Florence

What to say?

We stayed just out of Venice at a place called Dolo. It was a delightful place. After the cramped, to say the least, quarters in Verona, it was bliss. In actual fact it was a restored Venetian Villa on the banks of a Canal! A beautiful place. It had a flat screen TV and individual Sky in each room! I finally got to watch the news and sport in English it was crap news and crap sport but who cares I finally understood what was going on!

Venice was what we thought it would be, an open air museum. It was full of tourists! There were queues! We are no longer foreigners, and mad ones at that, but tourists and that is no where as ecentric or endearing! We had been continually delighted with everthing we had seen. It always, to date, had exceeded expectations so Venice being what we thought it was, was less spectacular. Around every corner was not a special sight but rather another canal with another bridge, capped by a tourist taking another photograph of a Gondola!

But the Glass Island, Moreno, was special. We almost came away with a beautiful glass vase, come work of art. It was spectacular and pricey. It was a wrench to walk away with out it but the mortgage and the future of any grandchildren hung in the balance, so reluctantly we walked away. We do have the details so we can still order it and it will be delivered.

We caught the bus into Venice. A great move in retrospect. There is no way that I could have got us both out alive. There is a big thing about getting the credentials of Tourists, this is a requirement of the anti terrorist laws. After seeing the Venicians drive, suicide bombers would be safer! (CIA just kidding, can't be too sure!)

We drove down the Coastal route to Florence, it was beautiful. The only problem was the state of the roads! The little Puegot needed climbing boots to get out of what seemed like chasms. I am not kidding they were shocking! I will never complain about the roads in NZ again, at one stage I thought someone would have to throw down a rope!

Over the pass and into Tuscany! I now understand why it has its' reputation. It is wonderful. The landscapes are straight out of Michaelangelo paintings and today I saw a statue that he had begun when he was 80! Not a bad boy with a chisel our Mick, could paint a bit too! I wonder if he was sponsored by Dulux!

We have been to Cathedrals and Museums today and my feet hurt. If we can find the car we will have done well. We have to get back to the Hotel though because the guy that owns the restaurant has promised us something special. I must say drinking Chianti in a Restaurant in the hills above Florence has a certain allure!

Bought a leather jacket for moi, Kerry chose it, beware I will be super cool and say caio (Chow for the peasants) a lot.

Time to try the photo thing again!

Mike