Parting is such sweet sorrow:(

The Italy portion of our trip ends today. if we can scramble out of Venice to the train. .to the car..to Bergamo for lunch. .to the airport. .to Stockholm. .to the bus. .to the city center. .to a cab. .to our floating hotel.  We have made it to the bus so far!

  

Evening Views around San Marcos.

The weather has been lovely and the strolling around has been continual. We were wondering if anyone ever left Venice saying they'd love to come back again,  and if so,  what would draw them?  Perhaps San Marcos is the answer.



Can't get enough cow bell...or pizza!

Rossopomodora, red tomato,  is probably the largest restaurant, but for good reason. ..killer pizza.



Lunch near Rialto Bridge

One of the restaurant recommendations from our host,  Lorenzo,  was this tiny out of the way treasure.  Great food and inexpensive.  A tough combination in Venice. Chicken parm and bacon, shrimp carbonara.

Dinner and relaxing in San Marcos

Inexpensive and tasty dinner, followed by listening to classic music in the piazza  was interrupted by the filming of an American TV show called Mozart in the Jungle.  Anyone hear of that one?  Lionna and el Guapo seemed to be the name of the episode,  and they were set up like a real concert.  We watched for about an hour. Then we relaxed to fantastic music for the second night in a row.  Drinks were only $15 each for the privilege!

8 Miles Walking the Streets of Venice!

First,  a shout out to my mom,  it seems they had a year long celebration in Venice for Elaine Gubitz, but never notified her:)

As we continued our 8 mile walkabout, we actually came across a whole street with no tourists...amazing!

The weather was a relatively cool 80 degrees,  with a light wind,  and the tourists, like us except with umbrellas,  were out in force, especially heading to the famous Rialto bridge.

Then there's the Tour de France  to enjoy as you relax. ..wow! 

An Evening In Venice!

Great pasta, gelato (perhaps with some grappa mixed in) and live music in San Marcos Square, with the requisite breeze and cloud cover made for a magic evening.

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Getting to Venice, not for the weak kneed. ..

Starting from Slovenia,  getting on the highway for the first time,  who knew you needed a pass in advance.  After blowing through two pay toll areas with no way to pay,  at area number 3 we stopped in the truck lane.  Bothering the young lady on her cell phone,  she informed us that the fine was $300 but if we bought the 15 euro pass and quickly put it in the window we would likely avoid the fines.  We bought it of course! Quickly sticking, and accidentally tearing it, onto the passenger side windshield,  we discovered it couldn't be torn and it couldn't be on the passenger side. At the 4th toll, we tried to explain this to the 18 year old reading his book and he wouldn't talk to us,  just waved us through aggressively.  Time will tell if the "man" tracks us down and charges us for the innocent offenses.
Then the parking garage in Mestre, then the train to Venice, then the water bus to our stop, then prayer our host,  Lorenzo,  would find us in the crowd.  He did, praise the Lord, and we are now relaxing  in our room watching the tour before we head out for a well earned dinner in Venice!



Another garden dinner. Vila Podvin!

Recommended by Andrej, we  again enjoyed Slovenian food kicked up a few notches.  Our waiter loves Slovenia and has been serving guests for 16 years, even  though he seemed to be in his early twenties. Great food,  low cost,  beautiful environment. ..we're starting to love Slovenia!

A 5 mile walk around the lake.

A beautiful morning to walk completely around,  with uniquely pretty photo ops. ..especially from atop the castle. This was made possible with our local bakery breakfast of champions.