We are in Venice

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Hi everyone, sorry for not being able to write more but we have had limited access to a computer. The last one we tried to use was modem connection and I didn't have the patience!

We are in Venice now exploring the fantastic city. There are soooooooooooooo many people it is crazy. We had dinner last night at this great restaurant where the owner and his daughter sang and they were good!! The food has been awesome and we have not yet had a bad meal.

We had fun in Asti but it was much bigger than we anticipated. We also got lost a couple of times and we got a parking ticket (36 euro) for parking in a pedestrian area, Julie thought it was ok to park there because everyone else was but I guess that was a no no, when we returned to the car no one else was parked there and we had a ticket.

In Asti we ate at this castle up at the top of Portocamaro, unbelieveable!!

It's almost hard to put into words what you see here, I am constantly oooohhing and awwwwing 😊

I love Italy, I can say that the only negative has been smoking. . . EVERYONE smokes and it sucks.

Every morning we have our cappucino and croissant and I am getting spoiled by the coffee here. . I know I am now cured of driking at starbucks!

We went to Doge's Palace today, it is truly incredible to see. The paintings on the walls are beyond explanation and I purchased a book that gives more detail on what each part of the palace contains. When we left Doge's Palace and got outside the tide had come in and the streets were flooded so they have these walkways you get on to walk over the water.

We have so much more to see and do before we leave for Florence in the morning. I would love to come back sometime again to spend more days here to take in all that there is to do and see in Venice.

We went on a gondola ride last night, it was so fun and the gondolier was great, he explained all the different buildings and where famous people like Marco Polo lived etc. .

It was pouring rain last night but that didn't stop us . . . good thing we are Oregonians.

I will post more this next week when we are in Florence, we are looking forward to meeting up with everyone in Florence for the week at the Villa.

Our little place here in Venice is small! But it is in a cute part of town called Castello and Silvia is the owner and was very nice and even left us each a little pendant as a gift.

The sun is coming out now and I hope it sticks around for a while. We have had such great weather I don't want that part to end either!

Well I must end my blog for now, I only have 10 minutes left and I need to write some emails.

Ciao

Karen

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