I find Venice a magical place with the churches, canals, boats, etc.

Mitzi loved the beach even more than the parks.

But found it all a little overwhelming at times.

I went up St. Mark's Bell Tower with Megan, Brad, Ashley and Ian.
6-14-10 Monday
Good ride on the bike with 2 laps of the Lido. Did some harder efforts, but nothing structured.
I went to the beach with the kids. It wasn’t nearly as crowded as yesterday. Mitzi had a great time digging in the sand. I laid on my back and tried to take a nap and burned my stomach a bit. I figured after burning my back yesterday, I might as well even it out. Brecken and Kindra came to the beach a little later. I went and swam with Brad, Megan and Ashley, then I went back to the apartment to start lunch while they stayed at the beach for a little.
We ent to Venice proper in the late afternoon/early evening. Went to St. Mark’s Square and went up the bell tower. I was wearing my Tour de France shirt and a lady up on the top of the bell tower asked me if I was going to the tour in a couple of weeks. She said she races bikes as well, and will be traveling around with team BMC. We wandered around for awhile and ended up near Rialto and took the Vaporetto back to the Lido.
Kindra and I took Megan and Ian to dinner. We’ve decided to trade off taking each of the kids to dinner with mom and dad either by themselves or with 1 other child.
The place we are staying here in Venice, isn’t nearly as nice as the last couple places we’ve stayed, but because it’s in Venice, it’s the most expensive place we are staying at on the trip. The floors look like they need to be replaced, there is only 1 bathroom, the kitchen is very small and has very old appliances, but it makes up for it in location. It’s just a block or two away from the beach, and a block or two away from the vaporetto stop that takes you across to St. Mark’s Square.