Venezia, Italia

Dear Friends and Family,

At the end of October and beginning of November, the French celebrate Toussaint, or All Saints Day. Fortunately for the Onstott kids, this means a well-deserved break from school of two weeks. Nicolas, Elyse, and Nathaniel all were able to rest from French homework (though they have started to spontaneously speak it in the car with each other from time to time), relax and even play with their friends. Julie also organized a small Halloween celebration with some of the other American and British moms in the area. Although it didn't compare with Halloweenie in Logan, everyone had fund going from station to station around the yard to collect candy.

Since Joe had a few extra days of vacation during this time, we decided to drive to the not-so-far away city of Venice, Italy for the first time.

After traversing the causeway from the mainland to Venice, we boarded our first vaporreto, or water bus, to go into the old city. As we sailed down the grand canal, we watched as the other vaporreto, gondolas, and water taxis criss-crossed the choppy water in all directions.

For our first trip into town, we headed to high ground and get a view from the Campanille, the highest tower in the city and located in the central square of Piazza San Marco. From there, we could watch the people in the square, see a few large cruise ships going down the grand canal, and listen to the bells ringing on the Torre dell-Orologio clock tower just accross the Piazza. We also had a very good view of the doge's palance and the adjacent Basilica San Marco.

During our stroll through the alleys and bridges of the old city, we happened upon a church with strong connections to Four Seasons Composer Vivaldi. In a small converted church, we found a display of old violins, violas, and other stringed instruments. Elyse got to peer into an old violin making workshop.

 

As part of our preparations for going into town, Julie read from Carneval at Candlelight, a Magic Treehouse Book in which two kids go on a nightime adventure in Venice. For the rest of the evening, Nicolas, Elyse, and Nathaniel watched intensely for images of Neptune and the winged lion, the symbol of Venice.

Our favorite part of the day was taking a long vaporreto ride all the way around the grand canal and being able to see all of the interesting buildings on the water's edge. The kids were amazed that so many buildings had front doors that opened directly onto the canal. For us, this twilight boat ride was a little like Disney's Jungle Cruise, except that Venice has over a thousand years of history (and there were no jungle animals).

While we did have a bit of rain and got lost once or twice in the maze of tiny alleys and bridges that don't seem to follow any logical pattern, it's hard to imagine a more facinating city. Venice was certainly worth the trip. 

Chow!

Joe, Julie, Nicolas, Elyse, and Nathaniel