I would say of all the places I revisited this summer, Venice was the unexpected gem. My last visit was during the summer of 1992 and it was part of my first trip to Europe. I definitely had issues dealing with the heat but that was pretty much the same everywhere for me. I was the typical American abroad missing AC and ice. What separated Venice from other cities I visited was the smell. It was pretty awful; a constant barage of stink. If I had to recreate that pungent aroma I would use equal parts hot mud, dead fish and body odor. Now, I’m not being picky. I understand that the city is built in a lagoon and it’s bound to have some smells that you normally would associate with the ocean. That would have been fine. What I remember was well outside the definition of “fine”.

I tried to warn my kids ahead of time what to expect. I told them that they would love Venice. It is so different than any other city. I told them that Venice is a magical place where the streets are made of water, that the piazzas are filled with music, and that we would find surprises in its maze of twists and turns. I also told them that they might need to plug their noses for most of our time there. But to our delight, the city was clean and mostly smell-free. And what a treat it was!

The European heat wave continued on and our time in Venice this summer was hot and steamy. Luckily the tall buildings and narrow alleys perfectly provide shade and there are bars or Gelatto stands every few feet so you can refresh as you try to figure out the map. We sat in the Piazza San Marco drinking Granitas and people watching, we took the “Secret Venice”tour and found out how the locals live, we enjoyed a mandatory and not-so-romantic gondola ride, we visited the islands of Murano and Burano and watched their glass and lace artisans at work, we bought fans for the heat and masks for Halloween, and we were thankful every day to have AC as we fell asleep.

Of course, it didn’t all go to plan–we sat on the wrong side of Burano island waiting for a boat that never came, we played hide and seek trying to find each other for dinner, and we spent way too much time in a local laundromat with half naked people. Our departure from Venice also didn’t go to plan. It was frantic and exhausting one of those things you can luckily laugh about later.  After saying goodbye to the dads we made our way via water taxi to the train station only to find out that our train was actually a bus and we were in the wrong place. A special thanks-for-nothing to our inept nighttime concierge! So our band of 4 moms and 8 kids ran down the street (huffing and puffing and sweating), over a bridge (dragging and pulling and sweating), played Frogger across an insane intersection (yelling and cursing and sweating), bought tickets for the “people mover” (jumping turnstiles as we went) and were eventually spit out at the bus station in a big ole hot mess. It was, not fun.

But Venice…Venice was fun and I hope it wasn’t the last time I get to visit.

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SHENANIGAN SHOTS