Venice

We made it to Venice on Tuesday and spent about a day and a half there. As we got into Venice late into the afternoon, we just kind of vegged and unwound from the driving. Still getting those smiles and looks as they see a female driving with the guys sitting in the back. However, those guys need to be quicker on the dime with their directions. And talk about back seat drivers, you would think that I had not been driving for 35+ or more years. So you know demure me, yep right, told them "just stick to telling me when to turn and make sure we are going in the right direction".

Along their highways they have what we would call "fast food" places located on the grounds where they sell gasoline. Let me tell you their fast food is fresh and very, very good. We decided that we like "Chef Express" the best. Great pandini,pastries and other things.

We ventured out in a local neighborhood from our hotel and went to a local restuarant recommended by the person behind the desk. He told us it was about 5 minutes from the hotel, 45 minutes later we found the place. Cathy and I asked for help and sign language sure works pretty good. The food was fantastics and we got to talking with the owners in our limited Italian and their limited English. We met a couple of guys from New York city.

On Wednesday,it was pouring down rain, Cathy and Ron were starting to come down with colds and Dennis needed a poncho to cover his sling. So they went shopping and I tagged along with the guys from NY and visited old Venice with them. Went to a wondeful museum and St. Mark's chapel there in San Marco square. As it had rained really hard that morning and high tide the square was flooded. It was fun to watch how people were walking through the water either with water shoes, plastic wrapped around their legs and/or barefoot. I followed the crowd and we walked along a high spot where the water was not so deep. You know, when in Italy, do as the locals are doing.

The rest of the gang came into old town Venice later in the afternoon and we hooked up. After walking around and seeing some stuff we decided instead of waiting for the hotel shuttle to pick us up that we would take the local bus back to the hotel. That was an experience. The bus driver nodded yes this is the one, we get on and after a little while and a couple of turns, I told them, this is not the right bus. So we got off and tried figuring out where the hell we were. Again, some local people helped us (have to tell you, this guy thing of not asking is killing Cathy and I) and we got ourseves on the right bus. We went back to the restuarant and had another great meal.

Venice has lots of little wine bars and the early evening there are lots of people out in the neighborhoods drinking coffee, wine, reading their books, papers or just visiting with each other. It is pretty cool to be experiencing all of this in these smaller neighborhoods.

And yes, we have tried Gelato, mmmmmm good.