two backpacks and a diaper bag

Monday, April 23rd. Venice. Arthur had a good night sleep again! It was 5 hour stretch, followed by a 4-hour and 1.5-hour until 7:48am. Sean and I woke up feeling refreshed! I wish every night was like this.

We got ready and went downstairs for breakfast. Then we came back up again to put Arthur to sleep using the sling. We decided we wouldn’t bring the stroller at all today. There were too many bridges to cross, and with the cobblestones, narrow alleyways, and ridiculous amount of tourists, no stroller would be the best choice. But that means we would have to figure out how Arthur would take his naps.

To me, his position in the sling looked really weird. He usually falls asleep in a reclined position on the car seat or all stretched out in the stroller and bed or stretched out in my arms or upright position on my shoulder. In the sling, he was all scrunched up. I wondered if it was really comfortable for him. Nevertheless, he fell asleep. Sean wore the carrier so he could wear Arthur later.

We left the hotel and made our way to Piazza San Marco. I covered Arthur with the nursing cloth. When I stepped into the sun, Arthur moved slightly. The nursing cover was too thin to provide good cover from the sun. I wondered how long he would last in the sling.

10 minutes after we left the hotel, Arthur woke up. That wasn’t a good nap at all. I tried to put him back to sleep but he was more interested in the surroundings. So we placed him in the carrier with Sean and we continued our slow walk.

We almost reached Ponte Rialto when Arthur started crying. I carried him and tried to find a place to feed him. Nowhere to sit. We tried to put him to sleep in our arms. Not working.

We placed him in the sling and I tried to feed him while standing. It worked but he seemed uncomfortable. Five minutes later, he started crying. Sean took him out of the sling and he let out a big burp. We tried to put him to sleep again. No bueno.

We decided to just continue walking with him very much awake. We crossed over the Rialto Bridge and headed towards Piazza San Marco.

About 100 meters from there, Arthur was no longer amused. He wanted to sleep and he wanted us to know. We found a cul-de-sac of Venice alleyways. There was a set of stairs leading up to a door. The small courtyard was bright and clean, and it had enough shade for me to sit and feed Arthur to sleep.

He fought a little bit, but he finally fell asleep.

We waited for five minutes to let him sink into the world of dreams, then I shimmied him into the sling. His left arm was oddly placed but he didn’t seem to mind. With a little sway, he quietly slept in the sling.

We waited for another 10 minutes to make sure he was truly asleep. He was. So we continued our journey.

We finally got to Piazza San Marco. It was full with life. The restaurants on the square had their tables and chairs out under the sun. One restaurant even had a live band playing classical music. Some tourists were taking pictures with the Campanile and the Basilica. We were one of them. Others chatted with the stall vendors selling souvenirs. Others had a map out decided what to do, or maybe they were reading information about the square. Children chased after the many pigeons on the square; their parents chasing after them. This square was overwhelming with sight and sound. Good thing the air still smelled fresh and cool.

We walked around the square and headed towards the Basilica. The line was super long. We agreed we wouldn’t wait in that line. After reading about the Basilica, the Square, and the surrounding buildings on our Visit a City app, we walked towards the Campanile.

Arthur stirred from his sleep with a cry. We took him out of the sling. He was greeted with the same overwhelming sight and sound that we experienced earlier. He looked left and right and around. He rubbed his eyes, let out a yawn, shook his head, and buried his face in my chest. Sean called his name. He looked at Sean, studied Sean’s face, and displayed a huge smile before he buried his face again on my chest. This was a sign of him being in a good mood.

After entertaining him for a while, we decided to stand in line for the Campanile. It wasn’t a long line. It seemed manageable.

30 minutes later and we were three people away from the ticket line. Arthur started to protest our standing in line. Even though we were three people away, the line going into the elevator was quite long. It snakes through three parallel lines inside the building. The lines were moving very slowly. We had to make a decision whether to continue to stay in line or abandon the plan.

We left the queue.

We looked around for a shaded place to sit for me to feed Arthur. We found a couple of marble benches built into the side of the Palazzo Ducale. We sat on one of them.

During the feed, we looked for some restaurants nearby for us to have lunch. There were two options: one from TripAdvisor and one from Visit a City. We weren’t really hungry, though, so we decided to walk around some more after we changed Arthur on the bench.

The line to Palazzo Ducale was much shorter than before. It was around lunch time. Maybe most people were having their lunch. We stood in line. Five minutes later we reached the security line, and five minutes after that, we were at the ticket counter.

There were two types of tickets: 20 Euro for four museums or 24 Euro for 11 museums. You couldn’t buy one just for the Palazzo Ducale, and there weren’t really other museums we were dying to visit. The only interesting museum I could see on the list was Ca’ Pesaro, but it was on the 11-museum list, not the four.

We bought the 24 Euro one. Spoiler alert: we didn’t go to any other museum other than the Palazzo Ducale.

About 15 minutes into our visit, Arthur started to squirm. He was sleepy. I sat in one of the benches inside the room to feed him but he refused. After 10 minutes of fighting, he finally fell asleep on my shoulder. I carried him like that for the next hour as we continued the walk around the palace.

When we exited, we saw that there was practically no line to the Campanile. While waiting in line, Arthur woke up. He was quite pleasant, actually. We bought the tickets and waited in line to the elevator. I felt Arthur poop. And poop. And poop. It started leaking to his back. Sean and I debated whether or not to change him. We decided to wait.

5 minutes later, we were in the elevator. 10 minutes after that, we were in the elevator going back down.

The view at the top was amazing. You could see the whole Venice from up there, including the islands around the area.

When we got back to the bottom, there were built-in marble benches in the waiting room. We put the sling down, then the changing mat, and then Arthur. There was a lot of poop. We also changed his clothes due to the diaper blowout.

Then we headed to late lunch.

We couldn’t find the restaurant from TripAdvisor. It seemed it was no longer there? We didn’t bother spending too much time checking. We went to the other restaurant recommended by Visit a City app instead.

Maybe we should have looked harder for the other restaurant. Where we ended up had good food, too. However, it was expensive and the portions were significantly smaller. We ordered an appetizer of tuna tartare and crab tower to share. Sean had the ravioli and I had the veal. We were still hungry at the end of the meal. Along with the cover charge of 3.50 Euro per person, our total came out to be more than we wanted.

Lesson learned: TripAdvisor is more reliable than Visit a City.

From here, we decided to walk to the park behind Piazza San Marco and head to Riva degli Schiavoni. Unfortunately, they were both not what we thought they would be. The park was closed for construction, and the Riva was just a row of stalls for souvenirs. I thought it would be more like some of the Central Market places we’ve visited in the past. Oh well.

We decided to head home.

We passed a photo point for Bridge of Sighs on the way home. We also got some make-your-own Magnum ice cream along the way.

Once we were back at the hotel, we put Arthur to sleep for a nap. When he woke up, we went downstairs for dinner. The restaurant was right next to the hotel. Food was all right. Not worth mentioning.

We didn’t go anywhere else after dinner. We went back to the hotel and called it a night.

Sean thought we could have stayed here another night. Perhaps we should have. I was done, though. Venice felt like Disneyland. It was beautiful, but it was definitely touristy. Everything seemed to revolve around the tourist industry.