15 July
During our first full day in Venice, we started by going to the
Rialto market. This is basically a big
farmer’s
market (including lots of fresh fish, which we didn’t intend to buy
since we have no kitchen) located near the Rialto bridge. I thought it would be right next to the
bridge and very obvious, but instead we had to wander around for quite a while
and actually gave up before stumbling upon it.
The boys each got a giant slice of cold watermelon, which was kind of
fun.
Next, Finn wanted to go to the Museo di Storia Naturale (Museum
of Natural History), which was quite the most delightful science museum I’ve
ever been in. Each room had a theme, starting with an early era of life on
Earth and moving through time evolutionarily.
Like most things we have seen in Italy, it was beautifully done with
much attention to detail. Then, we were suddenly in a part of the museum about
Italian explorers, with weapons and stuffed animal heads on the wall, then science
collections individual Italians had kept in the 18th century, then a
very engaging computer-projection activity that we played with for quite a
while, quizzing each other. What an unexpected treasure—how many people go
to a science museum in Venice?
For lunch we had a picnic in the Giardini Papadopoli, right near
our hotel, with some of the food we bought at the market plus the remainder of
our Parma ham and Reggiano cheese. Then
we went out hunting for our Venice letterbox.
We found it in a remote little alley, completing our final letterbox
challenge of the trip. Then we journeyed
on to a seriously different little bookstore, Libreria Acqua Alta. This place
has piles of books in several gondolas inside the store, a staircase made of
encyclopedias, and…well, it was quite an interesting place. I found a mystery novel (in English) set in
Venice and also a kids’ novel set in Venice that I bought for the boys. A very interesting place.
For our second to last night in Italy, Lane decided it was high time
we went out for an Italian dinner on our own. We asked the boys if they’d
like us to take them out for pizza before we abandoned them in the hotel room,
but they requested that we return to Alfredino’s for more pasta! An easy request to honor. Our dinner was simply delightful, with
unexpected flavors of crab and gnocchi in one dish and a Venetian specialty of
creamed cod and polenta in the other.
Tiramisu for dessert (not my favorite, but it seems like if you’re
going to like it anywhere, it would be in Italy). What a lovely evening. We
even returned to the hotel to find it still standing and the children not attempting
to kill each other.
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