Venice by vaporetto

Monday 16th June 2014

Blog post by the mother

Our apartment in Venice is just a stones throw from the Rialto Mercato so we set off first thing this morning to stock up on some fresh fruit and vegetables.  The famous fish market is also located here but is closed on a Monday.  We bought more strawberries to feast on - the knowledge that we won't be able to buy strawberries on a daily basis when we get home to NZ is slowly beginning to creep up on us.

While we were at the market I set the kids their challenges for our time in Venice.  They have to 1) find as many winged lions as they can - these are the symbol of Venice.  First one was hanging right above the market so we were off to a good start.

2) Find the only female gondolier in Venice  and 3)See how many different purposes boats are used for in Venice. 
After dropping our shopping back at the apartment we headed off on Vaporetto number 1 in search of the gardens of Venice.  We got off at Giardini S. Elena and Miss 7 was quite shocked to see that there were so many trees and grass. "You should take a photo because people won't believe you that grass grows in Venice!".

The kids enjoyed having a run around and a play on the playground.

We walked back through the gardens and alongside the Grand Canal past where the Venice Biennale is held to Arsenale and then took the Vaporetto back to our apartment.  This involved passing the Piazza S. Marco and the Doges palace.

Back at the apartment it was time to deal with some of the more mundane details of daily life - but I did feel like a proper Italian mama when I was hanging out the washing. Fortunately I didn't drop any onto unsuspecting passers-by walking in the alleyway below!

After lunch it was back onto the Vaporetto to visit the Fondamenta Zattere and to go in search of 'Da Nico' which Agatha had told us was a good place to stop for gelati.  Walking along the Fondamenta and waving to the cruise liners was fun and the gelati was as good as promised.  The kids have all been amazing with walking everywhere on this trip and as long as we build in a few rest stops or food motivators then all usually goes well.  Here they are taking a breather near the Peggy Guggenheim museum and then again on the Ponte Accademia.

 

Progress on our challenges for the day was good.  Many winged lions have been spotted - on flags, on gondolas and as statues.  Likewise we have seen boats being used for many purposes - deliveries of food, drinks, mail, trees and plants, building materials, used as taxis, ambulances,by the police and of course as ferries and taxis. I was beginning to despair of ever finding our female gondolier amongst the hundreds of gondoliers in Venice when we saw the traghetto at S. Tomo and there she was steering the boat - yay!  Unfortunately I couldn't get a decent photo but I was still ridiculously happy to have seen her.

When we got back to Rialto we had a mooch around the local area looking for a likely dinner spot.  We didn't plan on also finding New Zealand, Auckland! 

Here is Miss 7 near the Ponte Rialto just along from the Rialto Mercato.  Ending our day close to where it began.   

 

Dinner was eaten in the Campo Beccarie just outside our apartment.  I wonder if it is possible for the children to get sick of eating pizza for dinner every night?  I guess we will soon find out.  To be fair, Mr 11 did have pasta for his dinner just to change it up a little.