Boscolo Padova Net Padua

... La Traviata – poetically, “the lost one”) swept in from a door behind us and stopped along the aisle to personally greet several of us (myself included – I got a kiss on each cheek from the soprano herself!). Violetta then drank to our health, even passing out a few glasses of champagne to us audience members, and together, we all saw Alfredo Germont enter the “party” for the first time.

It is in this first act that ...

... we loved it there, too! Burano is a bright, cheerful fishing village, known for its lace industry (there are gorgeous lace shops everywhere; I did have to refrain myself from buying a few little girls’ dresses, as we don’t yet know if Baby Boo is a girl or a boy…!). What we really adored about this place, though, was those vibrant colors. Even though it was getting dark out by the time we walked through the island, still we could ...

Motto:
Searching for deals and minimizing the luxuries allows for more frequent trips.
Planning avoids and minimizes complications providing time to enjoy the destinations.

A cruise departing from Venice allowed us the opportunity to add 5 days to visit some hill top cities to the South. The scenery, architecture and history were awaiting our arrival. The GPS would guide us to the following cities:
Oct 11 ...

... hotel.
Now off to Padova...a bit of hairy driving around the lake..not because of drivers, but narrow winding roads with nowhere to go. It was a relief to hit the Autostrada, even though they are generally boring driving. It was a long drive to Padova and we were excited to finally pull up at Nadia and Claudio's. Nadia is a schoolmate of John's.......just a few years ago. After a late lunch Nadia took us into Padova and showed us ...

Left Naples on the 716am train, and arrived in Venice's main station by 1330pm.

It was stone fruit season in Venice, so we saw plenty of cherries, apricots and plums in the produce markets. We visited St. Mark's Square again and waaaaaay overpaid for two coffees at one of the side cafes (30E or nearly $50 USD). The "music charge" allegedly covered the string quartet, but we were willing to pay them to shut up because the music was so bad. Never again. But ...

... you're from California, and they will want to be your best friend! (But don't necessarily try that in France :-P ) Another, I have discussed with some of my friends on the program here, and we seem to all absolutely LOVE the usage of "basta." It literally means "enough," and it's what you say when you're buying things and you want to say "that'll be all." To the American ear though, it's absolutely hilarious: "I'd like a bruschetta, a zaeti, and ENOUGH!/we're ...

... up on us so we headed back for a bus trip to the hotel for some well earned rest. I will have to say that the public transport in Italy is awesome. You could get by your entire life, see the whole country and never need to own a car. Our third day led us to the island of Lido - This time dressed and ready to see a show. No heading back to the hotel to be late again for us! Lido is a long thin island about 5 mins from venice on a water taxi (closer than Rangitoto is to Auckland ...

It was a short night since we had to meet the bus to leave for Venice at 7 a.m. Fortunately, the bus departure was near the hotel (by Santa Maria Novella church). So it was an easy walk. It was a small bus (12 passengers) with a wonderful guide. The tour was in English and Spanish (we were a mixed group). One couple on the tour was from the New Orleans area. So we heard lots of stories about Hurricane Katrina last year ...

... you go to sit and have a few pints (or a few cocktails) and get a buzz going. Not so here! I feel like a booze hound if I order more than one drink... So, in short (too late!) there was nowhere for my to comfortably tie one on for the holiday, so by around 9:00 I was back in San Marco, and the place was still empty. I decided to just go back to Mestre - there was a bar near the hotel where I could at least have a few drinks and chime in the new year with some other folks. I ...

... we later learnt that there are many spar towns scattered throughout, and lots of pretty towns. I was heading down to Este, 20 km south of Barbarano, and then along the road for another 15 kms to Montagnana. This has to be one of the best kept secrets in Italy. It doesn't appear in any of the guide books. I only discovered it because someone had eroneously listed it on the internet, as being this fabulous walled town just south of Padua. It is in fact, 50 km to the south-west ...