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Day Trips from Venice with Tweens / Teens

Day Trips from Venice with Tweens / Teens

Old Feb 7th, 2016, 09:59 AM
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Day Trips from Venice with Tweens / Teens

Hello -- Going on a cruise this summer and staying in Venice to adjust for 3 days. We are bringing our 3 boys ages 9, 12 and 15. For sure will try a day trip to Lido for the beach and island hopping to Murano, Burano and Torcello, but trying to decide between Florence, Padua or another town in the Tuscany area? Thank you, in advance, for any advice you can give to keep 3 male kids educated and engaged!
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Old Feb 7th, 2016, 11:49 AM
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Train schedules here using italian city names:

http://www.trenitalia.com/tcom-en

Note that you double the train journeys and add 4 trips going back and forth from stations. Look into Lake Garda [Desenzano del Garda] which takes about 1.5 hours. The boat rides are enjoyable for all, as are the lakeside restaurants
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Old Feb 7th, 2016, 11:49 AM
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Thank you, in advance, for any advice you can give to keep 3 male kids educated and engaged!>

A herculean task in cultural centres IME especially for young ones - can't think of much in Florence or any hill town that will keep them engaged - maybe consider a farm stay with a pool - but in cities like Florence it is hard - will be interesting to hear what folks come up with.

How about having the lads read up on say the Medici or Renaissance and places to visit - like the Ponte Vecchio beforehand perhaps.
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Old Feb 7th, 2016, 12:50 PM
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I don't think you'll have any difficulty keeping your 3 boys engaged in Venice itself for 3 days, especially if you are including the Lido and the islands. It is very long round-trip to Tuscany -- and generally less interesting to younger people.

In Venice proper, your boys might be very interested in taking some gondola rowing lessons, and seeing how gondolas are made. You can find the information how to do that online. Or -- since you are about to take a crusie -- go to the naval museum and see some of the great ocean-going ships of Venetian history. Venice once ruled the high seas as a great maritime republic.

Depending on your family, everyone also might be interested to take a tour that explains the new hydraulic engineering system that is designed to save Vence from rising tides during climate change.
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Old Feb 7th, 2016, 04:50 PM
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Have you older son look at the Let's Go Student guides - it will give a good idea of what kids not much older like to see/do in Venice.
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Old Feb 7th, 2016, 06:25 PM
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If it is 3 nights, you'll have 2 full days for Lido and the islands. If you actually have 4 nights, with 3 full days, I think staying in Venice, looking around, taking traghetto across the canal (standing up like the locals), and learning to row a gondola or some other activity would fill that day, IMHO.
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Old Feb 7th, 2016, 06:45 PM
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The rowing lesson suggestion in an excellent one. Here's the website for Row Venice - http://rowvenice.org/

You can rent bikes in Lido, but a few hours there is probably enough. You might consider the Secret Itinerary tour, or one of the tours in the Renaissance clock tower in Piazza San Marco. There is plenty to keep yourselves occupied without getting on a train (stick to boats.)
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Old Feb 7th, 2016, 10:06 PM
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It's difficult to answer your question without resorting to stereotypes about teenage boys - which some have appeared to do - and left out the 'educated' part of your request.

This tour is amazing - my own teenage sons loved it.You get to walk inside the Bridge of Sighs which can only be done on a tour like this, plus visit parts of the palace that are restricted to just small groups like this one.

https://www.walksofitaly.com/venice-...sages-vip-tour

Head up the campanile at San Marco for some very impressive views - and the other one across the way at San Giorgio Maggiore.

There is also the Jewish Ghetto and museum which is modern and very moving, the Rialto Markets, this very unusual bookstore

https://www.tripadvisor.com.au/Attra...o.html#REVIEWS

and take them to where parts of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was filmed - Campo San Barnaba.This video shows someone tracking down the locations
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Feg1ClZk9s





Ensure you get vaporetto passes - these will take you to the islands as well. Just validate on every use.
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Old Feb 7th, 2016, 11:10 PM
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Much as I like Verona, Vicenza, Padua and Lake Garda, I would spend most of the time in Venice!

Great suggestions above.

Secret itinerary of Doge Palace, Campanile, Vap rides, walking tour, a gondola ride for the fam, Aresenale, and Row Venice.

I would add Giardini for some outdoor running and green space. There's a vaporetto stop there and it's near Arsenale.

Going up to where the Four Horses are in the Basilica and seeing the splendid view over the piazza is lovely, maybe when the clock strikes the hour in the nearby clock tower.

I would add getting them over to the Rialto Fish Market as early as you can get them there.
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Old Feb 7th, 2016, 11:51 PM
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Bicycle hire on the Lido, and there is a 20 kilometre path, right through to Pellestrina.
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Old Feb 8th, 2016, 11:25 AM
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lots of gelato!
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Old Feb 8th, 2016, 12:03 PM
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If the Walks of Italy tour in the link above (for the Secret Itinerary tour) is outside your budget or the tour not being offered on your dates, here is the link to the regular, museum-run Secret Itinerary tour -
http://palazzoducale.visitmuve.it/en...t-itineraries/

You do need to book in advance to do this tour, regardless of which one you choose. In the summer it will be pretty warm inside - bring water!
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Old Feb 8th, 2016, 02:15 PM
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Here are some of the things in Venice that our DD, then 10yo, enjoyed when we took her to Venice. Her brother would have liked the same things, except that we would have probably also gone to the Guggenheim.

Fun things to track on the vacation: modes of transportation (we traveled throughout Italy), and took airplane, watertaxi, train, regular taxi, car, waterbus.

How old were the buildings that we stayed in - our oldest was the Casa dei Tintori, a B&B in Florence, building in the 13th century for dyers and wool-workers. "Newest" was the Residenza Coronari ai Canali, in Rome, in an 18th-century palace built over Roman ruins.

Mosaics in San Marco, amazing how tiny some of the pieces are
Chiesa Santa Maria dei Miracoli, just beautiful
San Zaccharia (below are crypts of dead Doges)
Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni, I love the paintings here and your kids can learn about the Scuoli

We did not go to Tuscany; we thought she wouldn't find enough interesting things there. Instead we went to Le Marche; I really wanted to visit Urbino (which DD liked too), and we visited a bunch of castles in the area, as well Europe's 3rd-smallest country, San Marino.

She liked Florence, too, though rated it behind Venice and Rome in terms of the Italian cities we visited.

DD and DS both like museums and art, though paintings more than sculptures, so we visited many museums.

And had lots of gelato.
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Old Feb 9th, 2016, 05:46 AM
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Wow! So glad I found this forum. I appreciated EVERY SINGLE ONE of your suggestions and will forgo the day trips and just focus on the marvels of Venice. Thank you SO MUCH for all your replies!!! Grazie mille! Ciao!
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