Tea Time: Christmas Day In Venice

             We flew into Italy on Christmas Eve, but we didn't actually arrive in downtown Venice until Christmas morning, since we opted to stay that first night at a hotel near the airport (review on that to follow later). While I'd really wanted to get downtown as soon as possible, we didn't arrive until 7 pm, and the airport hotel offered a buffet breakfast. Seeing as 1-year-olds don't like their bedtime schedules to be changed much, and we weren't sure what would be open on Christmas morning, it seemed like the safest choice.
So, after a pretty good breakfast, we took a shuttle back to the airport in order to catch an Alilaguna boat into Venice. I think it was something around 16 euros a person, not terrible but not cheap either. The time onboard was rather long in terms of distance traveled, almost 1.5 hours. We got to relax and enjoy the views, however, plus we didn't have to transfer at Piazzale Roma, as one is required to do if taking the bus. (Note: if you've got a lot of luggage ie are hauling a baby with you, take the boat!).
Originally, we'd planned on having our Christmas dinner at a Jewish restaurant in Venice, since when I'd searched online every restaurant we liked was either closed or insanely expensive on Christmas Day. We ended up cancelling the reservation upon arriving at our hotel, though, since a lot of touristy restaurants were open. Now, I really dislike touristy restaurants, but we quickly discovered that maps of Venice are only good as a general area reference at best. One can honestly leave one's hotel and immediately be lost in terms of map location. Very frustrating for someone whose sense of direction is rather keen, if I do say so myself!
  I did quickly figure out how to get us around the narrow streets, although we often had to backtrack in order to find bridges. Never did figure out the maps, but we got a pretty good feel of where things were in the city over the course of a couple days.
Anyway, seeing as the Jewish restaraunt, Gam Gam, was located up in the northern area of Venice, near the ghetto, we weren't quite comfortable enough with getting around on the first day to risk locating it in the dark. Too bad, because they have good reviews and I wouldn't have minded some falafel! Historical side note: Venice is home to the first ghetto in Europe, established in 1516. I'm still rather disappointed that we didn't get time to see any of it, but that just means we'll have to go back at some point.
So what did we do for Christmas Day, our first day in Venice? Mostly just wandered around and enjoyed the sights. Most places were indeed closed due to the holiday, but it worked out to our advantage in that we got to see a more peaceful side of the city. All the little side streets and canals are simply amazing. Only disadvantage was that we did get stuck eating a mediocre overpriced Christmas dinner. Keila was quite happy with her breadsticks, though, so it wasn't a total bust!

                                   Approaching Venice by water on an Alilaguna boat