the wall around the small city. They were setting up for the event.

Bassano is famous not only for grappa, but for the covered bridge that leads into the historical center of the town. The covered bridge, which needs some tender loving care at the moment, was designed by Palladio.

Friday night we went out to dinner with as many of my cousins as were available, and not away on their summer holidays.

And that’s all she wrote. Saturday morning we packed up and waited for our taxi transfer to the airport. The Venice airport was a little crazy. By the time we made it to our gate it was just about time to board the plane. This airport traffic is growing too quickly and the building is having trouble keeping up.

Tuesday morning my father drove us to the train station in Vicenza and we took the high speed train to Venice with my mother. Walking all day in Venice was too much for my father.

Venice is unique and beautiful. It’s also very confusing. Figuring out the water bus system is a task. We bought 3 day tickets for us and 1 day for the kids and Nonna. We took a boat to our hotel after some confusion on what stop and what water bus to take. Venetians are very quick to wave you in a direction without much information. Turns out 2 days later we discovered a “moved due to construction” water bus stop near our hotel which was the reason for much confusion. Found the hotel and dropped off our bag, my husband and I were staying for 2 nights, the kids were going back “home” with Nonna. From there we walked leisurely to Piazza San Marco where I had a tour of St. Mark’s and the Palazzo Ducale scheduled. Again, easy meeting point and it was a well organized nice tour. We were able to skip the line into both places like on our tours in Rome and Florence.

After our tour, we wandered a bit and stopped for lunch and then took a gondola ride, another things the kids really wanted to do.

We continued to wander and make our way back to our hotel slowly with a gelato stop of course along the way. Our room was ready when we arrived back so we checked that out.

I had searched long and hard for a perfect hotel in Venice and found a great little gem in Dosoduro by the Accademia Bridge. Hotel Ca Pisani was a on a quiet little street between the Accademia water bus stop on the Grand Canal and Zattere on the other side. The hotel was small and decorated in an Art Deco style, very beautiful. We had a duplex room, 2 floors, with the bedroom up a glass staircase and a spa like bathroom downstairs. Breakfast was included in the restaurant and they had some tables set up outside as well to people watch.

We then made our way back to the train station because Nonna wasn’t sure she could find it on her own. 🙂 We left Nonna and the boys at the train station and found our way back, this time managing to take the water bus we wanted that traveled along the Grand Canal.

We wandered to a piazza across the bridge and had a lovely dinner. It rained for the first time on our trip this evening, but we had gotten un umbrella from the hotel before we left.

The next morning, I had scheduled a tour to the islands of Murano and Burano which I had never been to. We made our way and easily found the meeting point near Piazza San Marco and boarded a private boat to Murano where we visited a glass factory and toured the island a little. Then back on the boat and on to the gorgeous island of Burano where the art of lace making is dying away. Had a lovely lunch here and did some shopping. It’s tiny, but beautiful.

We ended our time in Venice with dinner on a terrace by the water and gondolas, absolute bucket list item!

The next morning we had breakfast and wandered around our hotel area which was so lovely. We had discovered it yesterday afternoon. Then made our way back to the train station for our noon train to Vicenza where my father would be picking us up.