Venice for The Family Explorers: a Friday-to-Monday weekend

The whole city from the water in forty-five minutes, counting bridges and gondolas from the open seats at the back; children under six go free.

Pizza with more toppings than anyone needs in a cheerful room off the campo, open all day, with high chairs and a quick kitchen.

The playground in the Napoleonic gardens, swings and shade, and the vaporetto home along the Riva with the lights coming on.

A glassmaker turns a lump of orange glass into a horse in ninety seconds; most furnaces on the fondamenta show it for a few euros, go early.

Model ships, the last doge's gilded barge, and gondolas in a boat shed; four floors, so pick two, and the cannons outside for climbing on.

Pizza in the Castello back streets where the local children eat, with a courtyard to run in while the grown-ups finish the carafe.

Sand, shallow water and a free public beach fifteen minutes by vaporetto from San Marco; buckets and spades from the shop at the landing.

A lift, not stairs, to the top of the bell tower for the lagoon, the roofs and the bells at the hour, which are loud; book the time slot.

A garden out the back for the early sitting, pizza for the children and a plate of pasta for the adults; the campo is a minute away.

The two-euro gondola ferry across to the Rialto market, standing up like a Venetian; the only gondola ride the budget needs.

A dinosaur skeleton from the Sahara, a whale, and the lagoon's creatures in a Turkish merchants' palace; the aquarium on the ground floor is the finale.

Slices through the hatch, eaten on the bench in the campo; Piazzale Roma and the airport bus are ten minutes away on foot.