Spring Break Part II: Corn Maze Venice

For the second half of spring break we rode the train from Rome to Venice and found a city super fun to just amble through….

Corn Maze Streets: And we thought Rome had small streets!  Here they are so small there are NO CARS on the island at all – so small you aren’t even allowed to ride a bike!!!

 It really was like navigating through a water-front corn maze.

Colorful past and Artsy Present: Venice has quite the history.  In the 16^th-18^th centuries it was the wild joint – big red light district, nunneries known for raucous parties….  and with many of their men off to sea, it became a norm for the ‘white widows’ (wives of sea men) to take in boy toys to fill their needs.  Orphanages blossomed and helped create Venice’s renowned music scene as orphans were trained as musicians from an early age.   Today it has a reputation of being an ‘art, music & architecture’ scene.

Boats galore: boats are the taxis, the buses, the everything!  But hot damn, they are clearly passing along the high gas prices.  A 1 day boat-bus pass cost ~$20 / person! 

Price aside, it was super fun to take a boat ride to the airport!  (Don't let Zoe's face above fool you - they had fun - just had to get up at 5am that day!)

Touristy – but local life nearby: While the Grand Canal area is serious tourist central, and the local population is dwindling (dropped in ½ over the past 100 years to ~60,000 locals), we enjoyed staying in an apartment in one of the nearby local neighborhoods.  It was peppered with cute little stores, restaurants & more commonly bars serving cicheti (appetizers like tapas), generally consumed with a drink standing up at the bar.

Murano glass madness: we thought the kids would like seeing the glass blowing process, so headed over to Murano island.  The kids enjoyed the demonstration – but even more – spending their allowances (this week’s and next’s) on glass animals.

What we did not realize is that it is a gold mine of glass costume jewelry!!  The ‘let’s go for the kids’ excursion turned into a Merilee glass ring seeking bonanza!

Quincy at one point (bored with the waiting) reported “you DON’T NEED ANY MORE rings!  You have more jewelry than anyone I know!”

 So I did what I had to – and continued to hone my well-developed speed shopping skills.  

That said, I’d go back in a heartbeat if you’re interested……(mom!?)