Adventures in Italy - Day 1

Stop 1 - Gondola Ride: After flying into the Venice airport, we picked up our rental car and drove to Venice. Since no cars are allowed in the city (as it doesn't have streets), we parked the car in a parking structure, grabbed our luggage and kids, and started our journey into the city. We took the water bus to the stop nearest to our hotel and wandered the alleys of Venice showing several locals the address hoping they could help us find our hotel. This trek included lugging 3 toddlers and two large pieces of luggage up and down at least a 100 stairs. I'm sure we were quite the sight to see. After getting closer and closer with each local we asked, we finally found our hotel at the end of a dark alley. The alley looked a little shady but when they buzzed us in, we discovered a beautiful courtyard leading into a cute little hotel. 

After unloading everything in the hotel room, we headed back out to the streets for our first Italian experience. We started off with some pizza and pasta at a little Italian cafe near our hotel. Afterwards, we headed to the canals to enjoy a gondola ride. Our gondolier was very friendly and took time to tell us about many of the buildings along the way. The kids loved the ride and Maeli especially loved moving from the front to the back of the boat trying out all of the different seats.

Stop 2 - The streets of Venice: After the gondola ride we took time to roam the streets of Venice. We headed towards the Rialto Bridge and made sure to get lost along the way. The kids had fun going up and down the stairs and running through the alleys. And since it was a hot day we HAD to stop and get gelato. :-)