Italy- Day 2

I am such a bad blogger- How is a girl ever going to get followers if she can't BLOG on a regular basis?!? Well, I try, but sometimes my real life just gets in the way. I had grand plans when I was twenty and newly married to an E-3 in th Air Force. I was going to be a "kept woman"- the perfect little wifey. Obviously, that plan didn't work out. It didn't work out for many reasons:

1. I don't like being home alone, and my husband thought I should at least clean house- EWW
2. The US Gov't pays the young enlisted folks a wage that is well beneath poverty level
3. I am spoiled and need money to do the things I enjoy
4. Ultimately, I felt I should contribute to society
5. This list could go on for days...

Now, I am re-thinking this whole job thing. If I had never gone back to school in order to make more money for our family, my son might qualify for more financial aide for college!! It is like the ULTIMATE "catch 22!" We just paid off all of my student loans and now we are going to start paying for student loans, AGAIN!!! AAARRRGGGHHH! On the bright side, someday my son will be able to provide for a family of his own. RIGHT? Everything has a way of working itself out in the long run.

Enough of that, I am supposed to be blogging about ITALY!

SOOOO....Day 2 of our Italy trip started in Venice. If you remember, the first day was spent mostly on the bus. We were all tired by the time we got to our hotel. It was dark and we saw very little. I was really excited about today, because we were actually going to see some interesting stuff! After a quick complimentary breakfast at the hotel, everyone loaded back onto the bus (yes, there were some stragglers) and we headed to the docks for a boat ride across the Lagoon to the historical center of Venice.

See how excited my family is to be on this adventure? I think my son is merely tolerating it!

Although we saw some amazing places (St. Marc's Square, St. Marc's Basilica, the Doge's Palace, and the Bridge of Sigh's), my favorite sights were the Murano glass blowing factory (where I spent a lot of money- thank goodness I have a job) and the Gondoliers- those are the Italian men who steer the gondola's through the canals of Venice. Upon first sight of these men I reminded my husband of how I used to tell him, when we were kids, that I was going to marry an Italian man someday- I don't think he was amused in the least- hehe!

This was one of the many glass blowers (I don't think his clothes could have been any tighter) at the factory we visited. He created a vase in a matter of minutes that was beautiful, but since it was not "perfect" to the man on the right with the tie, it had to be destroyed -CRAZY!

This is a picture of some of the gondoliers. It is a little dark, but you get the idea. I couldn't help but stare- this was the moment I realized I liked Italy, even if it was dirty!

This picture is of our personal gondolier, and a very nice couple on our tour who shared the gondola with us. I had my son take several pictures of our gondolier for me (my son was in a better position in the gondola for picture taking). My husband and I shared a bottle of sparkling wine on our ride, each group got a bottle to share, but no one else on our gondola wanted any so it left more for, well, mostly ME!

We were not allowed to take pictures in the glass factory, other than the one above, so I don't have any shots of what I bought. I will tell you I bought three beautiful vases, though. They are being shipped to my parent's home in the states. I am very excited to see them!

Following our fun in Venice, we took the boat back across the Lagoon, loaded on our bus and headed to ROME...

Italy- Day 1

WOW, I cannot believe it has been almost a month since my last post! My wrist healed up nicely, a small little scar is all (thanks for asking). I actually started to post about Spring Break as soon as we returned from Italy, but was so overwhelmed, I didn't know where to start. I am still not certain I can figure that out. In fact, I may just post several small stories rather than one long one. That would be OK, right? So, my family went to Italy for Spring Break- Yea!! This was not only to be our last big trip before leaving Germany for a new assignment in the states, it was also our last trip before our son goes off to college (I am very SAD he will be leaving the nest). My husband and I decided a bus tour would be the best way to go- not sure I would do that again for a six day excursion! Day 1, we had an early morning departure and were supposed to make it across the Austrian Alps and arrive in the afternoon at "beautiful" Lake Garda and have dinner at one of the lakeside restaurants, before driving on to our first hotel in Venice. Well, we never even saw Lake Garda, at least not on the way TO Italy. All was going well until we reached Austria. Suddenly, traffic came to a complete standstill. No joke, people were getting out of their vehicles, taking walks and picnicking up and down the autobahn. I cannot be sure if this was the cause of the "stau" (traffic jam) or the effect. Approximately five hours later it was over... just cleared up and traffic moved beautifully. Instead of eating pizza and looking out over a beautiful lake, we ate at a rest stop on the side of the road. Don't get me wrong, these are not like the truck stops one experiences in the states. These stops are usually quite clean and decent places to eat, it just wasn't what was on our agenda. So, instead of "beautiful" Lake Garda, we got:

Pretty view, huh? Just Kidding!!

Even though we were not at Lake Garda, we did have some beautiful views of the mountains! After our quick dinner/bathroom break, we loaded back onto the bus. Final stop, day 1, our hotel: Venice! It was very late and we couldn't wait to get to our beds to rest up for our next long day of touring........