May 17, 2013 - Italian Cuisine

Today we woke up and were happy to see that the weather was much better: cloudy with some sun breaks but no rain, for the most part! We bought a train ticket to La Spezia (the main train station in and out of the Cinque Terre) so we could figure out our long train ride back to Rome on Sunday. We walked around the market in La Spezia and then we hopped back on the train for a town called Riomaggiore. It is similar to the other towns: situated up a steep hill, surrounded by vineyards, has a cute center street, has a pretty harbor with lots of...

May 14, 2013 - Blown Glass and Lace

Today we slept in and ate breakfast in our hotel. After reading through the Rick Steves book, we decided to purchase an all-day public transportation (by boat) pass, so we could go on a ferry ride to the different islands near Venice. We went to two islands: Murano and Burano, with our first stop in Murano. Murano is known for its blown glass. The whole island was lined with blown glass shops. There were also huge glass pieces displayed outside throughout the island, which was amazing to see. We next went to Burano, which is known for its...

May 13, 2013 - A Sinking City

High-Five!!! No, seriously, I am giving you an air-five at this very moment… Today, we woke up, packed, and hit the road for Venice. With our luck, or lack of (in regards to public transportation), we decided to leave extra, extra time between all our connections. We hopped onto a bus from our hotel to the train station. From the train station we caught a train from Siena to Florence. Then we transferred from that train to a second train which took us into Venice. Everything ran smoothly…hence the high-five! The train station is in the...

May 1, 2013 - Venice

We have a whole day today in Venice with many things to do. We begin the day with a cruise thru Venice to the Arts Center where we see the art of glass blowing demonstrating the making of Murano glass. Very skilled and beautiful work. Afterwards it is back on the boat and off again to St. Mark's Square for a gondola ride. It was very nice; our gondolier was not the singer but the one 32 boats in front of us had the singer and the musician. As we float thru the waterways the sounds echo off the walls of the many homes we pass. It is a nice...

Apr 30, 2013 - Verona to Venice

As mentioned, I got up early to take pictures in the rain of Baveno.(See previous entry) What a small quaint place! Someday I want to return to the Lake region of Italy, especially to see Lake Como and the many small towns surrounding it. Now we are off to Verona and Venice. Since we are driving across northern Italy, passed the southern fringes of the Alps, there is no chance we can get to Verona before the crowds, so upon arrival we basically are walked to the city center to see their Roman Arena. This arena is very much still in use,...

Apr 17, 2013 - Ah Venice

Today was our longest travel day. We caught the 7:20 am train at Corniglia, then transferred at La Spezia, then again at Parma, then Bologna, and we finally arrived in Venice at 2:30 pm. What a welcome when you step out of the train station. The Grand Canal! We found our accommodation with only a little difficulty. Once we got settled we wandered aroung and had a bite to eat. By four thirty the M and Ms we ate on the train weren't cutting it any more. We enjoyed some yummy homemade ravioli. Tomorrow we plan to take in some of the major...

Jan 8, 2013 - Venice

Hi we are in Venice, I found a great jigsaw shop and I am eating lots of pasta. Nick Hi this is Ben, this trip Nick has discovered his new favourite soccer player his name is Totti. I have bought 3 jerseys and soccer shorts, Nick bought a jacket, jersey and shorts. We went on a gondeiler ride it was so fun because we got to take in the real Bueaty of Venice from the water. Hope everyone is surviving the heat :)

Dec 10, 2012 - Venezia

This morning, unlike other mornings, we waited and waited for the bus while several empty buses went past us. We had given up and started to walk back to camp when a bus finally arrived and we had to run to catch it. Then when we got to the bus station in Venice there was a major traffic jam and police everywhere. We never did find out what was going on. We walked to the Basilica of Santa Maria della Salute which overlooks the entrance to the Grand Canal across to San Marco Piazza, then walked back to the Museo Correr and spent about 3...

Dec 9, 2012 - Murano and Burano

A beautiful blue-sky day again today so we decided to do the ferry trips. Again we caught the bus into Venice and at the information centre purchased 12 hour ferry passes for €18 each. From Ferrovia we took the ferry to Murano and walked to the Glass Museum where we spent an hour before wandering back through the streets stopping at a glass factory (where we watched a couple of pieces being made) and looking through the many glass shops. From Murano we caught another ferry out to Burano and at the pier had a welcome snack of calamari and...

Dec 8, 2012 - Venezia

It snowed for several hours last night and we awoke to a white wonderland. We caught the bus into Venice later in the morning and walked to the Peggy Guggenheim Collection. This was originally the private collection of modern art of the American heiress Peggy Guggenheim housed in the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, an 18th century palace on the Grand Canal, which was Guggenheim's home. We spent a very enjoyable 3 hours or so looking at the varied paintings and sculptures among which are works of Picasso, Balla, Dalí, Magritte, Miró, and Ernst...

Dec 7, 2012 - Venezia

We caught the bus into Venice this morning and walked into a travel agent near the Piazzale Roma (after being sent on a wild goose chase yesterday by the information centre!) and we sorted out our ferry travel from Venice to Igoumenitsa in Greece for Tuesday. It was trying to snow as we walked to Palazzo Ducale (Doge’s Palace) to take the tour of the Palace, which included the Bridge of Sighs and the “New” Prison. We bought the “11 Museum” pass for €20 thinking that we should get our money’s worth over the next three days. Sue visited the...

Dec 6, 2012 - Venezia

We spent another day and night at El Bacan; the day was overcast so we took Homer a few kms up the road to a large shopping centre and spent some time here in the warm, and stocked up on provisions. Yesterday we drove the 120kms from Verona to Venice and found our way to Venezia Camping Village in Mestre. This is a very convenient campground just next to the bus stop into Venice and with fantastic facilities. We took a walk in the afternoon to check out our surroundings. This morning we caught the bus into Piazzale Roma (the bus station)...