And so, we went on to Venice which was, surprisingly, the star of the trip. Neither Katy nor Josh had been before and the last time Paul went he founded crowded and confusing.
This time around it was all different. The crowds were still there on the Grand Canal and San Marco was filled with people (and unsightly advertising) but we went off the beaten path and wandered some of the back alleys and walks of Venice away from the maddening crowds. Far from San Marco we stopped in a small coffee shop peopled only by the locals. We successfully found a couple of restaurants off the beaten path, where the fresh fish was plentiful (Josh tried some more calamari) and the prices were not exorbitant.
To be sure, we didn't avoid "tourist Venice" altogether. But we did it in a way that was still part of the local culture. The first evening we were there we took a vaporetto bus the length of the Grand Canal to see the sights. It was crowded, but instead of tourists many of the people were working men and women on their way home. To emphasize the point, the boat-bus continued around the eastern half of Venice by the port before we got back to our hotel near San Marco.
To end the trip we did another "local" thing and too the vaporetto boat-bus to Lido, the barrier island. We went walking down the main street to the public beach where we joined mostly local Italians to enjoy a quiet day in the sun. We rented two lounges and an umbrella, while Josh built sandcastles.
And so the trip ended ... we headed home the next day, tired but happy, with memories for everyone.
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