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Visit Venice
Wading Through This Magnificent City in Italy with Kids
By Sonia Michaels
You'll do a lot of walking in Venice, so bring a lightweight stroller if you have an older toddler or preschooler, and a sling or backpack if you are traveling with a baby or young toddler. Venetian parents are expert at maneuvering strollers up and down stairs on the city's countless bridges – usually by pulling them backwards up the stairs, then gently bumping them down the other side. If you don't like this idea, just get someone else to help you up and down the stairs by lifting the front end. There are some wheelchair and stroller-accessible bridges in Venice, but they can be hard to find.
Venice's transit system is a network of water-buses, usually referred to as "vaporetti." Line No. 1 is a slow ride along the entire length of the Grand Canal, and is a great way to get your first real look at the city. Kids will enjoy the novelty of a bus that is also a boat, and will especially love sitting on the outside seats right at the front – also the best location if you want to take pictures. Smaller, faster boats called "motoscafi" take passengers on the longer trips to Murano, Burano and other destinations away from the center of Venice. Family passes are available. (For details, visit www.actv.it.)
The city is divided into neighborhoods, or "sestiere." Street numbers are fairly useless, since they don't always appear in sequence, and the same street names are sometimes repeated in different sestiere. Be sure to read or listen to directons carefully, and try to get the name of the closest major landmark or vaporetto stop as well. Still, it's hard to get really lost in Venice, even when you fold up your map, choose a direction, and just start walking into the unknown. Eventually, you'll come to a wall that offers directions to the nearest major landmark, "Per Rialto," "Per San Marco," "Per Accademia" and so on, so you'll never be too far from something you recognize.