Far from the madding crowd

So glad we decided not to stay near St Mark's Square.

Our airbnb for the next 4 days.

Entrance into the apartment block, with just 2 apartments in this building.

Grocery run to the supermarket down the street.

Picture perfect. The streets of Cannaregio.

Pre-dinner drinks at Timon (not the one we had dinner at on the first night. There are 2 Timons, both on the same street) on their boat. This one specialises in meat. My first taste of Spritz, very refreshing!

Round one of cicchetti

That's where we were sitting just moments before, on the deck of the black boat.

One morning we took a slow stroll through the streets by the canals near us. It was really interesting for the kids to see how daily life takes place on water.

No one to fight with us for space...

but then no food and drinks either. Can you tell we just rolled out of bed? Still looking half 😴!

Fruits and veg are more expensive here as everything needs to be transported over.

Checking out breakfast options at the local forno.

Produce and goods being boat-ed in and delivered to the shops and restaurants early in the morning.

Not what we are used to seeing, DHL boats rather than trucks.

A water garage 

Down the back lanes 

Time to head home...

Venice

The City of love, will we fall in love with it or will we leave frustrated at having to fight our through hundreds of tourists? These two monkeys, especially Mia, were really looking forward to "living on water".

Our first vaperetto ride. From Troncetta, where our car was parked on the mainland, to Santa Lucia vaperetto stop, Venice's main railway station. 

One more short vaperetto ride and we were at Sant Alvise, a three minute walk to our airbnb.

Always time for just one photo while waiting for our water bus.

Away from the madness that is St Mark's. Our little santuary for the next three days... Cannaregio.

Dinner on our first night in Venice was at Al Timon, a newly opened restaurant in our neighbourhood which specialises in seafood.

Such a nice change from all the meaty pasta dishes we've been having. Incredibly fresh seafood. 

Still hungry after a full meal, we had to get some additional cicchetti (Venice's version of tapas) to satisfy a certain growing boy's tummy.

Over the next three days we alternated between playing tourists and living the life of locals (or at least as close to that as we could) in our cosy little neighbourhood.

Chinese tourists on the beach. Fully clothed walking on the sand 😱. Oh well. We hadn't really planned on coming out to Lido but since the first vaperetto which came by our stop was the one heading out here, we thought it would be nice to show the kids where we stayed the first time we came to Venice.

Along the Grand Canal

Rialto Bridge

The Bridge of Sighs in the Doge Palace

One of the prison cells in the palace

The obligatory photo at St Mark's Square.

This little one had a grand old time chasing the pigeons.

The new generation of gondoliers, too busy on their mobile phones to drum up business. He didn't even look up when we walked past.

Experiencing the sights, (and smells!), of Venice's canals.

Approaching Rialto Bridge

Only this little girl could have persuaded her father to say yes to a €70 gondola ride for 25 minutes! Was it was worth it? Well, it was fun to ride along the canals and get upclose to the houses in the water, but honestly I don't think we would have missed out on much if we hadn't done it. The money could probably have been better spent elsewhere but nonetheless, it was fun and both monkeys enjoyed the experience.

A morning in Murano. We arrived thinking that we could see some of Murano's glassmakers at work, just as we did on our last visit. So disappointed to find that most of the shops now no longer let visitors watch their artisans work their magic. They've now all become purely retail shops. 

In the end, we paid to watch a glass blowing show 😕

We walked in and out of one shop after another until we finally found her beloved "Shamu".

Back at St Mark's Square. So much more pleasant at night, no pigeons and a lot less tourists.

The Grand Canal at night. Truly mesmerising.

Shad turned a year older while we were here.

Birthday breakfast by the water

Goodbye Venice. We loved our time here.

Verona

Our final destination of the day was Verona. The main city centre was teeming with people when we got there. It was really the first time in Italy that we felt rather overwhelmed by other tourists. It really wasn't very pleasant walking shoulder to shoulder with strangers so we just had a quick look around and moved on. 

Juliet's balcony, fictional but yet still draws thousands of visitors each year.

Verona's Arena, this predates the Colosseum by almost 50 years. Nabucca, one of the operas playing in the summer opera festival this year, was being staged here that night. We did think, (all of one minute!) of buying tickets for this but we came to our senses. These 2 monkeys, sitting still for 3 hours, watching and listening to something they can't understand? Don't think that's going to happen! 

Ancient times taxi ride