Smashing weather again allowed us to have breakfast overlooking a canal in the morning, followed by a Gondola ride around the Rialto side of the island The kids and I headed off to check out the Campanile tower while Gab had some shipping time only to see a massive queue 5 times larger than the day before. We flipped our plans and queued for the Bascilica. With the Sunday morning service going on we headed up the STEEP steps to the museum halls and terraces.
Above the main entrance to the Basilica stand four horses, the so called "Four in hand." The four above the entrance arch are actually replicas put there in the 70s, the museum halls house the originals from the second century and "acquired" for venice during the crusades. The museum halls ancient tapestries and mosaics, but the kids had their own favourites. For Max this whole city has him excited about the cities mascot, the winged lion. There are some ancient wooden and bronze versions in the museum. Housed on the second level, the museum is also at the same level as the pipe organ. Since we were there during the Sunday morning service, Emerson finally got to both hear and see a pipe organ being played - over the moon.
We made our way back down to the Piazza just as it was starting to fill up from high tide. It's a funny thing to observe the crowd become more concerned for their foot wear. Initially it's just a few puddles, but they keep growing and growing, and pretty soon thousands of people that already felt cramped up are constantly tossing up whether the water is at the bottom of their soles or getting too close the top, and on the other hand those people around them are worth getting to know on a deeper level as the huddle forces them to bond. Regardless we made it to Florian to sit in the sun, imbibe a few Venezian biers and watch the throng contract.
Max is busting to be able to sign himself in and out of kids club on our upcoming cruise and Emerson has been running low on sugar for days, they figured they could "earn" their respective rewards by making it around the pillar of death one more time, so after an hour or so of soaking up the sun we headed back for the second round of death pillar smack down. Now with the practice from the day before within the, they both made it around first go, still getting his "pillar legs" Dad took a few more attempts to get around. Apparently they both earned their rewards, we'll see at payment time tomorrow :)
We took a lazy baking sun stroll off to find some alleyway pizza for lunch as the heat of the afternoon kept on climbing.  By the end of lunch Gab was bursting for some retail therapy so "G"PS led her away to the supermarket while Emerson and I started to wander. It turns out every shop in Venice, as diverse as they might initially appear, has one uniting feature - they all contain things that Emerson simply must acquire in order to have a meaningful existence. Initially I attempted to mount the anti-case for buying everything you see, but Emerson has already learned much from her mother, I found it far easier to walk away.
Harry's Bar is the home of the Bellini, and is located right down on the Grand Canal. Emerson and I continued our strolling until we happened to walk right through the front door of Harry's Bar. I had a Negroni and Emerson a hand pressed Lemonade while we waited for Max and Gab to finish their grocery run. An hour later and a full tantrum about the despicable pips in the Lemonade and we found out you can get a Jnr Bellini with soda instead of Proseco, Emerson was made up. Max and Gab bumped around like a couple of lost ants for nearly an hour before they finally found us at Harry's Bar. I managed to load up "Find my iPhone" so I could guide them to us, just as they were 2 meters from the front door.
With the queues dwindling the kids and I headed for the Campanile, I told Emerson it was a long climb up these stairs, but she was way too sharp for me and didn't believe a word. The view from the top is astounding, in each direction. Whether you're looking at terracotta roof tiles, massive cruise liners negotiating the grand canal, or all the ant like humans going about their fun in the Piazza the view is amazing. Over in the west we could make our the Disney Magic, all docked in port and ready for us to board tomorrow. The kids were made up like Christmas as soon as I pointed it out to them.
From the Campanile we went for a stroll to the east along the grand canal looking for a gelato guy selling Amarena. it took forever and then suddenly G had us turn a corner and walk straight into the exact gelato stand where I'd had my first taste of Amerena a few years ago - golden! Down the ally were all the restaurants I'd had in my mind with all the seafood on display over ice in the window, in we went and had fantastic Scampi Fettuccine, Risotto for Gab and I while the kids completed the Italian tour having prosciutto pizza for ever dinner so far in this country. 
With the sun starting to fall I convinced the family to take one last gondola ride with me, this time leaving from in front of the palace so this time we could go under the bridge of sighs. What a cracking way to finish our last evening in Venice. Once again we wander back to the apartment around 9:30, only tonight it's not our fault the kids can't sleep, Emerson has run down stairs tell me she can't sleep every 10 minutes for the past hour because - "I'm soooo EXCITED!", frankly me too, tomorrow we cruise!