17 Sept 2008 Today the aim was to visit a mosaic studio southwest of Ravenna called Studio Akomena, then proceed through Faenza to Bologna, ending up with dinner at Bologna. The day started off poorly: we couldn't find the studio despite having reasonably good directions for it, and the Faenza Museum of Ceramics was actually (from our perspective) rather dull. I guess we're not really ceramics people. The small display of new works were quite interesting, but that was at the end of around half an hour of the kids already being bored from the long drive there. So we headed [View Full Entry]

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16 Sept 2008 Today dawned slightly warmer, and we decided to just chill out. Joseph and Liam found a flying fox next to a "Mixtreme" adventure climbing structure, so they had a few goes on that. I'd already promised Joseph that he and I would try the Mixtreme, which opened that afternoon at 5:30, so we only had to preoccupy ourselves for the day. The boys had a quick swim again in the other "Acqua Thermae" pool, which wasn't heated either, but by mid afternoon we were pretty bored. So we took a short drive to Commachio to the south of [View Full Entry]

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15 Sept 2008 It being a cold start to the day (11 degrees when I returned from my run), we didn't think we'd spend much time at the pool, but the boys were keen so in they went. Shortly thereafter they shivered their way over to the towels, and we decided we wouldn't be spending as much time there as they'd thought. So we decided to visit Ravenna. The rental car had developed a crack in the windsc [View Full Entry]

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14 Sept 2008 As is often the case, a boys' eyes are bigger than his stomach, and that proved to be the case for both boys last night. Liam and Joseph each had a chocloate sunday after a hot chocolate drink (they were completely chockiffied). Ky had a type of pav/meringue that was extraordinarily sweet, while I had chocolate profiteroles. But the 14th being Sunday, it was our day to depart from Cavallino and make our way to an area north of Ravenna for our next stay. due to having to checkout early, and not checkin at Camping Tahiti until 4pm, [View Full Entry]

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13 September 2008 Today we drove over to Padova (Padua). The guide books indicated Saturday was market day, which the kids expressed some interest in, and Kylie was keen to look at the churches. With four different maps to reference, we still found it difficult: we had two versions of the city Centro that didn't quite give all the street names, while the wider references didn't provided enough street names or intersection detail to work out if we were on the right road after leaving the Autostrade. Thankfully Padova had a reasonable sign system, showing Centro in black on white background, [View Full Entry]

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8, 11, 12 Sept 2008 We spent Monday, Thursday and Friday enjoying the camping village. With its own pool, restaurant, gelati stand, shops, playgrounds, tabletennis and access to the beach we were pretty well catered for. We had fine sunny weather right up to midday on Friday so the kids spent a lot if time in the pool. I didn't take any photos. If you want to get an idea, checkout their website at http://www.baiaholiday.com/en/cavallino/presentazione/. The beach was pretty empty, it being after the main holiday season. Postcards we looked at for the area show the beaches chock-a-block wi [View Full Entry]

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We took another opportunity for a relaxing start to the day. Joseph and Liam headed off to the playground early to make some friends. Then at 10am when the pool opened they went swimming. Liam returned at around 11am, saying he wanted to make some friends so didn't want to be in the pool, but then decided to get back in later anyway. Joseph paired up with a german boy, whose name I think is Marvin, and they hung out with another kid playing table tennis under the pine trees. Around 2pm we decided to head out and go driving around [View Full Entry]

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We drove down to the ferry stop near us: Punta Sabbioni, parked for €5.00, and hopped on the ferry. There are a number of term visit tickets you can get which each provide unlimited travel on the ferries (Vaporetto) and the buses to and from Mestre (not that we needed the buses). We opted for the 12 hour ticket which cost €14.00 each, no discount for children (no sconto per bambini). From first glance, arriving by boat into Venice is as you'd expect: you see the domes of the churches [View Full Entry]

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Our day was spent on two primary endeavours, firstly to visit my sister's friend's house in St Michele in Teverina, and secondly to drive to our accomodation in Cavallino (southeast of Venice on the peninsula). What I didn't realise was that much more important than that (sorry Joanne), was to actually get out of Rome first! Anyway, we did manage it, and I must say that although the road signs in Rome were not very helpful, all the regional roads we have come across so far (I'm writing this on 10 Sept in Callino, as it happens), have been well signposted. [View Full Entry]

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