Ruby in Venice

Before we went to Venice we read Daughter of Venice, which is a great book about a girl living in Venice in the 1500's, and has wonderful details about what it was like to be aristocratic and live in a palazzo. And, especially, about how being a girl limited your life (of course the heroine breaks the rules and has adventures). It was a great book, and we actually got to go to the palazzo the girl was supposed to live in, which was extremely interesting.

Here is what Ruby says about the journey to Venice:

"The City of Venice is an island. It used to be a country but then it became part of Italy in the 1800s. The city has no cars, only boats. The boats go through canals.

In Venice everything is old, there are no new buildings. A lot of the buildings have Venetian archways. Venetian archways usually have points at the top. The points have a curvy look. There are two kinds I have seen, one has a bump and one has no bump.

In Venice there are a lot of palazzos (fancy houses).

We went to Venice but Celeste and dada stayed home. First we went to the ferry building and got on a ferry called "Marco Polo". We slept in a cabin at the bottom of the ship. We realized that we had to wait 6 hours before a bus came to take us to the next town. But a nice lady gave us a ride in her car. We caught two trains and finally got to Venice.

We got out of the train and walked through a half glass room. We walked out and we saw the the grand canal. There were gondolas passing, and shops selling beautiful masks with feathers.

We went over an old bridge, and through many confusing alleys before we reached our hotel."

Here are some pictures from our trip:

Our cabin on the ferry

Eating at the restaurant on the ferry

Hooray! We're here!

Some of the mask stores are extremely fancy.

Taking the Traghetto to get across the Grand Canal where there is no bridge

A palazzo with the windows Ruby talked about above

The most amazing art store display we have ever seen!

This looked like the little square with the tiny buildings from the movie The Cat Returns.

We took a tour (only the two of us!) inside the workings of the famous clocktower, which tells the time on a 24 hour clock face - but ALSO tells the zodiac, the phase of the moon, and the month!

Ruby putting a message into a Bocca di Leone, a very special Venetian thing - but we won't tell you about it, you'll have to read Daughter of Venice to know about it...

Feeding pigeons in San Marco Square - they are very tame, and very eager for the food you can buy!

A lot of the buildings in Venice have this kind of red wash on them, and the wash wears away, making everything look wonderfully old - which of course it is!

This amazing palazzo had been made into an art museum. It cost $20 each to go inside, but we begged the lady just to let us go on the stairs for free, and she did. Phew! Even the stairs were gorgeous.

Another palazzo on the Grand Canal -all covered with amazing mosaics, which you can't see here. The little glass pieces that the pictures are made of flash in the sun when you get closer!

Ruby on the tiny balcony of our hotel room the last night we were there

This giant clamshell was one of two holy water fonts in a cathedral in Rijeka, the town at the top of Croatia where we caught the ferry home.

Maybe you can go to Venice someday too!