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Just got back from Venice!
We just returned from our Winter getaway to Venice and I wanted to write a review. I know that Venice gets mixed reviews on this board, but I am firmly in the "I LOVED IT!" camp. We had such a relaxing and fabulous time. We arrived on Thursday afternoon and left Tuesday - so it was 4 days in Venice with 2 travel days. We live in Sicily, so it is easy for us to make a long weekend of European destinations. But you can easily add Venice to a longer Italian itinerary if you're traveling from overseas. We were traveling with our two children (our son is nearly 3 and our daughter is 5 months). I was surprised to find that Venice is incredibly kid-friendly, though it is not really stroller friendly due to all the bridges. The bridges are small though, so you only have to hoist the stroller over about ten steps at a time, DH and I didn't find it to be too big of a deal. We let DS use the stroller to snooze in if he was tired and I carried DD on me in the baby carrier.
I cannot offer hotel advice because we are anti-hotel these days. We rented an apartment through vrbo.com. I prefer to have multiple bedrooms so the kids get their own space; also once the kids go to bed, DH and I can stay up late in the living room with a glass of wine - in a typical hotel room we'd be relegated to an 8 PM bedtime with the kiddos and not having any "us" time. Also, I feel this option gives us more of a taste of local culture. We get to go shopping at the local markets, find our favorite pasticceria for our morning pastries, and it gets us off the tourist track. The apartment we rented was in a fabulous location - in Castello about 50 yards back from the basin of San Marco with fabulous views of San Giorgio Maggiore and equidistant between Piazza San Marco and Sant'Elena. Also, the bridges along the basin all the way from Sant'Elena to San Marco are equipped with ramps so that section was very stroller friendly 
I also went running in the mornings on Sant'Elena and it was so incredibly peaceful to run in the early morning fog and have the beautiful views of the lagoon all to myself. I think Venice is officially my favorite place to run!
Visiting Venice was a big check off my destination bucket list. My bachelor's is in music and I've nearly completed a master's in music history. One of my grad classes was completely dedicated to the music of Venice, so seeing all the places I learned about (standing in the royal box of La Fenice, looking up at the mosaic ceiling of San Marco and taking in the church where antiphony was born, etc.) was a big deal for me. As far as sight-seeing, if art is your thing you'll love Venice. And I got to see so much art, which is rare for a vacation with a toddler and infant. Little kids generally don't do so well in large art museums. But because so much art in Venice is "in situ" you can get your art experience in small, kid-friendly doses. Tintoretto and Titian decorate so many churches. Peek inside a church for a half hour or so and then head on back outside to a square where you can let your toddler chase some pigeons (which our toddler LOVED doing)! We did go to the island of Murano because I wanted to buy some glass beads for my mom (she has gotten into beading and jewelry making, so it'll make a great birthday present). Murano was ok, we didn't stay long. If you've seen a glass-blowing demonstration before, then you won't be super impressed - glass blowing is pretty much the same the world over. You can buy some neat things, of course, but you can easily check Murano off your list with just a one or two-hour long visit. We also did a day-trip to Verona where we followed Rick Steves' recommended walking tour of the city (you can find it in his Venice book) and that was really fabulous. We got to meet the owner of a local enoteca thanks to that tour and the time we spent talking to them was the highlight of our Verona day. There is no shortage of fun experiences for kids in Venice thanks to the boats! Everyday when we left the apartment our son said, "We're going on a boat!" He loved taking the Vaporetto all over the city Of course, the Italians also love children which makes travel with them very easy in Italy. We even took them to Caffe Florian on Piazza San Marco on the last evening we were there to have some apertivi. Despite how "posh" the Florian is, they had no issues with us having two little kids with us (and all the tuxedo-wearing waiters and waitresses were peaking into the tea room we were sitting in to smile at them, say "ciao" and tell us how cute they are). They even found some strawberries for our son (his favorite fruit and one that isn't in season so many restaurants are not serving them now) and didn't charge us for them!! And perhaps my favorite thing about going to Venice in January was how peaceful it was. Thanks to it being the off-season, the place was not overrun with tourists. I felt that the city was really living up to its name, La Serenissima!
After three days in Venice itself and one day trip to Verona, I felt we were there for the perfect amount of time. If you're traveling sans-kids, then you could probably do the city in two days; we took a more relaxed pace because we had the kids with us but I think taking a slower pace is nice anyway - I don't like spending my vacation blitzing from one site to the next without getting to stop and just take in the place and the local culture.
And really exciting was that I got to buy another "This is . . . " book by M.Sasek. My goal is to visit all of the locations he writes about in his "This is . . . " series - preferably to do so with my kids. Of the "This is . . ." destinations, my son has been to Rome, Paris, London, Munich, and Venice. My daughter has been to Paris, London, and Venice. My hope is that these books and the photos they have of their childhood travels to these places will inspire them to travel as adults and make some memories they'll remember, because I know they won't remember all of these places now.
Re: Just got back from Venice!
Awesome glad you had fun!
AND great timing... word is that it was not fun in Sicily Thurs-Sat. It's not fun in Naples at the moment.
Anything you can achieve through hard work, you could also just buy.
UGH, for real. It is still a mess down here. Most stations still don't have gas. I haven't been back to the super market yet, but last week the shelves were practically bare. Not good.
in rome at albergo del senato that overlooks the pantheon and in florence (i've stayed here before) grand hotel cavour 1 block up from bargello and 2 blocks from duomo. great location. both have awesome rooftop wine bars. we've also stayedat hotel fontata di trevi in rome which overlooks the trevi fountain and is pricey. the ones i'm staying at this time were cheap *because of off season*. del senato got great reviews on tripadvisor, cavour i just know is good because of last time.
wtf is goingo n in sicily? ive seen facebook posts from family there but, since I can't read their italian, i have no idea what's going on.
The association of truck drivers went on a serious strike last week. They were blockading all of the ports (Palermo, Catania, Messina, Pozzallo, etc.) and even the on/off ramps of the major highways. They are angry at the price of fuel - believing it to have reached unsustainable levels because the price to ship goods costs more than the goods themselves and this is hurting everybody's bottom line. So they went on strike, blockaded the roads and ports and have brought the entire island to a screeching halt. There are also rumors of another gas strike as well (though I don't know how that works - how do you go on strike when you aren't working in the first place because there is no fuel because the trucks haven't been delivering it?). It is strange because usually the strikes here last a day and that's it. But they're getting serious with their demands now. The actual truck strike has ended, but the deliveries are apparently still only trickling in. I don't know if the government is actually going to do anything about their demands either. It is really a mess.
oh wow!!! what a mess that must be!
thanks for the info.