Sightseeing in Venice with teenagers

If you will be in Europe and Venice for the first time with boys 14 and 16, why would you want to find places "off the beaten path?" They, and you, will surely want to see all the things Venice and the other islands are famous for--vaporetto trips down the Grand Canal, the many churches with their beautiful art, the museums, St. Mark's Square, the Doges Palace and so on and on.
I am sure that the boys would be very interested in a trip to the island of Murano to see the glass blowing.
With only 2.5 days, you will only scratch the surface of Venice, but I would still push for Murano.

We just returned from our first Europe trip with our boys, 9 and 11. We did the major stuff, walked around a lot, went to Murano, rode the vaporettos....

We also did a rowing class with Row Venice that was super fun! We learned a bit and got to row, even standing on top like a gondolier! I highly recommend it.

http://rowvenice.org/
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g187870-d1856843-Reviews-Row_Venice-Venice_Veneto.html

Also in Canareggio where rowing class is, walk along their bigger canal. Very peaceful!

Kim

Sounds perfect - thank you Kim!

Here are a few recent favorites in Venice:
1-hour mask decorating lesson at http://www.camacana.com/courses/abc-mini-courses/, which welcomes families. A lively morning market, such as the Rialto fish market. Boats of all sizes; a 40-minute gondola ride costs €80-100 per boat, which holds up to 6 passengers. Inside St. Mark's Basilica, visiting the San Marco Museum gives you access to the roof level, up close and personal with the bronze horses (originals inside and reproductions outside, with view).

Wonderful ideas! Maybe my teen grands will take me with them? Thank you, Laura!

Our teens each carried an iPod touch and enjoyed being able to go at their own pace while listening to the free audio podcast from Rick Steve's re: St Mark's Basilica. We travelled in April so the crowds were not too bad, if you are going during a crowded time you might want to have some guidelines as to how far away they can go, of course this depends upon how old they are.

The other thing my kids enjoyed was taking a tour of the enormous clock tower in St. Mark's Square,adjacent to the Basilica. You need to schedule it in advance as the groups are very small, perhaps 10 people, and are presented in different languages at different times during the day. You get to go inside the clock tower climbing a few flights, very easy, to see the inner workings of the clock. Not advised if you have any claustrophobia. Look at www.tickitaly.com/tickets/venice--clock-tower. if that doesn't work look on the tickitaly website and you can find it. You may also want to look at the reviews on Trip Advisor (which are very strong) to see if your kids would enjoy it. It is not long, maybe 45 minutes? In italy it is called Torre dell'orologio.

What they most definitely did not like, and they are great travellers having been in a number of top tourist spots in Europe, was the palazzo ducale or Doge's Palace. We booked the tour that shows you Casanova's cell. truthfully it was probably the least interesting sights in all the places I've seen in Europe. Many, many other people disagree with me. The architecture of the building is beautiful and from the outside I enjoyed its beauty. but I found going through the dank, dark, miserable cells very distressing and sad. My kids, however, just didn't like it because they felt it was boring. To each his own.

Off the beaten path in Venice? When? At 3am on a snowy January night maybe.