Hotel Raffaello Caorle

... 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.)

... gave up on the sun ever coming up around seven and took off. The days here are extremely short: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. tops.
Our hotel here is amazing: they were happy to check us in at 7:30 a.m. and could not have been more accommodating. We slept a couple of hours and hit the streets - no, canals - around eleven. Our hotel recommended a restaurant where we had by far the best meal we have had in Italy before starting our sightseeing day’ ...

... pillows and as many makeshift covers (aka jackets and sweatshirts) to another compartment and sprawled out on the seats. When we got to Venice, it was very early in the morning, so we had to find our way to our hostel in the dark. But we made it there, only to find out that it was closed for another two hours (that's what happens during low season). So we wandered around, found a market to get a few ...

... it would be nice since it was off the beaten tourist track ... but it was a long walk and the one we selected was a bit disappointing. It's funny but most tourists tend to stay on the Yellow Brick Road (ie follow all the yellow signs directing you from one major landmark to the other). So as soon as you go off these routes, even just one street, you quickly get away from all the crowds. Jeff did some tie shopping, then we spent our ...

... and home to the Doge of Venice for centuries.  Its lace-like Istrian stone arches and trefoils makes the palace a light and airy building.  We took a tour around its chambers and halls but were not allowed to photograph them, and got told off when my flash accidentally went off.  The most impressive room for us was the Sala dello Scudo, which was panelled in old ...

... he first saw in the original store, but not after a bizarre exchange where she charged us one price, but when we were in the store the first time, she'd used the calculator to show us the number (didn't say it in English or Italian) and then charged us 10 euro more when we went back. After a very bizarre English-Italian exchange, she re-rang the transaction at the original price. Funny how people not speaking the same language can communicate so well ...

... Here we shopped for a while, Megan choosing a few pieces of jewelry and Rick tagging along mind numbingly bored. With Megan satisfied we took the ferry back and found a new place to stay for that night, a one star hotel which was actually on the nicer scale of budget hotel rooms. Here we learnt why Venice was so busy this weekend, there was a local regatta taking place that afternoon on the Grand Canal, Venice's answer to a main street. So the afternoon ...

... a beautiiful little town. Most of us headed straight to the Basillica, for St Francis of Assisi. It was georgeous inside and almost enitirely lit by hundreds of little candles and although on the side of a hill was not basked in much daylight. There was a little tomb downstairs that housed a few famous priests and such. Out the back of the church a few of us discovered a beautiful little coutyard drenched in sun and ...