Hotel Casanova Venice

... steps to the top) and the Piazza del Signoria, a great, bustling pedestrians-only town square. We grabbed a gelato and took a short people-watching break before continuing on to Ponte Vecchio and finally, the day’s climax- the Uffizi Gallery.

The Uffizi has been described as the greatest collection of Italian paintings anywhere! But it is so much more. It is laid out in a way that walks you through the transition of style, content and technique from the ...

... She wonders where the money went.
OK: now we are driving in Italian traffic. These people drive as if they have nothing to live for. And, yet, we have not seen a single accident. Regardless, driving is nerve-wracking. But we made it safely to Padua, where we visited the Scrovengi Chapel, painted in frescos by Giotto in the early 14th century. It was commissioned by a man whose father was a very bad ...

... endowed a museum of modern art, which seems especially radical in Venice, with its nearly universal focus on the Renaissance.
After dinner and a rest, we finished our day with a night at the Opera! We saw “The Barber of Seville” a great, silly romp of an opera - and to add to the fun, it was performed inside one of the old Venetian palaces, with each act taking place in a different room. (The small audience followed the players and the Piano Quartet from room to room.)

... and polite but it's funny that with all the tourists they don't care, although that may be a reason too. Anyway, I digress. My little hotel is very nice. Nothing fancy but comfortable and the location is great. Paola, the owner, has good recommendations too. Had a great dinner last night at a little local ristorante. A little salad with fresh shrimp on an artichoke bottom with olive oil and balsamic vinegar then freshly made ravioli filled with ...

... All of us girls crashed on the bed and Steve decided to go explore since he didn’t have as long in Venice as we did. We all eventually woke up and took showers, then met Steve to go exploring. Venice is a very beautiful city, though it does smell somewhat like fish but that didn’t bother me. We walked for hours. Winding around the back streets and bridges, trying to see what treasures we ...

... take us too our stop in Venice. This is the waterbus that took us and Stacy & I in the bus - not looking too bad from too little sleep. Our hotel was Hotel Galeria - which is right on the Grand Canal - by the Academia bridge. A beautiful tiny hotel (only have 10 rooms ...

... that brought us to our cruise ship "The Splendor of the Seas". Once on board and settled a bit, the entire ship of 2000 people were required, by international maritime law, to participate in an evacuation, emergency drill. We had to put on our life jackets in our room and when the alarm sounded proceeded to deck for and our ...

... carried out to the island on special funeral gondolas (hopefully they charged less than they do now for regular gondolas). We took a quick walk around the island checking out the various tombs and graves. It was strange seeing pictures of the people on the grave stones and to see how damaged a lot of them had become. Due to the weakness of the island's soil, many of the stones have started to sink into the ground. We ...

... the Peggy Guggenheim museum. She lived at this house on the canal and her art work is scattered around the house and gardens. She is also buried here, alongside her dogs. Saw many great works of art - Picasso's,Pollocks and Dali's.

Later I met up with the crew at our local and got a little carried away on the Vino..not good as wedding is tomorrow!

... are absolutely no cars around, no roads either, just a maze of identical pedestrian alleys. It goes without saying that this confusing layout combined with the seemingly random house numbers caused me to get rapidly and increasingly lost. In the process, though, I got to see the amazing city that is Venice. The San Marco Square, named after the enormous church that dominates it, is the central part of Venice and the price and 'class' of the shops drops ...