Olivia travels to Italy Venice with her family. They explore and tour the sites.

Located in Geography bin

Olivia and her family go to Venice for her school spring break vacation, eating lots of gelato and having other adventures.

This book started out cute, with a fairly reasonable expectation for young readers about what vacation might entail (e.g., packing, going through security at the airport, flying on a plane, etc.). It then travels along to the family doing some sight-seeing / touristy things, like eating local foods, strolling through a piazza, going on a gondola ride. But after that it takes a wild turn when Olivia wants a souvenir and ends up pulling out a brick from the bell tower, causing the whole thing to come crashing down. I haven't read enough Olivia books to know if this out-sized antic is typical for the series or not, but it seemed a bit out of place with the rest of the story to me.

There's also a line or two in which the Italian pigs comment on how Olivia's family has eaten too much gelato, which came across a bit like fat shaming, so I wasn't the hugest fan of that.

On the other hand, the illustrations were really neat. Actual photographs of Venice are overlaid with the illustrations of Olivia and her family, making for a really cool effect. ( )

Olivia books are great lessons for the classroom and can be lesson or conversation starters. In this book for a classroom setting it can be used to teach students about culture as well as comparing what life is like in America to Venice. Olivia travels with her family to Italy for vacation and she is in awe of how different life is. She hears that the city is often underwater and this is a great moment to explain how Venice was built. This book is designed to show children a different city/country outside of America. Wonderful book! ( )

Oliva Goes to Venice is a good book to read when teaching students about culture. It shows quite a few beautiful aspects of Venice. A teacher could also use this book for comparisons such as ice cream to gelato. Olivia is a super goofy character that kids would truly enjoy and she has many books. ( )

Not my favorite Olivia book, but oddly enough, it is my daughter's favorite. Not sure if it's all the gelato that gets eaten or what, but this one gets requested every day. ( )