When we sat down to plan this trip we tried to stretch it as long as we could. The kids’ spring break is only a week, but that was way too short to justify the travel time and expense. We elected to let the kids miss school the week before spring break to allow nearly 2 full weeks in Italy. There are so many places in Italy we want to visit, but based on our summer camping trip experience, we knew that if we overdid the traveling and tried to visit too many places we would burn everyone out. Rome and Bologna were going on the list, and we knew we needed a base to explore Pompeii since it’s a long day trip from Rome. We thought about Sorrento to explore the Amalfi coast, but decided on Naples to shorten the travel time to Pompeii, and also because since reading Elena Ferrante’s books (My Brilliant Friend, etc.) I’ve wanted to experience Naples. Three locations seemed like the right number, but we kept thinking about Venice; it’s such a unique place. Unable to pass it up, we broke our “too many places” rule and added a single overnight in Venice.

On Saturday morning we packed up our Bologna apartment and headed to the train station for the trip to Venice. We arrived around lunchtime and set out to find our hotel. Venice is a veritable maze of alleys, bridges and canals, and there is no direct, crow-flying way to get anywhere. Each bridge has stairs up and down as well, so it’s a LOT of exercise, especially with luggage. I clocked 20,000+ steps on Saturday. Phineas has been fighting a cold and cough since we picked him up from school, and it’s gotten worse the last couple of days. Once we made it to the hotel, he just needed to rest while we went out to find lunch and bring him back something.

Penelope loves to shop and Venice is a shopping paradise. Around every corner is another set of unique shops (along with the generic touristy ones). It’s also hard to overstate how beautiful Venice is with the bridges, water and colorful buildings. Penelope, Jake and I spent the afternoon and early evening getting lost in the Venice maze and exploring the shops. Venice is known for Murano glass, leather, decorative masks, and lace. If we ever go back to Venice I would love to stay long enough to allow for a day trip to the nearby island where they produce Murano glass.

Piazza San Marco is an impressive square in Venice that boasts several of the most famous sights, including St. Mark’s Basilica and the Doge’s Palace. It’s also, along with the Grand Canal, the most crowded and touristy area. If you know Penelope you know she loves to chase birds, especially pigeons. In the middle of the square a man gave her a handful of bird feed and she was immediately swarmed with pigeons. It was a blatant ploy for tips, and pigeons are gross, but I let it happen because Penelope was in heaven. (And don’t worry, Nim, she washed her hands immediately afterwards). She’s been trying to touch a pigeon since she was 2. I think she did it once, sort of, in NYC, but nothing like this. We didn’t make it to St Mark’s Basilica until after closing, and the guard told us that it was not visiting time, but we saw a number of people still going inside. We (or I, actually – Jake was adamantly opposed) followed some of the people in anyway just to see the inside. It’s a church that still holds services, and there was a 5:15 service of some variety that people were attending. After Penelope and I pretended to pray for a few minutes Jake was having enough of a fit that he came in to usher us out. Totally worth it, though. It’s gorgeous inside.

Despite being super touristy, we decided that we had to take a gondola ride once in our lives. The price goes up after 7pm but it’s worth it to glide along the canals and view the twinkling lights. We were able to drag Phineas out of the room for the gondola ride and a seafood dinner. The kids, in typical kid fashion, did some complaining about their seats on the gondola. There is a king and queen loveseat thing that Jake and I sat in, and then two stools. We shut down the complaining pretty fast and the kids were able to settle in and enjoy the ride. We didn’t make it back to the room until nearly midnight but it was a delightful, bucket-list evening.

The next morning we had to pack up our room and then had a few hours left to explore before catching our train. We got tickets to the historic Doge’s Palace and while we were a little rushed, enjoyed the art and elaborate architecture. We caught the 2:05pm train and then relaxed on the 5 hour trip to Naples. Definitely a whirlwind and exhausting 24 hours, but I’m glad we added Venice.