Venice
 

Will be spending a day in Venice in June with my 14 year old son...besides gondala rides....what do you guys recommend seeing, doing, eating there. any suggestions would be amazing!!!

Thanks,

Blake

Go to the fish market.

The Arsenale.

Ferry to Lido or Torcello.

Climb the bell tower on Piazza San Marco.

Gondolas are very expensive and IMHO would be kind of bring for a ten boy. I would use the vaporetto instead - and do a lot of exploring on foot. Do the Doge's Palace - seeing where the prisoners were kept in the dungeons for painless history.

Instead of a gondola you can ride the traghetti for almost nothing:

http://europeforvisitors.com/venice/.../traghetto.htm

Murano, Burano, Torcello

Besides the Big 3 islands, there's San Michele, the cemetery island closest to Venice, which I love. If your son would be interested, there have been hardly any tourists there on the 2 occasions I've visited. The same vaporetti that go to Murano also go to San Michele from Fondamente Nove.

http://www.nytimes.com/1993/05/16/tr...-the-dead.html

With only one day I would not spend time going out to the islands. There's only time for one or the other but not both unfortunately.

If I only had one day I would spend it walking the back alleys and occasionally pop into the tourist attractions, but majority of the time should be spent roaming about aimlessly. You can't get lost. Just absorb the atmosphere off the beaten path.

Is there anything in particular that your son is into? Does he play video games? I know at least one of the Assasins Creed games takes place in Venice. I know when I was 14 if I had played a video game it would have made going there way cooler - and he might come up with some places he wants to see.

Naval museum might be of interest.

I agree that the traghetto might be a better idea than a gondola, especially if you have so little time.

If you have only one day, a vaporetto ride up the Grand Canal is a must; most guide books have a full page which identifies all the buildings you'll pass. You should get off at San Marco, to see the square. You may not have time to go into the basilica, if there's a long line. There may also be a long line at the bell tower; if not, it doesn't take long to go to the top, where there's a great view of the city.

When I took my sister and her family to Venice for a day, we went to the Ca' Rezzonico, which is on the opposite side of the Grand Canal, which gave us the opportunity to take a traghetto. My nephew, who was about the same age as your son, enjoyed the Ca' Rezzonico, which preserves some of the splendid rooms of a grand Venetian palazzo, as well as having some exhibits.

The rest of the time we wandered around off the beaten track, sitting in squares and eating gelato and watching the everyday life on the canals, including a moving-van boat packing up a family's house.

Restaurants in central Venice tend to be overpriced and mediocre. There are some good ones, but eating at any of them will eat up a lot of your day. There's a self-service cafeteria near St. Mark's Square, but I couldn't tell you exactly where it is. I would suggest picking up sandwiches or pizza by the slice (al taglio) to save time.

Lots of things to do!
Here http://mariangelagallo.it you will find everything you need: itineraries, restaurants, suggestions, events, curiosities, also a post with activities to do with a teenager.
Venice is my city, I hope you can find any good advice for your trip, buon viaggio!

contrary to what some of the others have said, i think that your son might enjoy the doge's palace, and you should definitely see the Basilica - you can book on line for your "slot" which means that you don't waste time standing around in queues. Here's the website for booking your visit:

http://www.venetoinside.com/en/attra...arks-basilica/

[it's free to enter. the €2 is a booking fee]

the Secret Itineraries' Tour of the Doge's Palace takes just over an hour and includes access to the dungeons - very attractive to a 10 year old, I'd have thought. Here's the link:

http://palazzoducale.visitmuve.it/en...etitineraries/

of course take a vaporetto ride down the Grand canal and perhaps over to the isola di san giorgio to climb the tower there - it's cheaper than the one in the piazza san marco and the queues are far shorter. you can then get another vaporetto over to the Zattere for an ice-cream in the sun, and then wander back through the tiny streets of the Dorsoduro, Santa Croce and San polo to soak up the atmosphere and see the many unique features of Venice.

IMO it's important to have some sort of plan - so that the day doesn't just slip through your fingers without your seeing anything in particular; that might be ok for adults but IME it'll lead to your 10 year old getting bored pretty quickly.

I totally agree with ann's last paragraph. The "wandering aimlessly" might work for some adults, but a 10-year-old will only see it as wandering aimlessly. Have a plan.