Bridges in Venice

For kids who love steps and bridges, Venice is the perfect vacation spot. There aren't a lot of kids in Venice and very few people take their kids on vacation here. That being said, all of the locals seemed to LOVE kids. We were constantly given special treatment, extra attention, and the kids were constantly entertained.

 We heard from others how difficult it is to get around Venice. We didn't find that at all. The neighborhoods are all clearly marked and if you know the general layout - where the neighborhoods are in relation to each other - it's simple. Many of the tourist maps aren't well marked so we didn't even get one. By our second day, the kids could even navigate around.

 This was outside our hotel. Across the street waterway is the public bus boat stop. It takes awhile to change the way you think and explain things.

 Every bridge is different. For two year olds this means every bridge is equally exciting and new.

We also regularly stopped to watch boats and gondolas. Here you can see the gondolier is bent at the waist in order to pass under the bridge.

 What about the most famous bridge? The Rialto Bridge is a major tourist stop for everyone. Here it is viewed from our ride on the public boat.

 The middle of the Rialto bridge is lined on both sides with booths selling anything and everything to tourists. Unlike most tourist traps, the prices here were actually reasonable a couple of places. We had walked all over and decided what we would buy and what a good price would be based on the 100s of shops we had already passed. When we saw the small masks cheapest here, we were thrilled! They even sold us the mask sweet son dropped and broke at half price. 

This is the view from the top of the Rialto bridge. The sides of the bridge were so incredibly packed that it took more time to wait for a chance at this photo than to walk across the entire bridge in the middle section.