First full day in Venezia.  It was refreshing to wake up to a proper breakfast buffet.  (although coffee on the villa patio was tough to beat).  But the Principe did deliver.  And no moody warnings about refraining from taking in “overabundance”!  We were up, presentable, and down to breakfast by 9:00.  Our plans for the first full day in Venice were loose at best – we knew wanted to see St. Mark’s Square, but that was it.  Which provided for a wonderful day of meandering in the Queen of the Adriatic.

We walked back down to the train station and bought “water bus” tickets to cover the couple of days we would be there.  Caught our first bus the LONG way around the city, past the gigantic cruise ships, to the Piazza San Marco.  It was beautiful but PACKED with people.  And we confessed it was pretty sad that when we first pulled up, our collective first thought was, “look, that’s the same as the Italian tower at Epcot!”  Sigh….

Ellis and Georgia DESPERATELY wanted to feed the pigeons, filthy things (the pigeons, not E & G…).  The Italians, it turns out, despise the tourists doing this;  I supposed it cheapens the Piazza.  But we are TOURISTS, so we bought a package of butter biscuits and Ellis, Georgia, and LouAnn became pigeon perches while Jack  (“I don’t want those NASTY pigeons all over ME!”) and I walked around and made up our own West-Side-Story drama that involved Piazza-roving gangs of pigeons and seagulls.  For some reason we gave all the pigeons New Jersey accents.  The leader of the seagull gang was named Sonny.  There were occasional rumbles over butter biscuits, interspersed with urban dance numbers.

From there, we wound our way through the city, with no planned itinerary or route.  It was wonderful.  You can’t get lost in Venice.  If you run into water with no bridge nearby, turn and keep walking.  We had a delicious lunch at – guess! – a sidewalk cafe.  Our lack of an agenda-to-keep allowed us to stumble on to things.  We found an old church with an exhibition of antique musical instruments.  I nonchalantly led the kids to the church whose outside was used as the library in “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”, and lo and behold it was housing a Leonardo da Vinci exhibition; wonderful hands-on working models of many of his inventions.  What a body of work THAT guy produced.  Use ball bearings lately?  Or pulleys?  Or a bicycle?  Or a rotating bombarding cannon?  Or human-powered flying wings?  Thank Leo.  We also happened upon a beautiful courtyard with trees, a terrace, and a quiet cafe;  LouAnn and I sat and had a drink in the shade while the kids improvised a game of wall-ball with Georgia’s ever-present pink racquetball.

Our friend Lou Campbell had asked us to stop in at a Venetian mask shop called Ca’ Macama and say hello to an old friend of his.  Mid-afternoon, we suddenly found ourselves gazing in its windows.  Incredible!  Unfortunately, Lou’s friend was out of the country, but we had fun speaking with the woman there about their mask craft and we even left with a few souvenirs.

By then it was late afternoon, and for Father’s Day, LouAnn and the kids insisted I return to a small shop we’d seen the day before called “KissFish”.  It was here that I (plus G & E) had my first-ever – and last-ever – FISH PEDICURE.  For you uncultured masses, a FISH PEDICURE is a posh treatment whereby you dip your feet into a tank of tiny Turkish carp and they spend ten minutes chomping on you.  The feeling is hard to put in words…it feels…..LIKE DOZENS OF TINY FISH CHEWING ON YOUR FEET.  Surely I’m not the ONLY dad out there to receive a fish pedicure for Father’s Day; let me hear from you!

After a short rest in our air-conditioned rooms, we stepped 10 feet outside our hotel’s entrance to the café across the street and had a delightful meal at Gino’s Pasta & Pizza.  Highlights included:  the best and friendliest waiter we had in Italy, the kids’ first tastes of Limoncello, and the rescuing of a tiny cooked squid from my seafood risotto that LouAnn decided was too cute to eat – we promptly named him “Gino”.

I couldn’t have scripted a better Father’s Day….

Ellis arriving in our room as Peter Pan.

These old guys were WORKIN’ that boat.

Waiting for the water bus.

ON the water bus.

Piazza San Marco

The frenzy begins.

Doesn’t she look thrilled to be feeding one of God’s creatures?  She looks thrilled to me.

Ellis, the master.

You can almost HEAR the idea forming before it happens.

This is me explaining to the kids what a PAY PHONE is.  They were incredulous.

Her namesake!

Ball bearings da Vinci!

Leonardo’s bicycle!

We bought Ellis a book of da Vinci’s inventions, reproduced from his drawings in modern detail.

Georgia leading the way.

At the amazing Ca’ Macama….

….learning how the masks are made.

Jack’s fine choice.

We found a cafe and let the kids play “wall-ball” for a while.

The game in action.  From observation, I loosely surmised the rules to be as follows:  Player 1 throws the racquetball hard against a wall (of someone’s HOUSE, mind you).  Player 2 must catch the ball off the bounce.  If Player 2 fails to catch it, he/she must run and touch the wall before Player 1 retrieves the fugitive ball and beans the wall with it.  Although this often results in the flailing Player 2 getting pegged in the back by the ball he/she is trying to outpace to the wall. This beaning affects Player 2’s success, but also leaves a distinct bruise.  Player 1 beams with pride either way.  Player 3 – little sister – occasionally gets a turn and actually turns out to be the fastest of the three.  The game ends when the check comes for dad’s beer and mom is ready to move on.

Contemplating the “fish pedicure”…

Still not convinced.

Georgia’s ready!

Just another day at the spa for Ellis.

I finally succumb….

 

Georgia’s foot buffet.

Dinner at the wonderful Gino’s!

Georgia, SICK of Italian food:  Chicken wings and fries!

Gino!

Our fantastic waiter.

This is Georgia trying Limoncello for the first time.  Her assessment: “it tastes like hand sanitizer!”

Limoncello – n. – an Italian lemon liqueur mainly produced in Southern Italy, especially in the region around the Gulf of Naples, the Sorrentine Peninsula and the coast of Amalfi and islands of Procida, Ischia and Capri.  Tastes like lemon hand sanitizer.

Spiderman-climbing the alley walls.

Happy Father’s Day!