Italy/Greece : Day 10 - On the way to Greece

Last night we had to have our bags outside our door before we went to bed. The bus was going to load up, take the first ferry back to the mainland and meet us there.

The following morning, the kids were coming down the elevator. Part of the way down, they met Fabrizio, who was rounding up the suitcases from the people who forgot to put them out last night. He saw the kids in the elevator and said, "Oh good! Take these two suitcases down to the lobby." Then he pushed the suitcases into the elevator with the kids. When they got to the lobby, the door opened to a harried looking porter who scolded the kids (in Italian) for not having their suitcases ready on time. hahaha!

Today is our travel day. We leave Italy behind! Here is our last meal in Italy on the way from Venice to the Ancona.

Here is our last gelato in Italy (down the street from the sandwich shop):

Here us our last church viewing in Italy. I don't know what the name of the church is. It was just across the street from the gelato shop:

In Patras, we boarded the ferry for Greece. There are only a few ferries going from Italy to Greece because of the unrest in Greece. The port that the tour company usually uses was closed. We had a few problems getting past the port authority, but Fabrizio took care of it all (in very heated Italian).

I'll talk more about the overnight ferry to Greece tomorrow. Today, I want to add a few tits and tats about our time in Italy. Here is a field of Tuscan sunflowers. There were sunflower fields all over Northern Italy. We were there just at the end of the growing season. You can see that they are starting to droop. They must have been spectacular to see a few weeks earlier.

Oh look! Here's my beau from Florance. All the wooden boys and toys reminded us that the story of Pinocchio originated in Italy.

Oh look! It's Chris's dream car!

The amount of luggage was AMAZING! Everyone on the bus had one suitcase and one carry on, and almost everyone's suitcase was the maximum size allowed by the airlines.

Venice is famous for MASKS! They were so FUN to look at! Some were really gorgeous!

Cheryl got a mask for a souvenir. I don't know how she could pick one out of the thousands and thousands of masks that we saw.

Chris is styling his new hat and sunglasses. He lost the sunglasses that he brought with him, and he's really going to need a hat in Greece. The sun there is supposed to be brutal!

This is a Burano color study... I'm dressed kind of blah, so Cheryl picked the green for me...

Blue of course for Jim...

Chris is styling the neutrals....

Since Cheryl picked my color, I picked hers... What do you think?

Chris is learning all the features of his new camera...

Lastly, here is my favorite photo of Cheryl and Chris. People on the trip were unsure about Cheryl and Chris. Some people thought that they were 14yrs and 16yrs old. Some people thought they were teenage twins. Most people thought they were going to be trouble. At the end of the trip, I think every parent in the group told me what joys they were. They were so sweet and polite and pleasant to talk to. They also commented on how well they watch out for each other and what good parents we are...

Those are my sweet kids... I'm so proud of them!

Italian wisdom: Parents need to be parents, not friends...

Italy/Greece : Day 9 - Venice

We got to sleep in until 7:20 this morning! YAHOO!

After breakfast we took a boat to Murano.

It's an island famous for Venetian glass. We visited this one glass factory.

Checkout the front page on their website... it's a map of where they are... very COOL!

http://www.ferrolazzarini.it/

They gave us a glass blowing demo.


Everything there was CRAZY expensive! $900 for an 8" glass bowl... $135 for a small glass pendant! We didn't get anything there!

After that we took a boat to Venice. Since Cheryl was there yesterday, she knew her way around. She took us to all the best viewing spots. It was so CROWDED! Like Disneyland on a Saturday during the summer!


And it's not just the walkways that are crowded! Look at the canals!


We were so ready to get out of there! We signed up for a walking tour of back street Venice... What a RELIEF! No crowds, and the city is lovely!




After leaving Venice behind... we arrived at the Island of Burano for an early dinner.

I don't know if I mentioned that the drinking age in Italy is 16yrs. Since alcohol is included at every dinner we've had here, the kids have been drinking (just beer and wine).

After dinner, we had time to explore Burano. Burano is a fishing village (with tourist shops of course).



We took our boat back to Lido Island... And got our feet wet in the Mediterranean Sea. Yes, it really is Mediterranean Sea this time. I checked on the map, hehehe...




Say goodnight to our last night in Italy!

Italy/Greece : Day 8 - Florence -> Venice

We are now half way through our vacation!

We got our wake up call a little late today. There was a little mix up with bags and rooms yesterday. I think they put us in the wrong room and forgot about us. So, we were a little rushed. At least Cheryl is feeling better today.

We boarded the bus. We left minus 4 people and had to go back to find them.

We finally arrived at the Gallery of Accademia where our local docent took us in to see the original statue of David. It was much more impressive than its copy; standing in its own special built alcove!

Now, it's back on the bus for the 3 hour ride to Venice! We had lunch along the way and it was wild! So far we hadn't met any people who didn't speak English. The place where Fabrizio usually takes his groups for lunch was closed, so the bus driver took us to a truck stop... and they didn't speak English. People PANICKED! It was so funny to watch! Since Fabrizio was busy translating everyone's sandwich order, that left the Aus-talian (Australian-Italian) lady to resolve the bathroom problem. The lady who cleaned the room didn't want to open all the stalls... if no one uses the stalls she doesn't have to clean them. Well, she still charged 50 cents per person to use the bathroom AND there was NO paper!

The optional excursion for the day was a gondola ride in Venice. It cost 60 euro per person... which is around $90. We saw that and thought it was outrageous for riding a little boat through the canals, so we decided to skip it. When Fabrizio did the reservation for the boats, he ended up with two extra seats (each gondola holds 6 people). Well, it turned out that we were the only family that didn't sign up for the gondola ride, so he let the kids go along for free.

So we went our separate ways... the kids took the water taxi into Venice...


... to Saint Marks Square...

... for a gondola ride....



AND Jim and I went across the ferry with the bus. Taking a tour bus on a ferry is wild! It's a good thing that Samual is such good driver. He and the ferrymen had to work to get the bus in the exact middle of the ferry for balance, and then pack all the cars in around it.



Speaking of Samual... He doesn't speak English... You know when they say that Italian and Spanish are not far off, they are right. I could actually figure out what Samual was saying. For example, "Piccola borsa nel bus?" is very close to "Pequeña bolsa en el bús?"; which I translated to Jim, "Do you have a carry-on bag under the bus that you want to get out?"

Back to the kids... They weren't on your everyday gondola ride. They were on a gondola ride with a singer and accordion player. There were 8 gondolas and the singer and accordion player were on their gondola. Cheryl said it was very weird how people kept taking their picture and video-ing them from the bridges. TAKE a LOOK!




I thought we were going to Venice too and would meet the kids there, but it turns out that our hotel is on an outer island, Lido Island. So Jim and I set out to explore Lido Island. Which has it's own canals and a beach.


Remember how I told you that the mini-cooper is considered a big car here? Look at this!

And how about this one! LOL!

After messing around, we met up with the rest of the group at the hotel.

We had a nice dinner on the patio; enjoying the sunset with Mario and Carol from San Marcos. That's Venice there off in the distance...

We ended up closing the place down... and Chris found out what it feels like to drink too much wine.

Wisdom of the day: When crossing the street in Italy, be agressive and never show fear...