WEEK FOUR - Venice!

Its Spring Break Vacation!

Ciao!

Well it took a few decades, but we finally got to Venice - me for the first time, and Emily for the first time in almost 20 years. And Kelsey and Tyler joined us this week for their spring break from high school!

It is a bit of an understatement to say that Venice is filled with unusual and beautiful sights. Its little walkways and canals are unique in the world and it also has large cathedrals and squares that put it on par with many other old European cities. It was truly overwhelming. As Emily put it, after a while it was pointless to photograph anything since around every corner was some new beautiful sight.

But it’s the water that makes it so different. I don’t think there is a car in the entire city. Getting around is done by boat (boat bus, boat taxi, boat truck, boat ambulance, boat police car, etc) or by foot. Most of our shorter travels were done by foot and its a great way to see so many more details of the city – the stones on the streets and plazas, the varied colors of the houses, plus how more than a few of them seem to be leaning just a little too much one way or another. We also found a little craft shop around the corner from our apartment where they were carving a gondola fòrcola (oar lock) by hand out of a solid block of walnut. (We know what they were making because Galen interviewed the English-speaking Belgian writer in the shop who was in the process of creating a photo book on crafting Venetian gondolas).

Our base of operations in Venice was a spacious 3 level apartment that fit all 5 of us very comfortably and was just a few minutes walk from Piazza San Marco. It had a little kitchen, and in an attempt to moderate our food bill, Emily had the great idea that we would eat out at lunch, but eat in for dinner. Lunch prices were reasonable by Italian standards - 12-17 Euros per person for a 3 course meal (pasta, main course, dessert), that once or twice also included water, coffee, and 250ml of a very nice Italian red wine. Eating out for lunch instead of dinner also solved the problem of Italian restaurants not opening until 8pm, with a family of five and a half being hungry by 5pm. And what Emily found in her previous trip to Italy those many years ago still stands. The more you pay, the better the food.

Walking also presented a bit of a challenge because once we left our front door, two or three turns down the maze-like alleyways that make up the city and we could easily be lost. And since so many of the alleyways are about 3 feet wide, and three stories tall, there is no way to navigate by sun, star, or landmark. It was Tyler who first mastered getting around - and back. Our first night we walked a LONG way in an almost vain search for a grocery store. We finally found one (and guess what! My credit card didn’t work there either!) and since we had not laid down bread crumbs marking our path, we were suddenly faced with the prospect of getting back "home" in the gathering darkness. Thank goodness for the flexibility of his 14-year-old brain or we may still be wandering the back alleys of Venice to this day! (his homing-pigeon capacity also got him and Kelsey the freedom to explore on their own on a couple of occasions).

In addition to the maze, the little walkways of Venice were packed past the point of claustrophobia during the day. By mid morning, the ships and trains and busses had disgorged their tourists by the 10s of thousands. So you might forgive us when we say we believe our greatest accomplishment in Venice is that WE NEVER LOST ANYBODY! (the observant blog reader may notice that in photographs, Galen is almost always wearing a bright color. Not only does red photograph well, it stands out clearly in the sea of black that makes up the vast majority of the European wardrobe). Our very important rule when traveling as a family group in Venice is that if you come to a turn or corner you must STOP and WAIT!! With the kid’s cell phones banned due to the inability of ATT to cut off their text service texting (at 50 cents a piece just the incoming texts from the kid’s friends would have cost us thousands!) we relied on this simple rule. In addition, everyone carried the address of our apartment on the back of one of my business cards in the event of someone needing to consult the local carabiniere to get back home.

Early morning was a different story regarding crowds. With the tourists yet to arrive or arise from the night before, the streets were idyllically quiet and nearly empty except for the shop keepers preparing and resupplying for another exciting day of shopping frenzy. We parents made this our time of personal sanctuary. With three sleeping children safely snuggled away in the apartment, we snuck out on a romantic walk and a private teatime including-right-from-the-oven chocolate croissants.

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Our biggest splurge (in addition to being to Venice in the first place of course) was a gondola ride along the small channels near our apartment. The gondola ride was Kelsey’s raison d'être for choosing Venice in the first place so once we got over the sticker shock we just had to go for it. And a good thing too, since it qualified by far as the most memorable experience of the week for at least three of us. Take a look at some video HERE.

One thing that we learned on our gondola trip was that Venice is currently sinking at the rate of 1mm per year, but it sank up to a meter in the last century, which means that some of the buildings have water in the ground floor twice a day during high tide. We saw evidence of this on our Gondola ride, and also we saw the phenomena close up in San Marco square during the March full-moon high tide. On our last evening in Venice we watched the square slowly fill with water as the storm drains worked in reverse, bringing in the Adriatic sea. Emily explains on VIDEO.

I could go on and on about our experiences (like how Galen befriended a pack of High School girls from London!) but I will leave you to share our photos and videos. Next stop, Paris with Grandma and Grandpa. We miss you all but will see you in a couple of weeks!

Ciao!

Phil Emily Tyler Kelsey Galen

See Venice Photos (plus a few from Heidelberg Castle)

ALL of our TRIP VIDEOS on YouTube (more being added all the time):