Venice Never Gets Old

     Venice is such a one of a kind place, and we are lucky to live close enough for a day trip.  Last week we decided to hit up a few places and call it "school."  We started off with a train ride, then trekked to the DaVinci Museum.  This place is amazing!  The kids tolerated the downstairs as we walked past lots of interesting and useful information about DaVinci's inventions (I'm a little bitter that I didn't get to enjoy this area very much, haha).  Upstairs houses replicas of many of his inventions, and the whole area is hands-on.  So the kids got to launch a catapult, wind cannons, see the many different steps toward inventing ball bearings, and use several failed attempts at flying machines.  How cool for the kids to see that a genius inventor failed many times over, but was still incredibly successful!

     Next stop, Libreria Acqua Alta.  This cramped bookstore is world famous, I actually read about it in an article from Literary Hub.  It is famous for all its nooks and crannies being filled with books, and their clever solutions to regularly being flooded.  A gondola, filled to the brim with books, is in the center of the store, and would float in case of a flood.  Underneath another shelf sits a clawfoot bathtub, and the books that have been damaged over the years make a cute backdrop in an alley way, and they cleverly made a starcase of books out back to climb up and see into the canal.  While the bookstore is tiny, it was a nice stop.  How could we not stop in at a world famous bookstore in our backyard.

     On our way back to the train station, we decided to walk through the Jewish quarter.  This side of Venice is much less busy, has some amazing food, and is also home to the last bridge without a railing.  I went on a kayaking tour of Venice last year, and the tour guide was so knowledgeable.  We passed under this bridge during the tour, and upon hearing that it is the last of it's kind I figured it was worth a stop.  Several hundred years ago none of these bridges had railings, and the story goes that before they had an official judiciary system, if a dispute could not be clearly resolved then the men would get on top of a large bridge and wrestle until one fell in.  I got a good chuckle out of the guys we were with re-enacting that one.

     We have been to Venice several times, with everyone who has come to visit, and several adventures on our own.  For me, it never gets old.  There's always a beautiful rooftop garden I haven't seen, or a delicious treat in one of the many cafe's.  My favorite thing is just to wander the back streets and alley ways.