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Visit Venice
Wading Through This Magnificent City in Italy with Kids
By Sonia Michaels
We found Sandra Gustafson's Cheap Eats in Italy (Chronicle, 1996) guide extremely useful during our last trip to Venice. Two of the restaurants listed in that book – Cantina do Spade (near the Rialto market) and Osteria alla Vedova (aka Trattoria Ca d'Oro, near the Ca d'Oro vaporetto stop) – were particularly welcoming to our daughter, and served excellent, affordable food. Across town, the Trattoria San Toma (near the Scuola Grande di San Rocco) has a wonderful outdoor patio right on a large square, where kids can play while parents finish off a meal with coffee or another glass of wine. This trattoria also offers an excellent selection of meal-sized salads, which can make a nice change from pasta, polenta and risotto! Consider eating your main meal at lunchtime, and just grabbing a slice of pizza in the evening. This can be easier on the kids than a full sit-down dinner, especially if they tend to get tired and grumpy towards the end of a long day; it can also be somewhat cheaper.
Hotels in Venice also tend to be expensive. Check out the listings in a good budget travel guide, or get a copy of Cheap Sleeps in Italy (Chronicle, 1996), also by Sandra Gustafson. Book as early as possible, because the best deals go quickly! If you can't find a room in Venice at a price you like, look for a hotel in nearby Mestre, or on the Lido. We have stayed at the Hotel Rossi and the Albergo Bernardi Semenzato in the past – both affordable two-star hotels in the Cannaregio district, and both child-friendly. The front desk staff at most Venice hotels speak at least some English, so calling for reservations shouldn't be a problem.
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