Venice at Midnight with Urchins

Ahhh, Venezia, the oldest tourist destination in the world (assuming that nobody was actually traveling JUST to see the pyramids or the great wall of China) or as it should be called, "Disney Originale" although the rides are strictly two dimensional. To avoid the heat and the peak crouds (although crowds are unavoidable)and since we essentially live in a suburb of Venice, we took a train out to Venice at about 6 pm, arrived at the stazione, hopped on an overcrowded boat, and arrived the famous Piazza San Marco about 7:30.

Think about that. At 6 PM we STARTED a trip with 3 children under the age of 8, which in itself involved a 3 block walk in 90 degree heat and a bus ride to the station.

At the piazza, the children were fascinated by the pornographic boxer shorts and kitchen aprons on prominant display at the tourist chotzkes (sp?) kiosks. Michelangelo's David would be so proud to know that his genitals were being strategically silkscreened (life-size and think about how big the real David really is) on aprons to be worn in kitchens around the world. We were trying to casually ignore them, but it took the kids about 13 seconds to spot them and even Isabelle immediately "got it" and is still talking about it. There really isn't anything funnier than weiners, is there?

Piazza San Marco - pigeons, pigeons, and more pigeons. We can't understand why anybody would eat anything within a two-block (two canal?) radius of that place. Yet, it is lined with places to eat outdoors. I was grossed out by the pigeons 10 years ago when I was in Venice with Terri and still am today. Somehow, we escaped without being pooped on! The picture is Nick getting away just in time.

All the kids behaved great until dinner, when the top came off the pressure cooker, and we are all lucky that we didn't spend the night washing dishes in a small diner in Venice. On the good side, we found the one place that served chicken patty sandwiches and homemade french fries. We then wandered back to the train station, only to miss the 10:30 pm train and had to wait until almost midnight. So, in July on the steps of the famous Grand Canal, our children sang and danced a variety of songs from High School Musical (looking very scruffy indeed). A confused German woman almost looked like she wanted to put some coins in the hat, but alas, there was none.

The kids fell asleep almost immediately on the train which was a good thing, because on the night train there were many couples necking, groping and lots of other "ings." We got back to Padova at 1 am, poured ourselves into a taxi and fell into bed. I guess we will wait to visit Venice again after the tourists leave and the floods arrive.