On a family vacation in Venice, Olivia indulges in gelato, rides in a gondola, and finds the perfect souvenir.

While on a mission to prove to Merlin that they can use magic wisely, Jack and Annie travel to seventeenth-century Venice, Italy, to save the city from disaster.

Determined that their daughter realize her musical destiny, her poor but devoted parents send her away as a baby to the Venetian ospedale, knowing she will be raised as an orphan and will never again be allowed to return home.

Agatha Mistery and her cousin travel to Venice to investigate the theft of an ancient crown during the Carnevale celebrations.

The sounds of lapping water and dipping oars ease readers into the famous canals of Venice, Italy. With mother as gondolier and father singing his calming song to baby, a family floats serenely through this one-of-a-kind historic city, past features as unusual as stone winged lions and golden masks and as comfortably familiar as babbling neighbors and drying laundry. The baby drifts deeper and deeper into Venice's maze and--finally--sweet sleep.