Hotel Vena D Oro Abano Terme

... The hostel I stayed at was a DUMP! It was really pretty terrible. But I slept well-enough and opted to avoid the 'shower' and wait for the cruise. Though I know that will be a cramped space, but at least it will (hopefully) be clean.

Arrivederci Italy! A presto.

Hopefully I'll find internet here and there while docked at various ports. But it may be a full week before you get any witty, intelligent, humorous updates from this particular traveler. ;)

Ciao!

... Octopus salad so we shared one of those too and the little lady treated us like one of the family and waved us goodbye . After a great day we boarded the ship for our last night at sea and the next day we would be back in Venice again to end the cruise I can say that this has been great fun and we will do it again .

Arriving in Venice we had a nice breakfast and then left the ship for the shuttle bus into the city centre and then another bus to the ...

... to head to the airport early to get some studying in before our plane took off. Chris,Katherine, Lorin and Jess decided to stay back at the hostel and study there and planned to meet Eric and I at the airport in a few hours. Eric and I arrived at the airport about 5pm and had 4 and 1/2 hours to kill before our plane took off. After studying for a long time, it finally became 9pm and Katherine, Chris, Lorin and Jess were no where in site. Luckily our plane was delayed 20 minutes ...

Venice
Raining and pouring for the morning in Venice..but we braved the elements and the buses and the Italians and other tourists to head from the motel (on the mainland) into the city of Venice. We were soaked by the time we got off the bus but the “Australian Drowned Rats” (ADRs) carried on.. We somehow bought tickets for a boat trip.. And then took the wrong boat but ended up on a great trip down the Grand Canal…even in the ...

After the wedding we spent a few days in Venice before flying home. This is one of the cities I wish I could walk around without anyone else there. I am sure it is much more beautiful without the hundreds of people on every little bridge. It was a lot of fun wandering around, getting lost and then finding a place to enjoy a glass of wine.

cheers

... class: Back over to where they work the glass, they open at 7 and then at 8 off to the "tool shop"! Class starts at 9! We have already met our Maestro Lucio and the party. So I am utilizing my awake time to send you some info! Need to find my camera and insert "critter" picture! LOL! Found it! PHOTO_ID_L=critter.jpg

... the terrace, light music wafting over from the restaurant area, the gentlemen descending to the columns below to discuss business in urgent whispers. The terrace is, of course, overgrown with tourists now. Plus the view of Barcelona is unparalleled, except maybe from the castle we see on top of a mountain behind us. On a neighboring hill nests some sort of a weird TV tower, the biggest I've ever seen. After Park Guell we make our way to ...

... islands including Murano (with the glass factories) and Torcello (with the oldest cathedral in Venice). We travelled on the buses so much that when we stood still on the islands afterwards we still swayed. We also saw piazza San Marco in flood and had to wade through it. This is not nice as in the water are cigerette butts and pigeon poo - and the water goes into the shops around the piazza. For some reason, Venice ...

After waiting and not getting to Murano yesterday we got there today, actually picking up breakfast of premade sandwiches just in time for the Vaporetti. Upon arriving we saw Murano glass making at its finest. Whisked into a factory we watched a maestro do something amazing, he turned hot glass liquid into a beautiful Murano cat, unbelievable, really was. We shopped, had some lemon ice and even saw this museum that had tremendous history with all sorts of things related to ...

... it is probably a drink that grows on you. We only visited one museum - an impressive collection of modern art amassed by an eccentric Peggy Guggenheim and displayed in her former home by the canal. A Jackson Pollock exhibition was also on which was interesting to see (lots of paint splatting really). Venice holds the annual Carnivale Festival so there are loads of great masks for sale and we also stumbled across the shop that created the ...