Venice Trip: Rialto Bridge

Venetian version of a public bus, a vaporetti. We walked to the Grand Canal and took a waterbus just like this one up to the Rialto Bridge, the oldest bridge to span the Grand Canal.

By the way, the waters around Venice are saltwater and this morning, at a corner where there was a lot of seaweed in the water, Micaela sniffed the air, wrinkled her nose and said, "Venice smells like Massachusetts! Like where Mimi and Deeda live."

The first bridge on this site was a pontoon one built in 1181.  It was replaced in 1255 by a wooden bridge that looked very similar to today's bridge, with rows of shops on either side of the bridge. The present stone bridge was completed in 1591.

Walking toward the bridge, I was distracted by this traffic jam in a side canal.

So much for a calm, romantic gondola ride.

Looking over the Grand Canal from Rialto Bridge

At one point, James asked us what the rules of traffic were for the canals. Did you have to ride up the right side of the canal? As we observed the boats making their way up and down, we couldn't figure out what the rules were.

Venice Trip: Leonardo da Vinci Exhibit

Our very Italian-looking hotel room

The hotel had a charming terrace with room for at 25 people to lounge around. The kids took full advantage while David was checking out.

We decided the da Vince exhibit was worth a look, so we walked back to San Barnabas.

Waiting for the exhibit to open, we watched as people and businesses from the neighborhood brought their garbage to the canal edge. Tuesday must be trash day. Soon enough, the garbage truck came by -- in this case, the little garbage barge with the mechanical arm.

Resting up a bit. David had a spill from James' ripstick Sunday morning and his wrist has been bothering him ever since. Here in Venice, he has been constantly picking Rebecca up and putting her on his shoulders and it seems to be taking a toll on his sore wrist. We have been monitoring the swelling and color change with concern, but it doesn't stop Becca from requesting shoulder rides, because, as she puts it as we walk around, "But Dad, I am so smaller."

Angelic Emilie with Leonardo's wings

Inside "Leonardo da Vinci Machines Museum" exhibit which presents over 50 models entirely reproduced from da Vinci's notebooks.  Many of the pieces were interactive. To overcome points of inertia and to increase momentum, he drew a series of flywheels, either equipped with wheels or provided with weights.

Da Vinci is often credited with drawing the first roller bearing around the year 1500.

There were many war machines, including ships. A sickle is mounted on a wooden pole moved by a pinwheel and tears the sails of enemy ships with a 360-degree rotation.

There were several different pulley systems.

"A connecting rod is a mechanical member, placed between two pieces of a machine in order to transform reciprocating rectilinear motion into continuous rotary motion." Yikes. This exhibit was mindboggling. Looking around at the incredible variety of inventions, we were convinced da Vince had been a time traveler from the future. There was no other way to explain all this.

A perfectly functioning model of a bicycle.

Leonardo developed a machine for gliding flight that pilots can control by changing the center of gravity moving only the upper part of their body.

A flying machine with bird wings: a set of belts tie the pilot, supine, on a wooden surface. The pilot pushes the pedals with his feet, thus setting the wings in motion.

Floating skis. We recalled seeing a Mythbusters where Adam tried a similar invention to walk on water, but it didn't work well.

Machine gun

Horse sculpture designed after da Vinci's drawings

In this study, Leonardo shows how to lift heavy loads without any effort. In fact the weight to be lifted is equally distributed on the various pulleys. We had the exhibit all to ourselves the entire time.

Venice Trip: Wandering, Indiana Jones and Pizza

It was time to check in at our hotel and hunt down dinner. We walked and walked and walked, following Google Maps directions to the hotel David printed out back home. And we walked some more.

What many of the bridges look like in the more residential areas of Venice.

And we walked some more. Where was the hotel? After at least an hour and a half of wandering the streets, David called the hotel, got directions, and realized that Google had failed us miserably by at least 10 blocks. Where's your navi when you need it? We finally managed to find the lovely hotel, deposit our backpacks and it was time for dinner. And we didn't need to bring umbrellas. No rain after all.

Walking through the neighborhood of Campo San Barnaba, we turned a corner and came upon the Church of Saint Barnabas, at which point I whooped, "Aha! Found it!"

To prepare the kids a bit for our trip here, we did what we usually do, which is watch a movie that was filmed in the city we would be visiting. We watched Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, but since this trip came up rather quickly, I didn't map out places to see from the movie, and really, there is a scene at a library and a chase in a canal and that was it for Venice. I made a mental note that the library Indiana visits and under which he find catacombs was actually a church with big green doors. (Research I did after the trip confirmed that filming was done in front of the 14th century Church of Saint Barnabas.)

Emilie posing on the sewer cover through which Indy makes his escape, finding himself in the middle of a crowded café. Indy looks around at the postcard-perfect setting, smiles, and says, "Ah, Venice!"

The church was hosting a Leonardo da Vinci exhibit.

Ah, dinner! Pizza, spaghetti carbonara and chicken nuggets.

Chefs don't slice pizza for you in Europe. James couldn't wait to cut it up.

Gelato on the way home was a must

A fantastic, but closed, gift shop featured wood cut-outs of the city. If I couldn't buy one, I would at least take some pictures.

Ah, gelato!

Venice Trip: Peggy Guggenheim Collection

All around the city, there were men selling Chicki Chickis, little moldable balls of something. James couldn't resist any longer and bought one.  The next morning, he informed me that the chicki chickis were stuffed with flour.  "Do you know how I know this?" he asked.  He went on to tell us how his burst open in his hotel room upstairs and he ended up with flour all over his shirt and pants.

Google "activities for kids in Venice" and you'll be sure to see the suggestion "Visit the Peggy Guggenheim Collection." One website said the museum was "a fabulous collection of surrealist modern art-- perhaps the most interesting sort of art for young minds, with fantastical creatures and landscapes and animals flying through the sky. Outside is a lovely sculpture garden, where kids can run around." We still had a few hours until dinner (it felt much later since we had gotten such an early start this morning) and decided to seek out this museum.

Peggy Guggenheim, an American art collector, was the daughter of Benjamin Guggenheim, who went down with the Titanic and the niece of Solomon R. Guggenheim, founder of The Guggenheim Museum in New York City. Her home in Venice and extensive art collection became a museum after her death in 1979.

I believe Becca could have stood in front of this digital waterfall in the entryway all day if we had let her. She was completely transfixed. We had to drag her away from it when we first arrived and again when it was time for us to leave.

Inside the main building, we saw works by Chagall, Picasso, Dalí, Magritte, and Pollock, but it was the sculpture garden that the kids liked best. Becca and Em posing on a throne sculpture. We assumed that was OK as everyone was taking turns sitting on it.

This long, thin scupture looked to me like a big boot. Only after passing it several times did Dave suddenly exclaim, "Oh, I get it! It's a woman!"

The Wish Tree, an olive tree given to Peggy from Yoko Ono. People write a wish on a little piece of paper and either hang the wishes on the tree, or stuff them among the branches. One scrap of paper lying on the ground, unfolded, displayed a very naughty wish indeed. Finding that particular note was one of the highlights of Micaela and James' visit.

A sculpture that reminded everyone of when Han Solo is frozen at the end of The Empire Strikes Back.

The other highlight of Micaela and James' visit to the museum. This is the 1948 bronze "The Angel of the City" by Marino Marini. Rumor has it that the horse rider originally had a screw-in demountable phallus so that it could be removed in order to avoid offending passing VIPs. So many of the bronze private bits were stolen, that the current member has been welded to the Angel's body. As you can imagine, the gift shop was loaded with all sorts of "The Angel of the City" souvenirs.

Our favorite piece at the museum, an untitled work by Anish Kapoor. At first, you gaze into the double concave circles of polished marble and see your reflection upside down.

But if you position yourself properly in front of it, a 3-D upright image pops out. 

Self-portrait

I was really hoping there would be a small reproduction of this in the gift shop, but alas, there was not. Maybe it's a good thing. I felt like Harry Potter in front of the Mirror of Erised. I didn't want to leave, it was so fascinating.

Another lion sculpture

At the end of our visit, a very tired Emilie looked like another work of art.