Today was our last full day in Venice and we had an amazing time. We are learning a lot about how to enjoy very touristy cities/areas....

Surprisingly, most tourists do not venture away from the over-priced, crowded ghettos built for them. You pay triple or even quadruple for the same things, and you have to deal with every loud, smelly, lost, fanny-pack-clad tourist who had the same idea for vacation as you did...
>:-/ Luckily, Troy and I both dislike crowds, and we decided there must be somewhere better to be. Just a short 5 minute walk further into the city, we came upon the classic, narrow streets of the real Venice. Colorful sheets and clothes blowing in the breeze across windows above our heads, echoing voices of Venetians cooking lunch or having a drink, lazy pets sprawled out on stoops in the sun....Not a single tourist ( ok maybe just one or two), and we were all to ourselves...Just the way we like to be.

After stuffing ourselves with real pizza :-), I had artichoke, ham and mushrooms Troy had a cheese and tomato, we wandered further, stumbling onto a bored Gondolier who offered us a 10 euro discount from the going rates we told him about.... bargain, bargain, bargain...

Any one visiting Venice, even a budget traveler MUST do this. It was incredibly romantic and relaxing. The perfect way to kiss, suntan or just have some quiet time. In the canals, even though you are frequently in a gondola traffic jam, it is remarkably serene. The only sounds were the water lapping at the boat and a gondolier ahead singing Italian love songs.

After our 40 minutes of romance :-D we wandered back to the train station to make our reservation on the Eurostar to Florence....

We wanted to try Siena ( the smaller, lesser known Tuscan art town) but the logistics of train travel and then meeting mom in Rome were just too difficult.

So tomorrow, we will write from Florence!!

The pic is for the beautiful TATUM ( aka TATO-SALAD, TATO-HEAD, PO-TATUM) She is turning four years old !!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEET HEART!! We love you :-)

We also have a belated birthday Venetian gift coming to Debbie :-) Look in the mail, ok??

PS, thank you to everyone who is communicating through our website posts...Although we haven't had the time to write emails back, we get each and every one of those comments. Thank you all so much. It feels like we are still together!

PPS, to Maki, Paul, and Ruba can you email your addresses to visceraltext@yahoo.com? we got you all postcards, and didnt have your complete address, so you'll have to excuse us sending German postcards from Greece :-P

LOVE YOU ALL :-)
Ciao'