Trip Report: Italy with the bambinos!
Jun 28th, 2017, 04:38 AM
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Vinoroma - I don't remember anyone checking our tickets at the train station, but I trust you over my own memory on that. We were in a bit of a rush to get to our train, so my brain may have glossed over it. 
As for the audio guides, they did not ask for an ID or anything. And when we left through the Sistine Chapel group door, there was a red drop box at the bottom of the stairs to return the audio guides. Super easy!
As for the audio guides, they did not ask for an ID or anything. And when we left through the Sistine Chapel group door, there was a red drop box at the bottom of the stairs to return the audio guides. Super easy!
Jun 28th, 2017, 05:03 AM
#23
vinorama - I remember that problem as well with the audio guides, which was why I never got one. perhaps next time.
Meredith - you did a great job with the organisation and keeping your kids engaged. ours were rather older when we took them to Rome for the first time [17 & 14 I think] but even they began to flag if we tried to do too much without a break. Like an army, I think that families on holidays march on their stomachs!
<<Love the report! I'm taking my kids next May so your details are helpful! Was the Colosseum tour too long for kids with the heat?>>
brubenow - the standard combined ticket for the Colosseum, Forum and Palatine Hill is valid for 2 days so you could do the Colosseum early one morning and the Forum early the next so as to avoid the heat. That said, if I were going to spend money on any tour, it would be a tour of the Forum - I've been 3 times and it's still a pile of stones to me.
Here's a link to the official website for the Colosseum combined tickets; you can also use it to buy tickets for tours of the Colosseum and the special visit to the underground and 3rd tier:
https://www.coopculture.it/en/colosseo-e-shop.cfm
Meredith - you did a great job with the organisation and keeping your kids engaged. ours were rather older when we took them to Rome for the first time [17 & 14 I think] but even they began to flag if we tried to do too much without a break. Like an army, I think that families on holidays march on their stomachs!
<<Love the report! I'm taking my kids next May so your details are helpful! Was the Colosseum tour too long for kids with the heat?>>
brubenow - the standard combined ticket for the Colosseum, Forum and Palatine Hill is valid for 2 days so you could do the Colosseum early one morning and the Forum early the next so as to avoid the heat. That said, if I were going to spend money on any tour, it would be a tour of the Forum - I've been 3 times and it's still a pile of stones to me.
Here's a link to the official website for the Colosseum combined tickets; you can also use it to buy tickets for tours of the Colosseum and the special visit to the underground and 3rd tier:
https://www.coopculture.it/en/colosseo-e-shop.cfm
Jun 28th, 2017, 04:44 PM
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Thank you all for the kind remarks! I'm glad you're enjoying this report and that it's helpful to others.
Day 6
Today we packed up and left our beloved little Roman apartment! We caught a cab to the car rental office and headed out of town. I hardly like to drive at home, so ain't no way I was going to drive in Rome, or anywhere in Italy for that matter. Luckily for me, Ryan is an excellent driver - he handled those Roman streets like a pro! But also luckily, our route skirted around the edge of town, so the traffic wasn't too bad and we found our way easily onto the highway towards Tuscany.
Our first destination was Montepulciano. On our last visit to Italy 17 years ago, we actually stayed in Montepulciano for three or four days. The desire to revisit, coupled with the need for lunch after driving for a couple hours, made it the perfect pitstop for us. We followed Rick Steves' directions to park in Parking Lot #8, up the hills towards the top of town. Then we walked into town and found La Pentolaccia for lunch. Oh yum, so good!! I had the wild boar stew, which was outstanding. I was so enamored with my stew that I don't even remember what everyone else had (although odds are that the kids split pasta with ragu), but we really enjoyed this place.
Then we wandered upwards to the top of town, stopping for espresso and popsicles along the way. The views of the surrounding countryside from the top of Montepulciano were stunning! I wish we had time to explore the lower part of town, but alas - our next destination awaited.
Back in the car, we drive another hour or so to our agriturismo outside of San Gimignano, a little slice of heaven called Il Borghetto: http://www.ilborghettotuscanholidays.com
Loooooooved this place!! We chose it partially because of its proximity to San Gimignano and partially because it has a pool (which was a must for the kids). We had a 2-bedroom, 2-bath unit - it was huge! Our room also had a large private yard with spectacular views of the vineyards. It was wonderful! Everyone on staff was wonderful as well. I would stay here again in a heartbeat and recommend it to anyone.
So as soon as we checked in, we immediately went to the pool. The kids earned it - nothing makes them happier than jumping into a pool. I stayed with them while Ryan drove a few miles down the road to the Pam Supermarket to pick up some some snacks, wine, and food for breakfast the next morning.
For dinner that night, we drove into San Gimignano, which is only about 2 miles away from Il Borghetto, and had dinner at Locando di Sant' Agostino, located right outside Sant'Agostino Church. We had a salad with pear, pecorino, honey, and balsamic glaze (which was amazing), a couple pizzas, and ribolita. Overall, I wouldn't rave about this restaurant quite the same way I've raved about others, but it was very good - still wayyyyyy better than our Italian restaurants here at home, of course.
Tomorrow: our favorite activity of the entire trip
Day 6
Today we packed up and left our beloved little Roman apartment! We caught a cab to the car rental office and headed out of town. I hardly like to drive at home, so ain't no way I was going to drive in Rome, or anywhere in Italy for that matter. Luckily for me, Ryan is an excellent driver - he handled those Roman streets like a pro! But also luckily, our route skirted around the edge of town, so the traffic wasn't too bad and we found our way easily onto the highway towards Tuscany.
Our first destination was Montepulciano. On our last visit to Italy 17 years ago, we actually stayed in Montepulciano for three or four days. The desire to revisit, coupled with the need for lunch after driving for a couple hours, made it the perfect pitstop for us. We followed Rick Steves' directions to park in Parking Lot #8, up the hills towards the top of town. Then we walked into town and found La Pentolaccia for lunch. Oh yum, so good!! I had the wild boar stew, which was outstanding. I was so enamored with my stew that I don't even remember what everyone else had (although odds are that the kids split pasta with ragu), but we really enjoyed this place.
Then we wandered upwards to the top of town, stopping for espresso and popsicles along the way. The views of the surrounding countryside from the top of Montepulciano were stunning! I wish we had time to explore the lower part of town, but alas - our next destination awaited.
Back in the car, we drive another hour or so to our agriturismo outside of San Gimignano, a little slice of heaven called Il Borghetto: http://www.ilborghettotuscanholidays.com
Loooooooved this place!! We chose it partially because of its proximity to San Gimignano and partially because it has a pool (which was a must for the kids). We had a 2-bedroom, 2-bath unit - it was huge! Our room also had a large private yard with spectacular views of the vineyards. It was wonderful! Everyone on staff was wonderful as well. I would stay here again in a heartbeat and recommend it to anyone.
So as soon as we checked in, we immediately went to the pool. The kids earned it - nothing makes them happier than jumping into a pool. I stayed with them while Ryan drove a few miles down the road to the Pam Supermarket to pick up some some snacks, wine, and food for breakfast the next morning.
For dinner that night, we drove into San Gimignano, which is only about 2 miles away from Il Borghetto, and had dinner at Locando di Sant' Agostino, located right outside Sant'Agostino Church. We had a salad with pear, pecorino, honey, and balsamic glaze (which was amazing), a couple pizzas, and ribolita. Overall, I wouldn't rave about this restaurant quite the same way I've raved about others, but it was very good - still wayyyyyy better than our Italian restaurants here at home, of course.
Tomorrow: our favorite activity of the entire trip
Jun 29th, 2017, 02:42 PM
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Day 7
I know I tend to overuse my superlatives (it was fantastic! amazing! delicious!) - and I truly mean every excited exclamation I make - but THE BEST thing we did on the whole trip was a kid-friendly cooking class at Al Gelso Bianco: http://www.algelsobianco.it/corsi_cucina_gb.htm
We heard about this class from friends of ours who did it with their kids a few years ago. They said it was the best part of their Italy trip, and wow, were they right! There are a ton of Tuscan cooking classes out there, I'm sure, but I don't think there are a ton of kid-focused choices. The class at Al Gelso Bianco, though, was very much kid-friendly. The kids got to get their hands nice and messy by chopping veggies, making ravioli, and rolling spinach and ricotta gnocchi. Everyone also got to take a turn on the pasta machine to make tagliatelle. There were two other families with kids in our class, so we also got to make friends - which always makes things all the more memorable. While we all worked on our pasta, the wonderful teachers/chefs (Susana and Stefania) also whipped up homemade pesto, pomodoro sauce, roasted veggies, and apple cake.
Then, while the chefs got the pasta cooking, we all got a break. All of the kids scampered off to the playground while the adults got to do a special tasting of Al Gelso Bianco's homemade olive oil, Chianti, and other red wine. Soooo good. We ended up buying a case of wine to ship home, as well as some of their delicious olive oil. Irene, another staff member, told us all about Chianti wines and other interesting stuff about the area.
Then, lunch was finally ready, and Susana, Stefania, and Irene served up everything to us in the gardens. The food was just outstanding. Coupled with the delicious wine and conversation with our new friends, it was truly a magical day. I didn't want to leave!!
A note about Al Gelso Bianco: they also have several rooms and a pool. We had considered staying here, but they only offered week-long rentals, which wouldn't work for us. (Not sure if the week-long rental is a year-round policy, though.)
Al Gelso Bianco is located in the Chianti region only about 20 minutes away from where we were staying. In fact, there is an excellent view of San Gimignano from its grounds.
Once we left, we stopped by the PAM supermarket on our way home to get some things for dinner. Since we had a huge lunch, we decided to have a casual dinner in our private backyard. We bought some prosciutto and melon, olives, tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella, and I forget what else. We also had a couple of slices of pizza left over from dinner the night before. All of this together with a bottle of wine made for a perfect al fresco dinner, enjoyed while watching dusk settle in over the vineyards right beyond our room.
After dinner, we went into San Gimignano for gelato. Quick thoughts on San Gimignano: this town is gorgeous to look at, with all of the medieval towers. However, we made a point to avoid it during the day due to the crowds, so we only went into town twice - for dinner the previous day and for gelato today. We walked around the town a tiny bit, but other than its looks, we didn't feel that drawn to the town. Maybe we just missed out on its charms since we purposely went at night... but I wouldn't make it a point to go back to San Gimignano. I do, however, love its location - it's just so convenient to Chianti in one direction and Volterra in the other. (I believe it's also convenient to Siena and Florence, although we didn't go to either of those towns on this trip.) Plus, I personally found this part of Tuscany to be more beautiful than southern Tuscany. (But really, it's all beautiful, so that is a very minor point.)
Tomorrow: Volterra!
I know I tend to overuse my superlatives (it was fantastic! amazing! delicious!) - and I truly mean every excited exclamation I make - but THE BEST thing we did on the whole trip was a kid-friendly cooking class at Al Gelso Bianco: http://www.algelsobianco.it/corsi_cucina_gb.htm
We heard about this class from friends of ours who did it with their kids a few years ago. They said it was the best part of their Italy trip, and wow, were they right! There are a ton of Tuscan cooking classes out there, I'm sure, but I don't think there are a ton of kid-focused choices. The class at Al Gelso Bianco, though, was very much kid-friendly. The kids got to get their hands nice and messy by chopping veggies, making ravioli, and rolling spinach and ricotta gnocchi. Everyone also got to take a turn on the pasta machine to make tagliatelle. There were two other families with kids in our class, so we also got to make friends - which always makes things all the more memorable. While we all worked on our pasta, the wonderful teachers/chefs (Susana and Stefania) also whipped up homemade pesto, pomodoro sauce, roasted veggies, and apple cake.
Then, while the chefs got the pasta cooking, we all got a break. All of the kids scampered off to the playground while the adults got to do a special tasting of Al Gelso Bianco's homemade olive oil, Chianti, and other red wine. Soooo good. We ended up buying a case of wine to ship home, as well as some of their delicious olive oil. Irene, another staff member, told us all about Chianti wines and other interesting stuff about the area.
Then, lunch was finally ready, and Susana, Stefania, and Irene served up everything to us in the gardens. The food was just outstanding. Coupled with the delicious wine and conversation with our new friends, it was truly a magical day. I didn't want to leave!!
A note about Al Gelso Bianco: they also have several rooms and a pool. We had considered staying here, but they only offered week-long rentals, which wouldn't work for us. (Not sure if the week-long rental is a year-round policy, though.)
Al Gelso Bianco is located in the Chianti region only about 20 minutes away from where we were staying. In fact, there is an excellent view of San Gimignano from its grounds.
Once we left, we stopped by the PAM supermarket on our way home to get some things for dinner. Since we had a huge lunch, we decided to have a casual dinner in our private backyard. We bought some prosciutto and melon, olives, tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella, and I forget what else. We also had a couple of slices of pizza left over from dinner the night before. All of this together with a bottle of wine made for a perfect al fresco dinner, enjoyed while watching dusk settle in over the vineyards right beyond our room.
After dinner, we went into San Gimignano for gelato. Quick thoughts on San Gimignano: this town is gorgeous to look at, with all of the medieval towers. However, we made a point to avoid it during the day due to the crowds, so we only went into town twice - for dinner the previous day and for gelato today. We walked around the town a tiny bit, but other than its looks, we didn't feel that drawn to the town. Maybe we just missed out on its charms since we purposely went at night... but I wouldn't make it a point to go back to San Gimignano. I do, however, love its location - it's just so convenient to Chianti in one direction and Volterra in the other. (I believe it's also convenient to Siena and Florence, although we didn't go to either of those towns on this trip.) Plus, I personally found this part of Tuscany to be more beautiful than southern Tuscany. (But really, it's all beautiful, so that is a very minor point.)
Tomorrow: Volterra!
Jul 1st, 2017, 07:29 AM
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Day 8
Today we enjoyed a breakfast of yogurt, pastries, and fresh fruit on our private lawn, then headed out for a day trip to Volterra, about 30 minutes away. We found a great parking spot in Parking Lot #4, which is immediately outside one of the town gates and next to the Roman Theater - super convenient! But when we went to put money in the meter, we realized it was broken. What to do? we wondered... We stood there looking a little lost for a minute, until an Italian woman who had pulled in the lot right behind us walked up, took one look at the broken meter, and proclaimed "No pay!" OK then - yay for very convenient and unexpectedly free parking!
Our first stop in Volterra was that Roman Theater. All I can say is WOW. Being from the U.S., our concept of "old" is rather naive. I was so blown away to see this amazing theater, so well preserved and so OLD (from the 1st century A.D.) just sitting there minding its own business as if it was just another building in the town. I thought to myself, how have I never heard of this site before?? But of course, I know that old stuff abounds around this part of the world... but it's still amazing to feel like you just stumbled upon an amazing structure like that. We didn't pay to go into the theater but rather stood on the roadside above to look down into it. From that vantage point, off in the distance you can also see remnants of the old Etruscan wall that surrounded the town, dating from the 4th center B.C. Incredible.
After that, we wandered up and into town, roughly following Rick Steves' walking tour. One thing that Rick noted - which I totally agree with - is that Volterra feels very much like an authentic working, living town, more so than some other nearby tourist destinations. At one point, we popped into an art gallery because our daughter loves art, and we had a wonderful "conversation" (which I put in quotes because we did not speak each others' language) with the proprietor, who was clearly very passionate about her work. When she realized T enjoys art, she was very expressive and talked about (I think) art and nature and her passion for both. I'm like 80% sure that's what she was saying, anyway...
We also wandered up into the park at the top of the town and relaxed for a bit while the kids found some playground equipment to conquer.
Next: lunch. We headed back down to one of the piazzas to eat at La Carabaccia. On Fridays, they serve only seafood, and they have a very small menu of maybe four dishes to choose from. We tried three of the four - an octopus stew (this was me wanting to try something a little crazy - none of us loved it, unfortunately), fried fish, and a pasta dish with chunks of cod in it. I appreciate the atmosphere at this restaurant, and the seafood was good, but I think we would have like it better on a non-Friday.
Then, we walked off lunch with a little bit more strolling, until we all felt we had earned a gelato.
Back in the car, we headed back in the direction of San Gimignano and decided we wanted to pop into a winery along the way. A lady at our agriturismo had recommended San Donato, so that's where we ended up. This is a tiny little town with a little farm and delicious wine! We spent a little time there trying a few different varieties while the kids played with one of the owner's dogs. Loved the wine and ended up bringing a few bottles home with us.
Once back at our hotel, we spent the rest of the day lounging by the pool, which the kids had been waiting all day for! They had made some friends at the pool the previous day and were very happy to see their friends there today, too.
So Il Borghetto (our agriturismo) offers a full-course dinner two or three nights a week. This was one of those nights. We had debated whether or not we'd eat there or if we'd rather go back into town to eat and explore some more. But we were kind of tired and had a little bit of trip fatigue setting in, so we decided to stay in for dinner. SO GLAD that we did - the food was phenomenal! They serve dinner al fresco, underneath a pergola and overlooking the vineyards beyond. It's a fixed menu, complete with starter, primi, secondi, and dessert. They also have an extensive wine list, and Nicola (one of the owners) is very knowledgable about wine. It was truly a wonderful dinner. Also, we ended up sitting with the family that our kids had befriended - all of the children ate together and then ran around the property while we adults got to enjoy our dinner, drink wine, and talk. Yay for more new friends!!
Today we enjoyed a breakfast of yogurt, pastries, and fresh fruit on our private lawn, then headed out for a day trip to Volterra, about 30 minutes away. We found a great parking spot in Parking Lot #4, which is immediately outside one of the town gates and next to the Roman Theater - super convenient! But when we went to put money in the meter, we realized it was broken. What to do? we wondered... We stood there looking a little lost for a minute, until an Italian woman who had pulled in the lot right behind us walked up, took one look at the broken meter, and proclaimed "No pay!" OK then - yay for very convenient and unexpectedly free parking!
Our first stop in Volterra was that Roman Theater. All I can say is WOW. Being from the U.S., our concept of "old" is rather naive. I was so blown away to see this amazing theater, so well preserved and so OLD (from the 1st century A.D.) just sitting there minding its own business as if it was just another building in the town. I thought to myself, how have I never heard of this site before?? But of course, I know that old stuff abounds around this part of the world... but it's still amazing to feel like you just stumbled upon an amazing structure like that. We didn't pay to go into the theater but rather stood on the roadside above to look down into it. From that vantage point, off in the distance you can also see remnants of the old Etruscan wall that surrounded the town, dating from the 4th center B.C. Incredible.
After that, we wandered up and into town, roughly following Rick Steves' walking tour. One thing that Rick noted - which I totally agree with - is that Volterra feels very much like an authentic working, living town, more so than some other nearby tourist destinations. At one point, we popped into an art gallery because our daughter loves art, and we had a wonderful "conversation" (which I put in quotes because we did not speak each others' language) with the proprietor, who was clearly very passionate about her work. When she realized T enjoys art, she was very expressive and talked about (I think) art and nature and her passion for both. I'm like 80% sure that's what she was saying, anyway...
We also wandered up into the park at the top of the town and relaxed for a bit while the kids found some playground equipment to conquer.
Next: lunch. We headed back down to one of the piazzas to eat at La Carabaccia. On Fridays, they serve only seafood, and they have a very small menu of maybe four dishes to choose from. We tried three of the four - an octopus stew (this was me wanting to try something a little crazy - none of us loved it, unfortunately), fried fish, and a pasta dish with chunks of cod in it. I appreciate the atmosphere at this restaurant, and the seafood was good, but I think we would have like it better on a non-Friday.
Then, we walked off lunch with a little bit more strolling, until we all felt we had earned a gelato.
Back in the car, we headed back in the direction of San Gimignano and decided we wanted to pop into a winery along the way. A lady at our agriturismo had recommended San Donato, so that's where we ended up. This is a tiny little town with a little farm and delicious wine! We spent a little time there trying a few different varieties while the kids played with one of the owner's dogs. Loved the wine and ended up bringing a few bottles home with us.
Once back at our hotel, we spent the rest of the day lounging by the pool, which the kids had been waiting all day for! They had made some friends at the pool the previous day and were very happy to see their friends there today, too.
So Il Borghetto (our agriturismo) offers a full-course dinner two or three nights a week. This was one of those nights. We had debated whether or not we'd eat there or if we'd rather go back into town to eat and explore some more. But we were kind of tired and had a little bit of trip fatigue setting in, so we decided to stay in for dinner. SO GLAD that we did - the food was phenomenal! They serve dinner al fresco, underneath a pergola and overlooking the vineyards beyond. It's a fixed menu, complete with starter, primi, secondi, and dessert. They also have an extensive wine list, and Nicola (one of the owners) is very knowledgable about wine. It was truly a wonderful dinner. Also, we ended up sitting with the family that our kids had befriended - all of the children ate together and then ran around the property while we adults got to enjoy our dinner, drink wine, and talk. Yay for more new friends!!
Jul 1st, 2017, 07:56 AM
#30
I was so blown away to see this amazing theater, so well preserved and so OLD (from the 1st century A.D.) just sitting there minding its own business as if it was just another building in the town.>>
Meredith, one Italian teacher that I had at language school I attended in southern Tuscany explained that they have so many ancient monuments that they have more or less given up guarding many of them; in fact, she said, that when they did that it led to less pilfering rather than more, though I'm not altogether sure how they would tell!
Good choice to eat in by the sound of it - lovely for the bambini to be able to run around together and lovely for you too!
Meredith, one Italian teacher that I had at language school I attended in southern Tuscany explained that they have so many ancient monuments that they have more or less given up guarding many of them; in fact, she said, that when they did that it led to less pilfering rather than more, though I'm not altogether sure how they would tell!
Good choice to eat in by the sound of it - lovely for the bambini to be able to run around together and lovely for you too!
Jul 5th, 2017, 02:00 PM
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Annhig - so interesting about the ancient monuments... reverse psychology at its finest!
Brubenow - glad you are enjoying this! I never realize how long-winded I am until I see my thoughts in looooooong written form. Thanks for sticking around. Speaking of long...
Day 9
Today it was time to leave Tuscany (sad face) and venture on to our final destination: Venice! We checked out of Il Borghetto around 9 a.m. and hit the highway. Other than one brief, accidental detour somewhere near Florence (where we took the wrong exit, oops), it was smooth sailing.
Our rental car had a GPS system in it, which was nice – but we were also navigating with Google Maps on my phone as a backup. Very glad about that, because our car GPS was totally confused on the autostrada between Florence and Bologna. So there seem to be two different routes on this stretch of A1 – a scenic route and a more direct route, which includes a series of long tunnels carved through the mountains. We took the direct route, but our car GPS really had no idea where we were and didn’t even show us as being on a road at all. I don’t think this particular stretch of road is very new, is it? Very weird, especially since the GPS was totally reliable everywhere else on our trip. Google Maps knew exactly where we were the whole time.
Anyway, we had talked about stopping for lunch somewhere between Florence and Venice. I had even posted a question here on Fodors about it, thinking that we might pop into Bologna or something. But several people recommended just stopping at an Autogrill, so that was our plan. However, we stopped at an Autogrill somewhere along the way, and it was JAM PACKED with people. Even the line just to get an espresso must have been 20 people deep. So we ended up just using the restroom, getting espresso from a machine, and eating some snacks I already had in the car rather than stopping for lunch. This was OK for all of us, as we really just wanted to get to Venice and be done with driving. Also, I’m so glad we hadn’t made plans around going to Bologna, because the traffic from the highway into the city was insane! We were very happy to pass all of that by.
Including stops and our quick detour near Florence, the total drive from San Gimignano to Venice took about four hours.
Upon arriving in Venice, we immediately dropped the rental car off right by Piazzale Roma. Here’s a tip about returning a car at Piazzale Roma: the signs all tell you to pull into the parking garage. But don’t pull into the garage if you don’t want to pay the parking fee! I can’t recall exactly what the fee would have been, but it was hefty – I want to say close to €30. So instead of pulling into the garage, we parked right in front of the Budget/Avis office, which is literally right next to the parking garage. The guy in the office told us to pull into the garage, and Ryan simply said no, he was going to leave the car in the spot out front where we parked. (Prior to the trip, Ryan had heard about this potentially happening, so he was prepared with how to handle it.) The guy pretty much shrugged and went about his business without challenging us about it. Were we jerks to do that, or was this guy trying to pull one over on us? I don’t know – but that parking fee seems ridiculous. It would only make sense to me if we were dropping off after hours or something… Anyway, we also handed our two booster seats to the guy and told him to keep them, since we didn’t want to be bothered with getting them back home. (So there – maybe that absolves us from not paying the parking fee!)
Now – on to the canals!! We immediately went and bought ourselves 48-hour vaporetto passes for Ryan at me, at €30 each. R rode for free because he’s under 6, while T got the Rolling Venice discount card, which is available for people between age 6 and 29. This discount card gets you an extra day on the vaporetto as well as discounts to some sites, I believe. We didn’t use it for any of that, but we stilled saved a few euros just by buying the card instead of the regular vaporetto pass.
An aside about our time in Venice: we did not go to a single museum or church during this part of our trip. We didn’t do anything that required an entry fee, and we voluntarily skipped almost all of the major sites. At this point of the trip, all we wanted to do was wander and explore, not have to wait in lines or have turf battles with other tourists (and there were a LOT of other tourists!). I’m so glad we went into Venice with the mindset of having no specific must-dos. It made for the perfect ending of our trip.
Anyway, with vaporetto tickets in hand, we hopped on Line #2 (the faster route down the Grand Canal) – WOW! That first view of the Grand Canal takes your breath away. Honestly, I had never felt a strong desire to go to Venice before. We chose it for this trip mostly because R loves boats so much and we knew he’d get a kick out of it. (Plus, logistically, we could fly direct home from Venice.) But I’m so so glad we went – Venice is like no other place and absolutely deserves a visit from any traveler.
We got off the vaporetto at the Rialto Bridge and navigated our way through the alleys and over the bridges to our apartment:
https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/10602727
We LOVED this apartment!! It was HUGE, very comfortable, and had all of the amenities we wanted (A/C, washer/dryer), etc. There was also a view out of the bedroom windows of a small canal. The only potential downside is that it’s up three flights of stairs, but we did not care about that at all. Also, the location was perfection for us – it’s in Castello, very close to Campo Santa Maria Formosa. I had asked on another thread about where to stay with kids, and several people recommended Campo Santa Maria Formosa. How right they were!! Our apartment was a one-minute walk to Santa Maria Formosa, less than 5 minutes to the Rialto Bridge, and less than 10 minutes to Piazza San Marco – super convenient, and yet it never felt touristy at all. There’s a COOP grocery store right around the corner, as well as plenty of restaurants that also never felt touristy. I HIGHLY recommend this apartment and its fabulous location!
So once we were settled into the apartment, we set out wandering. We never had a proper lunch, so we were in need of a good snack. And weirdly enough, we chose Amsterdam-style French fries at a place called the Queen’s Chips. Soooooo good! (Sometimes after eating delicious Italian food for days on end, you just need to switch it up and have some French fries.) We chose curry ketchup and tzatziki sauce for our dips. Totally hit the spot.
Then we just aimlessly wandered some more and eventually ended up at a vaporetto stop. Since we had unlimited use with our tickets, we knew we wanted to use the vaporetto as part of our exploration. We got on Line #1 and rode all the way to Lido (without getting off) and then back to Piazza San Marco. We managed to get some seats outside at the back of the boat, and we all loved just sitting back and taking it all in, with the wind whipping through our hair and the sun beginning to descend. After getting off the vaporetto, we walked through Piazza San Marco and took a look at the beautiful facades all around. We made a game out of spotting winged lions, and of course, this area is pretty much the mother lode of winged lions.
Then, back to our apartment to freshen up for dinner. Tonight, we headed over to a restaurant very close to our apartment, called Ostaria al Milion. Yum! We sat right on a tiny little square and enjoyed our food al fresco: a delicious salmon appetizer for all of us, grilled prawns for me, veal for Ryan, pasta Bolognese for R (the predictable one), and spaghetti with mussels for T (the adventurous one). All delicious! For dessert, we wandered on a little bit more, in the direction of the Rialto Bridge I think, and stumbled upon a gelato/crepe place. I simply cannot resist a crepe – even when in the vicinity of gelato – so I had a Nutella crepe while everyone else got gelato. So full and happy!
Brubenow - glad you are enjoying this! I never realize how long-winded I am until I see my thoughts in looooooong written form. Thanks for sticking around.
Speaking of long...Day 9
Today it was time to leave Tuscany (sad face) and venture on to our final destination: Venice! We checked out of Il Borghetto around 9 a.m. and hit the highway. Other than one brief, accidental detour somewhere near Florence (where we took the wrong exit, oops), it was smooth sailing.
Our rental car had a GPS system in it, which was nice – but we were also navigating with Google Maps on my phone as a backup. Very glad about that, because our car GPS was totally confused on the autostrada between Florence and Bologna. So there seem to be two different routes on this stretch of A1 – a scenic route and a more direct route, which includes a series of long tunnels carved through the mountains. We took the direct route, but our car GPS really had no idea where we were and didn’t even show us as being on a road at all. I don’t think this particular stretch of road is very new, is it? Very weird, especially since the GPS was totally reliable everywhere else on our trip. Google Maps knew exactly where we were the whole time.
Anyway, we had talked about stopping for lunch somewhere between Florence and Venice. I had even posted a question here on Fodors about it, thinking that we might pop into Bologna or something. But several people recommended just stopping at an Autogrill, so that was our plan. However, we stopped at an Autogrill somewhere along the way, and it was JAM PACKED with people. Even the line just to get an espresso must have been 20 people deep. So we ended up just using the restroom, getting espresso from a machine, and eating some snacks I already had in the car rather than stopping for lunch. This was OK for all of us, as we really just wanted to get to Venice and be done with driving. Also, I’m so glad we hadn’t made plans around going to Bologna, because the traffic from the highway into the city was insane! We were very happy to pass all of that by.
Including stops and our quick detour near Florence, the total drive from San Gimignano to Venice took about four hours.
Upon arriving in Venice, we immediately dropped the rental car off right by Piazzale Roma. Here’s a tip about returning a car at Piazzale Roma: the signs all tell you to pull into the parking garage. But don’t pull into the garage if you don’t want to pay the parking fee! I can’t recall exactly what the fee would have been, but it was hefty – I want to say close to €30. So instead of pulling into the garage, we parked right in front of the Budget/Avis office, which is literally right next to the parking garage. The guy in the office told us to pull into the garage, and Ryan simply said no, he was going to leave the car in the spot out front where we parked. (Prior to the trip, Ryan had heard about this potentially happening, so he was prepared with how to handle it.) The guy pretty much shrugged and went about his business without challenging us about it. Were we jerks to do that, or was this guy trying to pull one over on us? I don’t know – but that parking fee seems ridiculous. It would only make sense to me if we were dropping off after hours or something… Anyway, we also handed our two booster seats to the guy and told him to keep them, since we didn’t want to be bothered with getting them back home. (So there – maybe that absolves us from not paying the parking fee!)
Now – on to the canals!! We immediately went and bought ourselves 48-hour vaporetto passes for Ryan at me, at €30 each. R rode for free because he’s under 6, while T got the Rolling Venice discount card, which is available for people between age 6 and 29. This discount card gets you an extra day on the vaporetto as well as discounts to some sites, I believe. We didn’t use it for any of that, but we stilled saved a few euros just by buying the card instead of the regular vaporetto pass.
An aside about our time in Venice: we did not go to a single museum or church during this part of our trip. We didn’t do anything that required an entry fee, and we voluntarily skipped almost all of the major sites. At this point of the trip, all we wanted to do was wander and explore, not have to wait in lines or have turf battles with other tourists (and there were a LOT of other tourists!). I’m so glad we went into Venice with the mindset of having no specific must-dos. It made for the perfect ending of our trip.
Anyway, with vaporetto tickets in hand, we hopped on Line #2 (the faster route down the Grand Canal) – WOW! That first view of the Grand Canal takes your breath away. Honestly, I had never felt a strong desire to go to Venice before. We chose it for this trip mostly because R loves boats so much and we knew he’d get a kick out of it. (Plus, logistically, we could fly direct home from Venice.) But I’m so so glad we went – Venice is like no other place and absolutely deserves a visit from any traveler.
We got off the vaporetto at the Rialto Bridge and navigated our way through the alleys and over the bridges to our apartment:
https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/10602727
We LOVED this apartment!! It was HUGE, very comfortable, and had all of the amenities we wanted (A/C, washer/dryer), etc. There was also a view out of the bedroom windows of a small canal. The only potential downside is that it’s up three flights of stairs, but we did not care about that at all. Also, the location was perfection for us – it’s in Castello, very close to Campo Santa Maria Formosa. I had asked on another thread about where to stay with kids, and several people recommended Campo Santa Maria Formosa. How right they were!! Our apartment was a one-minute walk to Santa Maria Formosa, less than 5 minutes to the Rialto Bridge, and less than 10 minutes to Piazza San Marco – super convenient, and yet it never felt touristy at all. There’s a COOP grocery store right around the corner, as well as plenty of restaurants that also never felt touristy. I HIGHLY recommend this apartment and its fabulous location!
So once we were settled into the apartment, we set out wandering. We never had a proper lunch, so we were in need of a good snack. And weirdly enough, we chose Amsterdam-style French fries at a place called the Queen’s Chips. Soooooo good! (Sometimes after eating delicious Italian food for days on end, you just need to switch it up and have some French fries.) We chose curry ketchup and tzatziki sauce for our dips. Totally hit the spot.
Then we just aimlessly wandered some more and eventually ended up at a vaporetto stop. Since we had unlimited use with our tickets, we knew we wanted to use the vaporetto as part of our exploration. We got on Line #1 and rode all the way to Lido (without getting off) and then back to Piazza San Marco. We managed to get some seats outside at the back of the boat, and we all loved just sitting back and taking it all in, with the wind whipping through our hair and the sun beginning to descend. After getting off the vaporetto, we walked through Piazza San Marco and took a look at the beautiful facades all around. We made a game out of spotting winged lions, and of course, this area is pretty much the mother lode of winged lions.
Then, back to our apartment to freshen up for dinner. Tonight, we headed over to a restaurant very close to our apartment, called Ostaria al Milion. Yum! We sat right on a tiny little square and enjoyed our food al fresco: a delicious salmon appetizer for all of us, grilled prawns for me, veal for Ryan, pasta Bolognese for R (the predictable one), and spaghetti with mussels for T (the adventurous one). All delicious! For dessert, we wandered on a little bit more, in the direction of the Rialto Bridge I think, and stumbled upon a gelato/crepe place. I simply cannot resist a crepe – even when in the vicinity of gelato – so I had a Nutella crepe while everyone else got gelato. So full and happy!
Jul 6th, 2017, 06:28 AM
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Love your report. We took our kids to Rome when they were young. They still remember it and talk about it.
I'd encourage you to make little photo books for them both. You can go low-tech and order some actual pictures you slide into a cheap book, or stop by shutterfly, mixbook etc. and get digital ones. Especially my youngest, forgot some of it even with the pix, but it helped.
I'd encourage you to make little photo books for them both. You can go low-tech and order some actual pictures you slide into a cheap book, or stop by shutterfly, mixbook etc. and get digital ones. Especially my youngest, forgot some of it even with the pix, but it helped.
Jul 10th, 2017, 05:00 PM
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Day 10
Spoiler alert! I can sum up today’s activities pretty quickly for you: walk some, eat some, walk more, eat more. Sprinkle in a few adult beverages throughout. My kind of day!
To be more specific, we started the day by wandering through Castello towards the north side of Venice. Along the way, we wandered through some small streets and found a small bakery for pastries. We enjoyed our sweet treats while sitting along the promenade that looks over the lagoon toward the cemetery. We then wandered around this area a little bit more, then eventually decided to hop onto a vaporetto to the Jewish Ghetto.
We got off at the Guglie stop and proceeded to wander mostly aimlessly through the Jewish Ghetto and Canneregio. I couldn’t tell you exactly where we went or what we saw, but suffice it to say that we loved it. Canneregio was far quieter than other parts of Venice that we had visited thus far. It felt more like a living neighborhood, with laundry hanging from windows all over the place and little old ladies walking around.
We stopped for lunch at a place along Calle Ghetto Vecchio called Majer. This was a little café that had wonderful pre-made pizzas (or maybe they were more like flatbreads), as well as salads and a bunch of other yummy looking things. We had a few different slices of pizza. One had potatoes and sausage on it. I’ve never had pizza with potatoes on it – declious!
After we finished lunch and wandered a little more, we eventually made our way back home to relax for a little bit.
Then, later in the afternoon, we went to a place called Ostaria Al Ponte for cicchetti. So good! We got an assortment of seafood plates and a few other un-intimidating things like a slice of bread with a piece of prosciutto on it for R. T was a trooper, as always, and tried everything including octopus. She wasn’t a fan, but I don’t know many 7-year-olds who would even give it a try. We also had some sort of rice ball that the kids both enjoyed. We toasted with our yummy drinks (wine for Ryan, aperol spritz for me, and Sprite for the kids) and ate like locals!
We needed some non-eating time, so we decided to walk back through Piazza San Marco again and take a look at the Bridge of Sighs. After we had sufficiently walked off the cicchetti, it was time to find a spot for dinner! Unfortunately for us, though, our restaurant choice was a dud. I didn’t bother writing down the name, but it was off of Campo Santa Formosa on the side closer to Piazza San Marco. Funny how every we went on the side of Campo Santa Formosa away from Piazza San Marco was wonderful and felt non-touristy – but we tried one place a bit closer to the tourist center, and it was overpriced with bad food. Oh well. At least we had eaten very well all day long!
Spoiler alert! I can sum up today’s activities pretty quickly for you: walk some, eat some, walk more, eat more. Sprinkle in a few adult beverages throughout. My kind of day!
To be more specific, we started the day by wandering through Castello towards the north side of Venice. Along the way, we wandered through some small streets and found a small bakery for pastries. We enjoyed our sweet treats while sitting along the promenade that looks over the lagoon toward the cemetery. We then wandered around this area a little bit more, then eventually decided to hop onto a vaporetto to the Jewish Ghetto.
We got off at the Guglie stop and proceeded to wander mostly aimlessly through the Jewish Ghetto and Canneregio. I couldn’t tell you exactly where we went or what we saw, but suffice it to say that we loved it. Canneregio was far quieter than other parts of Venice that we had visited thus far. It felt more like a living neighborhood, with laundry hanging from windows all over the place and little old ladies walking around.
We stopped for lunch at a place along Calle Ghetto Vecchio called Majer. This was a little café that had wonderful pre-made pizzas (or maybe they were more like flatbreads), as well as salads and a bunch of other yummy looking things. We had a few different slices of pizza. One had potatoes and sausage on it. I’ve never had pizza with potatoes on it – declious!
After we finished lunch and wandered a little more, we eventually made our way back home to relax for a little bit.
Then, later in the afternoon, we went to a place called Ostaria Al Ponte for cicchetti. So good! We got an assortment of seafood plates and a few other un-intimidating things like a slice of bread with a piece of prosciutto on it for R. T was a trooper, as always, and tried everything including octopus. She wasn’t a fan, but I don’t know many 7-year-olds who would even give it a try. We also had some sort of rice ball that the kids both enjoyed. We toasted with our yummy drinks (wine for Ryan, aperol spritz for me, and Sprite for the kids) and ate like locals!
We needed some non-eating time, so we decided to walk back through Piazza San Marco again and take a look at the Bridge of Sighs. After we had sufficiently walked off the cicchetti, it was time to find a spot for dinner! Unfortunately for us, though, our restaurant choice was a dud. I didn’t bother writing down the name, but it was off of Campo Santa Formosa on the side closer to Piazza San Marco. Funny how every we went on the side of Campo Santa Formosa away from Piazza San Marco was wonderful and felt non-touristy – but we tried one place a bit closer to the tourist center, and it was overpriced with bad food. Oh well. At least we had eaten very well all day long!
Jul 12th, 2017, 05:27 PM
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Day 11
Oh no, it’s our last full day! Today was much like yesterday, with lots of random wandering. We started off by checking out the Rialto Bridge and then walked through San Polo all the way over to the Grand Canal almost near the train station. Then we got on the vaporetto for one last, long ride down the Grand Canal.
We got off at Piazza San Marco and wandered back up towards our apartment, in search of lunch. We landed at a place in Castello called Ostaria alla Staffa. Oh my, this was our FAVORITE restaurant in Venice! Everything we ate was out of this world – grilled prawns and scallops for Ryan, duck pappardelle for me, and ragu for the kids. It was so, so good, and the service was outstanding. This is a small place, so I think we were lucky to get a table. We loved this restaurant so much that we tried to get a reservation to come back for dinner that night, but they were fully booked already.
Then we headed home to relax for a little bit and get ready for our last special activity in Italy… We had thought we would do a gondola ride, because obviously you just have to do that in Venice. But, when we were wandering around up in Cannaregio the previous day, we happened to see a plain gondola steered by a woman who was giving lessons - the website www.rowvenice.com was written on the side of the boat, so of course we had to look it up.
Turns out that Row Venice is an organization of women in Venice who row and give lessons. They actually use a boat called a batellina coda di gambero, which is a little different than a gondola, but it’s quite similar and a little better-suited for first-time rowers, I believe. The price for the four of us was €140 for 90 minutes. I think this was actually more expensive than a regular gondola ride would have been, but the experience was so much richer! (The cost is a lot less than that for two or three people.) We made our way back to Canneregio where their tours start and found Caroline, our wonderful guide. She gave us a tutorial on the rowing method, and off we went! We all took several turns rowing – T and R both LOVED it! T, especially, was really into it. Caroline kept saying how impressed she was to see a 7-year-old with such interest in it. We all got to steer our way through the quiet Canneregio canals, and then we also got a chance to try it out in the open lagoon. It was a little bit windy that day, so the rowing was WAY HARDER out on the lagoon!
I would HIGHLY recommend this activity. If nothing else, it was awesome to explore the quiet canals – it was just us and a few local boats that occasionally passed by, which we found so much better than the gondola traffic jams you see elsewhere in Venice.
After conquering the canals, we headed back to our side of town for our last dinner. Earlier in the day at the lunch restaurant that we loved, we asked the owner to recommend another restaurant similar in quality to his, since we couldn’t get reservations with him. He recommended Osteria da Alberto, so that’s where we went. Another wonderful find! The food was, again, just delicious. Ryan had a steak, T had gnocchi, R had ragu, and I cannot remember what I had… I’ve managed to remember just about every meal from this trip with very few written notes, but this one escapes me! I do know that I loved it, though. After dinner, obviously we had to go get our very last gelato… So good!
Then, back to the apartment to pack up and get ourselves packed up for departure in the morning.
Day 12
Nothing much to say here, except we were out of our apartment by 7 a.m. and caught the Alilaguna from the Rialto Bridge over to the airport. The full trip was about an hour. Everything at the airport was uneventful as it should be, as was the flight home. We landed in Atlanta and walked into our house before 5 p.m. I think we were all passed out asleep by 6:30!
Final Notes
A quick note about wine, which I don’t think I mentioned already… Ryan and I ordered the house wine at every single place we ate, for both lunch and dinner, every single day. Without fail, every single house wine was delicious and cost far less than the kids’ one can of Fanta or Sprite. God, I love Italy.
So, to sum up, everything was beyond my expectations for awesomeness. Our kids were amazing the whole time, and I’m so proud of them! (Just to confirm that no kid is perfect, though, we definitely had more than a few days of post-trip crankiness, fussiness, and gelato withdrawal.)
I simply couldn’t have asked for a better trip for all of us. Thank you all for following along!
Until next time (when we’ve recouped our frequent flier miles and can do this again)…
Meredith
Oh no, it’s our last full day! Today was much like yesterday, with lots of random wandering. We started off by checking out the Rialto Bridge and then walked through San Polo all the way over to the Grand Canal almost near the train station. Then we got on the vaporetto for one last, long ride down the Grand Canal.
We got off at Piazza San Marco and wandered back up towards our apartment, in search of lunch. We landed at a place in Castello called Ostaria alla Staffa. Oh my, this was our FAVORITE restaurant in Venice! Everything we ate was out of this world – grilled prawns and scallops for Ryan, duck pappardelle for me, and ragu for the kids. It was so, so good, and the service was outstanding. This is a small place, so I think we were lucky to get a table. We loved this restaurant so much that we tried to get a reservation to come back for dinner that night, but they were fully booked already.
Then we headed home to relax for a little bit and get ready for our last special activity in Italy… We had thought we would do a gondola ride, because obviously you just have to do that in Venice. But, when we were wandering around up in Cannaregio the previous day, we happened to see a plain gondola steered by a woman who was giving lessons - the website www.rowvenice.com was written on the side of the boat, so of course we had to look it up.
Turns out that Row Venice is an organization of women in Venice who row and give lessons. They actually use a boat called a batellina coda di gambero, which is a little different than a gondola, but it’s quite similar and a little better-suited for first-time rowers, I believe. The price for the four of us was €140 for 90 minutes. I think this was actually more expensive than a regular gondola ride would have been, but the experience was so much richer! (The cost is a lot less than that for two or three people.) We made our way back to Canneregio where their tours start and found Caroline, our wonderful guide. She gave us a tutorial on the rowing method, and off we went! We all took several turns rowing – T and R both LOVED it! T, especially, was really into it. Caroline kept saying how impressed she was to see a 7-year-old with such interest in it. We all got to steer our way through the quiet Canneregio canals, and then we also got a chance to try it out in the open lagoon. It was a little bit windy that day, so the rowing was WAY HARDER out on the lagoon!
I would HIGHLY recommend this activity. If nothing else, it was awesome to explore the quiet canals – it was just us and a few local boats that occasionally passed by, which we found so much better than the gondola traffic jams you see elsewhere in Venice.
After conquering the canals, we headed back to our side of town for our last dinner. Earlier in the day at the lunch restaurant that we loved, we asked the owner to recommend another restaurant similar in quality to his, since we couldn’t get reservations with him. He recommended Osteria da Alberto, so that’s where we went. Another wonderful find! The food was, again, just delicious. Ryan had a steak, T had gnocchi, R had ragu, and I cannot remember what I had… I’ve managed to remember just about every meal from this trip with very few written notes, but this one escapes me! I do know that I loved it, though. After dinner, obviously we had to go get our very last gelato… So good!
Then, back to the apartment to pack up and get ourselves packed up for departure in the morning.
Day 12
Nothing much to say here, except we were out of our apartment by 7 a.m. and caught the Alilaguna from the Rialto Bridge over to the airport. The full trip was about an hour. Everything at the airport was uneventful as it should be, as was the flight home. We landed in Atlanta and walked into our house before 5 p.m. I think we were all passed out asleep by 6:30!
Final Notes
A quick note about wine, which I don’t think I mentioned already… Ryan and I ordered the house wine at every single place we ate, for both lunch and dinner, every single day. Without fail, every single house wine was delicious and cost far less than the kids’ one can of Fanta or Sprite. God, I love Italy.
So, to sum up, everything was beyond my expectations for awesomeness. Our kids were amazing the whole time, and I’m so proud of them! (Just to confirm that no kid is perfect, though, we definitely had more than a few days of post-trip crankiness, fussiness, and gelato withdrawal.)
I simply couldn’t have asked for a better trip for all of us. Thank you all for following along!
Until next time (when we’ve recouped our frequent flier miles and can do this again)…
Meredith
