Adventuring Abroad: Venice

In mid-April, we took a trip to Venice, Italy! We had coordinated the trip with our friends Jerome and Erin and their little boy. We all drove down to Gatwick Airport (on the far side of London, so not typically our choice for flights, but the tickets were far less expensive) early on Thursday morning. We anticipated possible slight traffic around London, even before 5 am, but were happy to get all the way to the airport with no issues.

We found Gatwick to be extremely family friendly! Check-in was easy, and then we spotted a "family security" area that catered to groups with small children. The line was very short, the staff was friendly, and there were handy countertop desks after going through security to help you get reorganized on the other side. We found a good spot to wait for our flight's gate to be announced, which was right next to a large soft play kids' area -- awesome. Charlotte got some energy out pre-flight.

The flight was uneventful -- Charlotte spent most of the time watching Peppa Pig and drawing in her new coloring book (the Crayola markers that only color the special Crayola paper are amazing for flying!). The Venice airport (Marco Polo) is on the mainland of Italy, and requires a water taxi or a rather slow bus to take you to Venice proper. Upon arrival, we found a kiosk to purchase tickets for the non-private water taxi and followed the signage for about a 10 minute walk to the docks. We got in line, which wasn't too long, but it looked like we would have to wait for at least 2 water taxis in order to get on board. We completely lucked out when the staff waved us to the front of the line -- he saw the two little kids and took pity on us. It was unexpected and really nice! So we were able to get on the very next water taxi.

The ride was a bit longer than expected -- the boat goes slowly (at least at midday, in fairly choppy waters due to the large number of boats zipping around the Venice lagoon). We opened the windows to get some fresh air and some water splashed into the boat on one side! The boat's hull sits fairly low in the water, and all the passengers line the sides of the boat (facing each other) with suitcases at their feet in the middle of the boat. It was fairly snug, and not the ideal spot for squirmy Charlotte for about an hour. She did fairly well, but after 9 hours of travel already we were all getting a bit tired. It was fun to get a few glimpses of Venice from the water as we crossed the lagoon and headed down the Grand Canal to the Rialto stop, where we disembarked.

Approaching Venice via public water taxi

Charlotte appears to have had enough of the water taxi at this point

We were met at the Rialto stop by Mathilde, a New Jersey transplant to Venice, who took us through the labyrinthine streets of Venice to the apartment we were renting. She showed us (very quickly) the necessaries of the apartment, how to orient ourselves in the city, and mentioned several restaurants we could try. Although we had understood that we would need to book a private water taxi to return to the airport on Sunday for our very early flight, Mathilde assured us that the Alilaguna taxis (the public ones) coordinate with the flight schedule, and that we would be able to catch one of those taxis starting around 4 am. [More on this in a later post.]

Paul and Jerome went out to find us some lunch, and brought back some delicious pasta takeaway. I tried once unsuccessfully to get Charlotte to nap in the bed, but she was too wound up being in a new place to sleep. After eating lunch, she finally did go to sleep. Erin and I took that opportunity to head out for about an hour to wander around the city and grab our first gelato of the weekend!

Our apartment was near St Mark's Square, which was handy for orienting all weekend as well. We walked through the square, past the Doges' Palace, along the waterfront, then cut into the narrow streets to wander along the canals and explore. We rarely had to consult a map when we were out, as sporadically around the city you can find signs that say "Per S. Marco" or "Per Rialto" with arrows indicating the direction to help steer you in the right way.

In late afternoon, we went out again with husbands and kids accompanying us, and walked the streets in search of some dinner. We ended up splitting up, as Gus wasn't feeling very well. Paul, Charlotte, and I grabbed pizza at a restaurant. It was delicious! We then walked through St Mark's Square once more to enjoy the music being played from small orchestras at the outdoor cafes after dark. We especially enjoyed listening and dancing to a (long!) montage of music from The Sound of Music. We then headed home to sleep off the long day!