We went back to participate in Benjamin and Liam’s favorite Venetian activity today — splashing in puddles and chasing pigeons at St. Mark’s square.  (This even outranks gelato consumption, so that’s pretty significant.)  We’ve often found, in our travels, that the key to the kids enjoying a city correlates with the amount of time they get to spend running freely, so it’s a priority (especially because we didn’t get enough of that time in Rome.)

After a bit of running wild and tormenting pigeons, Liam requested a drink of water, which, of course, I’d forgotten at the hotel.  He was insistent on his very own sippy cup, so he and I ventured back to pick it up.

We had a nice walk (a stroll hand in hand with a two year old can be pretty great) and upon our return, we found Benjamin, Dan, Jo and Mina, still playing in the square.  With a dragon.

While we were away, Benjamin had apparently charmed some folks out of a darling stuffed dragon named Ignis.  (He’s the mascot for their company.)  He is super cute, and they assured Dan that, if we’d like to give Ignis a good home and take him on our international travels, that it was fine for us to adopt him.  B was in love.  So he got Ignis.

Liam fell instantly in love with Ignis, too, and there was just one Ignis.  So we quickly started calling him “Ignis the sharing dragon.”  He was shared by his owners with us, and now the boys had to continue to share him.

Ignis the sharing dragon has been a major hit.  The boys traded him back and forth all day, a few minutes at a time.  He joined us for gelato, pizza for dinner and even our gondola ride (he’s now sporting his very own gondolier hat).

He’ll return to Vienna with us and join us on our future adventures.  (Does a dragon need a passport?)  What a lovely and special souvenir from our trip to Venice, and what a kind thing for Ignis’ people to have done, to share him with us.