Monday, October 25

Beauty, charm, mystery, elegance -- Venice is all these things.

When we awoke in Venice it was beautiful and sunny ... somewhere, but not here!The day dawned gray and overcast but we ventured out after a scrumptious breakfast of apricot filled croissants and hot chocolate and fresh fruit and cappicino. The number 41 valparetto took us quickly over to Murano island where we spent most of the daybrowsing shops and watching a glass factory maker quickly whip out a cat and swan figurine.Just to make things intersting, it was high tide when we arrived on the island, so we spent a bit of time dodging water sloshed onto canal-side streets by strategically selectingwhich bridges to cross and tip-toeing thru some waves breaking over the canal side sidewalks.

Back on the Venice mainland by about 4, the weather had turned absolutely raw -- cold, biting wind and rain whipped around every corner and threatened to turn our umbrellasinside-out on each canal crossing bridge! It was still fun to explore the maze of alley ways and canal bridges that connect this amazing city and find a few more storesto stick our heads in and shop for a bit.
After a full day and a glass of wine in our B&B room (we brought from the villa!), we ventured out to a osteria recommened by our Rick Steves book and the B&B concierge. Alas, it was an extreme dissapointment. All courses were bland and as I told Farley, the only good things about the meal were the company and the Chianti! The attached pic shows our feelings -- we took one of the smelts from the entree and placed him where he would effectively show our feelings about the meal.....no, we didn't really pay our bill this way, but snapping the pic made us feel better!

We have had some amazing culinary experiences here in Italy but this was proably the low point.

We are happy that we have one more chance for a fabulous lunch tomorrow before we headout in late afternoon for our airport hotel. We have a 7 a.m. flight on Wednesdayto head back home. Will try to blog once more from the hotel tomorrow night.

Although we are cursing the weather gods for not giving us sunshine in Venice (and moonshine because it should be a full romantic moon over the beautiful canals), wealso feel it is a sign that we need to return again to explore this amazing city.

Miss you all; see you soon!