Well, I have to say that I may have had one or two negronis too many last night. I woke up today feeling pretty crappy, but I still made it to Bellagio. The ferry was a lot of fun, with great photo opps. The town of Bellagio is all that I imagined. It is cute, quaint, full of shops and restaurants, but not much more to do than to eat, shop and just soak it in which is what I did. I ate al fresco and had the most wonderful pomodoro soup with bread in it just as the books talk about. After that I had a salad and several different pastries from a little shop on top of the hill. I have been taking some food pictures, so will show them later. The weather turned ... read more

Today was a beautiful, sunny day. Had breakfast on the terrace of the hotel, picture uploaded. I spent most of the day on the vaporetto, the water bus. Had a pretty nasty lunch today. I thought Lasagna al forno would be great here, but I was mistaken. I did take a great ride across the Grand Canal in a traghetto. It is a gondola that crosses the canal at different point. No singing, but it was very inexpensive and fun- so fun that I did it twice today. There is a picture uploaded of the traghetto I was on. For dinner, I grabbed a sandwich and ate in the room while packing for tomorrow's trip to Como. Venice has been a great starting point for this trip, but I will be glad to move to the ... read more

What a pain in the wazoo. I spent the morning trying to find a new memory card for the camera, spent another 40 euros on card, only to have the same problem on the computer. That meant another couple of hours looking for a computer store, which was not able to help. Heck, it's only money, so I just bought a new camera. Success!! I just had this fear of taking thousands of pictures, getting home and finding out that I couldn't develop them. Not gonna happen. I hope you enjoy the pictures that I select. Those of you who know me well know that for each picture there are several others that I didn't put on here. Lots and lots of self portraits in front of various sights. I am also getting along well with ... read more

Ok, here is the quick rundown oh where I am going, how, and where I will be staying. I will fly into Venice and take a water taxi to HTTP://WWW.HOTELSAVOIAJOLANDA.COM/ for 3 nights. Venice should be a nice place to shake off the jet lag I hope. From there, I will take a train to Como and spend 2 nights at http://www.hotelmetropolesuisse.com/frame_ing.html From there, it is down to Milan via train and will spend 3 nights at HTTP://WWW.GRANDHOTELVERDI.COM/INDEX_ENG.HTML I have tickets to the opera at La Scala to see Verdi's MacBeth. Should be fun. Check back to see how it worked out if you like. From Milan, I am taking the train to La Spezia where I will pick up a rental car for the drive into Portovenere where I will be spending 3 nights at ... read more