chasing pigeons

And so our Italian adventure started to wind up with our last full day in Venice...

With our water bus passes lasting for 24 hours, we had until 11.30am to get back on the boat and see Venice from the canal. With a little, gentle enthusing we got everyone up and out the door before 9am - as we explained in a few days back in England you can all sleep in but you won't be able to see Venice at morning light for a long time.

With the confidence of having now caught and semi understood the water bus system we jumped on the first one approaching and settled in for the 30 minute journey down the canal - once again entranced by life unfolding as we glided past.

There were the badges carrying the bags of dirty linen from the hotels, the smaller gondolas carrying the suitcases of the guests back to the transport hubs, the trainee gondolier under instruction from the older men, the smaller speedboats racing by on errands and the other water buses with the eager to capture it all tourists hanging to the sides, cameras clicking away.

The morning light was magnificent on the palaces and buildings we passed, the photos I took endless, just so beautiful. Off at St Mark's, hoping that the 9000+ cruise liner passengers expected in port that day hadn't yet made it to the square. But we were fine, it was quiet and atmospheric and we had space to wander - and in Sienna's case chase the pigeons! There is something so wonderful in the spontaneity of movement of a small child. Their lack of self-conscious actions, enthusiasm and erratic behaviour that they exhibit - the stuff that eventually gets replaced by the constraints of awareness of self and other's expectations of you. It was a joy to capture especially as I know there is few times left ahead of us of such expression of abandonment.

We explored some more, where Sienna realised that her small school also called St Mark's - shares the same lion symbol as the square in Venice - she was amazed! Then told me that, 'She now knows where her headmaster got the inspiration from to name the school'! I am sure she will share that with him when she is back at school!

We spent good three hours wandering back to the apartment - marvelled at the mosaics of St Mark's Basilica, looked and discussed what it would have been like to have actually walked as a prisoner the Bridge of Sighs and then made our way to the Taiwan pavilion of the Venice Biennale of Architecture. It was certainly different and for us all a lovely contrast to all the ancient and older culture we have seen the last two weeks. We then discovered the New Zealand pavilion and were provided with a very detailed talk regarding the European influence on the country's architecture and the gradual integration of Maori construction techniques in the 1960s and what is happening today. There were images of places I used to visit as a child which the kids were fascinated by and then the general agreement became that New Zealand was to be our next family holiday...I but wish...

Home with fresh bread and bakeries for lunch - to eat with our mound of tomatoes I had bought (I can't get enough of their real flavour!) and a rest up before our last night out.

Then it was a wander through a new area we had not discovered (where one of the universities is situated) - imagine spacious 'campis' with older people sitting out soaking up the last of the day's rays, children playing football, the young spilling out of tiny bars with drinks in hand and tourists taking it all in and like ourselves no doubt imagining what it would be like if this was their home. A quick look at the frankly quite majestic Frari Church (me being the only one to still muster up the enthusiasm for a church at this stage in our trip), one last Alaska ice cream to be had - I expanded my choice and went for Rocket and Orange which was amazing and then it was to a garden restaurant for pizza and pasta, wine and Limoncello and a family discussion over the complete wonderfulness of the holiday we had all just enjoyed...