After 5 days in Tuscany (including Florence), we drove 3.5 hours to the Venice area. We arrived at our agriturismo in the scorching heat of the afternoon and decided to make it a rest day. We bought some groceries and Anjali cooked us a nice dinner that we accompanied with our Chianti Classico from Antinori. We could see the kids really enjoy munching down on pizza, broccolis and chicken nuggets in a safe environment, rather than another dinner in a restaurant. They also really enjoyed playing with the baby tractors, swing, trampoline, slides and toy house, all while pushing their stroller around. We traveled fairly light so we took this time to do some laundry and Anjali and I got to spend some time together alone after the kids slept early. Oh and we finally got to wash our car which got pretty disgusting after 6 weeks!

The next morning we woke up late and the kids enjoyed mamas breakfast and the outdoors. We parked the car in a lot and took the bus into the main city of Venice with its grand canals. It was convenient and after seeing the long line for the parking at the entrance of the city (of course no cars inside), it was definitely the right decision. It was my first time in Venice and it is as unique as you would imagine it to be. With over 100 islands, 400 bridges, and buildings up against the canal, it’s majestic and romantic. However the heat along with the heavy tourists really take away from it. The other thing we realized is that it’s probably one of the worst places to visit with young kids since people aren’t super nice (since it’s crowded and touristy), it’s extremely hot and humid, not very stroller friendly as most bridges have stairs, and lastly and most importantly not too safe with toddlers running around as there’s water everywhere!

We, however, made the best of our time there taking the vaporetto (water bus), walking in Realto and in the San Marco square. The kids were fascinated with the gondolas and with canals everywhere and no cars. We found a nice air conditioned restaurant where for once we allowed the kids to enjoy ice cream for lunch since it was too hot. We made our way back to the agriturismo via vaporetto-bus-car and took a well deserved nap in the afternoon. Italy 🇮🇹 has been great overall and we’ll definitely be back (thought probably not again to Venice, once is sufficient). Off to a new country tomorrow!