Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Wrapping Up Italy


The final two stops on our Italian tour took us to arguably two of the most romantic spots on the planet. Verona, the setting for Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (quick aside - Bill is the most famous person that I share my birthday with. As a kid I thought that was lame. Now I am old and I think that's cool) and Venice, city of a whole lot of canals, narrow streets and some very cool shops

Verona was first up. We actually stayed a bot outside town so that I could meet up with a friend from work who was leading a soccer/football youth team and their parents on a tour. For a few years Tony has vanished from work for weeks under the guise of doing this. It was great to be able to corroborate his story and see first-hand all the work he does to enable the athletic dreams of these kids. And of course it was nice to have some adult time in a bar and swap some stories. Tony even introduced me to the Italian "Spritz" drink, which went down very nicely.

The highlight of our brief walking tour of Verona was a visit to Juliet's purported balcony, as well as some of the other touristy elements:

What Light Thru Yonder Window Breaks (on a balcony apparently built in 1930)?
Checking out the love notes (aka graffiti)

We never did find out what the deal was with all these locks.

After that it was on to Venice. Venice was absolutely awesome. Years from now when I think of the trip Venice will be one of the cities on the forefront of my memory. We stayed in a little hotel recommended to us by our good friend and travel veteran Roz. It was so cool to be in the middle of it and be able to explore and even get ourselves lost on occasion.

Heather hanging out in St Marks Square
The local highway..."The Grand Canal"
The Mask Shops were amazing to see. I even managed to arrange for my 2012 Halloween costume at one




The Bridge of Sighs - where convicts had their last glimpse of Venice


The gondolas have to park someplace

We even managed to get out of the "city"and explore some of the local islands


Chloe's "PE" class for the day at Lido Island. It was more work when her parents were on the bike with her



On Murano Island we saw a glass blowing demo and nearly paid way too much money for some fancy glasses that I would have probably quickly broke


Lots of yachts in town for Americas Cup. Look close and you can see that the owners are hoops fans

Ciao Venice. We shall meet again.

1 comment:

  1. Number one, way to cool! I am jeolous since I would love to go to Venice. Secondly, I do believe there is a chance I gave you a picture way back when of the boat with the hoop. If it's the same boat it is owned by Larry Elison who has the boat syndicate Oracle. The Yacht is used as a support tendor for the fabulously rich who want to be comfortable watching the America's Cup Semi Regattas. It was here for the same purpose in 04 - hence the pic. I just want to know, who gets paid to go out to in the dinghy to get the ball back..

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