I traveled with my wife and our two boys, who were four and seven years old at the time. Six nights in Venice gave us plenty of time to explore the city without feeling like we had to rush from one attraction to another. We walked through narrow streets, crossed countless little bridges, ate plenty of Italian food, and let the kids experience Venice at their own pace.
There was one thing my wife really wanted our boys to do while we were there.
She wanted them to make Venetian masks.
We Almost Didn't Make the Masks
Before the trip, my wife had searched online and found a place called, CA'MACANA, where the kids could make their own Venetian masks. She had even told me about it. Click here to see it on the google map.
But as we traveled around Venice, we kept putting it off.
There was always something else to see, somewhere else to go, or something else to do. I didn't think much about it. I assumed we would get around to it eventually.
Then suddenly, it was our last day in Venice. That afternoon, before dinner, my wife said we really needed to do it. She wanted the boys to have this experience from the beginning, and she didn't want us to leave Venice without making it happen.
So the four of us went looking for the place she had found online. When we arrived, however, the lights were off and the door was closed. Nobody appeared to be there.
We looked at the closed shop and figured maybe it just wasn't going to happen. Maybe we had waited too long. Maybe we had missed our chance.
We were about to move on when we noticed something just a little farther away.
Through another window, we could see children making masks. We walked over and looked inside. There were kids sitting at tables, painting and decorating Venetian masks. We went in and asked if our boys could make masks too. They told us they could.
Then we discovered something unexpected. It was actually the same business my wife had found online.
The shop we had just visited was closed because the electricity had gone out. Since they couldn't operate normally, they had moved the mask-making activity to a nearby gallery where they could continue the workshop.
So what had initially looked like a missed opportunity had actually turned into a lucky accident.
€50 for a Venetian Mask?
There was just one problem. Because the power was out, they couldn't accept credit cards.
The price was €50 per person, or €90 for two people.
My immediate reaction was, "What? €50 for a mask?" I thought it was expensive.
Really expensive.
I started wondering whether this was something we really needed to do. We were traveling, and of course we wanted to enjoy ourselves, but I also like to be careful with money when we travel. I didn't want to spend €100 on two masks just because we happened to be in Venice.
I asked my wife, "Do we really have to do this?"
She looked at it completely differently. For her, the important thing wasn't the mask itself. It was the experience.
She wanted our children to have the chance to make something themselves in Venice. They weren't just buying a souvenir from a store. They would actually make it from beginning to end.
I argued that we could probably find something like this in the United States. But by then, I could tell my wife was getting frustrated with me.
To me, spending €100 on two masks seemed hard to justify.
To her, the money wasn't the point. The experience was.
Then we ran into another problem. They couldn't take cards because of the power outage, and I only had €50 in cash with me. I was wondering if I would have to find an ATM when our younger son suddenly said he didn't want to make a mask. Just make it clear, kids didn't hear our conversation about all this. So, please don't think that our younger son overheard us and gave up on his chance to make the mask.
So, in the end, only our older son decided to do it.
While I was waiting, I had some time to think about what we had been arguing about. Maybe I had been looking at it from wrong perspective. I felt bad knowing that our disagreement hurt my wife's feeling, especially since she had told me several times how much she wanted kids to make this mask.
Watching My Son Create
My seven-year-old son chose his mask first.
There were so many different designs to choose from. Some covered only the eyes. Some covered half of the face. Others covered most of the face.
He picked one that covered his eyes and nose, with a flame-like shape rising above the top.
Once he chose his mask, they gave him an apron to wear.
Then came the fun part. He got to choose the colors.
The walls were covered with finished masks in all kinds of colors and designs. He looked at them for ideas before deciding how he wanted his own mask to look.
His mask started out completely white. He picked up his brush and started painting. And he became incredibly serious.
For the next hour, he was completely focused on what he was doing.
First, he painted the base layer yellow. When he finished, one of the staff members came over with a hair dryer and carefully dried the paint. Then he started working on the next color.
There were more painting and drying the mask followed by coloring different colors. The staff members walked back and forth, helping him along the way and showing him what to do.
Eventually, he added glitter and shiny decorations to the mask.
My wife and I stayed nearby, taking pictures and watching him with his little brother. I remember how seriously he was taking the whole thing. There was no rushing. No complaining. No asking how much longer it would take. He was simply making his mask.
For almost an hour, I watched my son create something with his own hands. And somewhere during that hour, my feelings about the €50 completely changed.
At the beginning, I had been thinking about the price. My son wasn't. He was thinking about his mask and having fun making it. And I started to realize that this was exactly what my wife had been talking about.
The value wasn't in the mask itself.
The value was in watching our son experience something that he could only really experience because we were in Venice.
When he finally finished, I felt proud. The mask turned out beautifully. One of a kind mask, nowhere you can find.
It had a red base with silver and gold decorations around the eyes and face. The pointed, flame-like decoration on top made it look dramatic and almost like something a young Venetian superhero might wear.
Most importantly, he loved it. Once it's all dried, he put it on immediately.
Pizza, Masks, and the Streets of Venice
After dinner, we walked through the souvenir streets of Venice, and he was still wearing the mask. It was a funny sight. There was my seven-year-old son walking through Venice with the mask he had just made, while his little brother was looking for something of his own.
Since our younger son had decided not to participate in the mask-making, we stopped at a souvenir shop and let him choose his own.
He got a €10 mask from a souvenir shop. He loved it and completely satisfied with his purchase. So in the end, both boys went home with Venetian masks.
It turned into one of those unexpectedly fun evenings that we never really planned.
What I Learned About Spending Money While Traveling
Looking back, I think I learned something that day. When we travel, I still believe in saving money.
There is no reason to spend money on everything just because we're on vacation. Sometimes the cheaper option is perfectly fine.
But there are also moments when you need to spend the money. Some experiences may seem expensive at first, but that doesn't necessarily mean they aren't worth it. Sometimes you are paying for the memory.
That afternoon in Venice reminded me that an experience can be worth much more than the thing you bring home.
I had been focused on the €50. My wife had been focused on our son. She wanted him to experience something, not simply own something.
And after watching him make that mask, I finally understood what she meant.
We still have that mask at home today.
Whenever I see it, I'm taken back to that afternoon in Venice. The shop with its lights off, the unexpected power outage, and the argument about whether €50 was too much money to spend on a mask.
My son was sitting at the table, completely focused on painting his mask. When he finally finished, the pride on his face made everything else seem unimportant.
Later that evening, we walked through the streets of Venice with him wearing the mask he had made himself. Looking back, that simple mask became much more than a souvenir. It became a little reminder of a fun, unexpected afternoon that our family got to share together.
We almost didn't get a chance to make the mask in the first place. But somehow, it ended up taught me something about money and experience while traveling. I still think about money, but these days, I put more value on the experience that we get from it. Some thing you buy eventually get forgotten, but experience stay with you for years.
So, don't be afraid to spend money when the experience is worth it. Sometimes, those are the moments that make a trip truly memorable.
LET'S GO!
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