There are hundreds of funny activities for families with children to enjoy together in a city where cars cannot run like Venice, whether its: letting imaginations run wild with a vaporetto or gondola ride down the Grand Canal, exploring every nook and cranny of Venices canals and alleyways, or simply enjoy a great tasting multi-coloured gelato.......the options are unlimited.
Discover Venice features
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PIGEONS AT ST. MARK'S SQUARE It is huge, and it is full of pigeons that your kids will love to play amongst them or scare them away for fun. Adventurous kids will enjoy standing like scarecrows while birds roost on them like the pigeon lady's flock in Home Alone 2. |
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VENICE CARNIVAL Kids adore masks and dressing up, and the Venice Carnival include special activities for kids, such as "La Mascherata Dei Piccoli" (Tiny Tots' Masks), stilts, clowns, fire-eaters, a kids-only musical concert, famed performers of cartoon soundtracks and acrobats. The core Carnival period usually lasts 11 days in February or at the end of January. |
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The Campanile in Piazza San Marco and San Giorgio Maggiore both give spectacular views over Venice and the lagoon, and you don't even have to climb steps to get there - an elevator will take you all the way to the top. From the bell tower kids will get a bird's eye view of Venice. Time your ascent to coincide with the striking of an hour, you can experience the ringing of the Campanile bells at close quarters! |
Learn and have fun at the museum
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FAMILY DAYS' AT MUSEI CIVICI The Musei Civici has organized 'Family Days' on alternate Sundays at the Palazzo Ducale, Museo Correr, Palazzo Mocenigo, Lace Museum and Glass Museum. These will offer kids activities and tours for adults. For information call the museums' 'didactic section' on +39 041 522 4951 or visit Musei Civici's official website. |
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Kids would want to spend hours in this magnificent building which houses the skeleton of an Ouranosaurus found in the Sahara Desert by a Venetian palaeontologist in 1973. The new aquarium holds five thousand litres of sea water, kids will get to see some fifty species of sea creatures that live on the reef off the Venetian coast. |
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NAVAL MUSEUM The Venetians were skilled and prolific boat builders, and Venice was a maritime empire. Kids will adore this treasure trove of ships, both intricate models and the real thing. The top floor houses full-sized black lacquer gondolas from earlier centuries, plus a model of a gondola workshop, and steps for gondola construction. |
Sports activities
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PARKS AND ENTERTAINMENT The Giardini Pubblici have good swings and slides for smaller kids; while further away at Sant'Elena, kids can play with local children in the grassy play area along the lagoon. There is also a roller-skating/ cycling rink and long, smooth walkways. |
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CATCH A FOOTBALL GAME Take your young football enthusiast to watch a game at Penzo Stadium, Venezia AC’s home ground and one of the few football grounds in the world that supporters approach by boat. Take the No 1 vaporetto getting off at Sant’Elena stop. Tickets can be bought directly on match days. Kick off for Sunday afternoon matches is 3pm summer time, 2pm daylight saving time. |
Tasting Venice flavours
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VISIT RIALTO FISH MARKET Rialto fish market is open from Tuesday to Saturday mornings. Kids will be fascinated by the huge variety of sea creatures on offer at the market. Best to get there early! |
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GELATO (ITALIAN ICE CREAM) Italian ice cream, 'gelato' in Italian is a popular treat. While walking in Venice, the trick is to keep those tired little legs trudging onward. The tactic: lure the youngsters on with ice-cream treats. Luckily, gelaterias are everywhere (some offer dairy-free varieties) and the ice cream is absolutely the best in the world. |
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FUN FOODS Whilst 'gelato' is popular in the summer; in cold weather, hot chocolate with whipped cream is the drink to try. Kids will also love cookies, strudels, meringues, croissants filled with honey or jam, and the traditional zaletti, large cookies (plain, chocolate, or pistachio) made with corn flour and buranelli, s-shaped cookies typical of Burano. |
Exploring the lagoon
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GLASS-BLOWING ON MURANO ISLAND With its canals and bridges, Murano resembles a Venice in miniature, but for kids, the artisans in the glass factories' workshops are the main attraction. Kids will enjoy the glass-blowing demonstration, as well as buying glass beads, a tiny fishbowl, glass "hard candy" and other inexpensive items as gifts, souvenirs or Christmas tree decorations. |
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FUN DAY OUT ON LIDO ISLAND Pack the kids' swimming costumes and beach towels, then jump on a Line 1 boat for the beautiful beach at Lido, to wallow in the warm, calm, shallow waters. After sunset, take the kids on a horse-drawn carriage ride. Active kids can rent children's bikes or take riding lessons in a pretty riding-ground on the Lagoon shores. For the little ones, there is a fun fair on Gran Viale S.M. Elisabetta with rides. |
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BURANO ISLAND About an hour away from Venice centre, Burano is an island of rainbow-coloured fishermen's houses and hand-tatted lace in Venice's Northern Lagoon. Kids can learn a bit about the history of lacemaking at the Museo del Merletti (Lace Museum), and on the second floor are women diligently at work learning this excruciatingly delicate craft. |
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TORCELLO ISLAND Take kids to Torcello to give them a sense of life on an island in centuries past. People came to live on the island in the 5th century, and the first cathedral in Venice was built here. Kids can sit on the stone seat believed to be the "Throne of Attila" outside the cathedral and pretend to be Attila the Hun, terror of Europe and Asia. |
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BOAT RIDES Kids love boat rides. Hopping on and off gondolas, water taxis and vaporetti all offer an exciting experience for young ones. Traghetti-gondola that go back and forth across the Grand Canal are both entertaining and cheap, make the crossing more authentic by explaining to kids that only tourists sit down: real Venetians always stand up. |
Activities outside Venice
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BRENTA RIVER CRUISE Spend a leisurely day on this charming cruise down the Brenta River on board the Burchiello ship. Keep the kids busy by getting them to count all the nine swing bridges and six locks real "water lifts" through which allow the descending of an almost 10-metre high water slope between Venice and Padua. The guided cruise also includes visits to the majestic 16th century Venetian Villas along the canal. |
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AQUALANDIA PARK An hour away from Venice centre, in Jesolo seaside resort, this water theme park on an area covering 80.000 qm is sure to be popular with kids. It has water games, a Pirates Galleon stage, beach volley and the largest slide in the world: sliding for 42 metres at 110 km/h. There are also expert animators and clowns to keep the kids happy with games, parades and circus shows. |
