Europa Day 31

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Day 31

Wake up in Venice and do breakfast. Watch the passing parade of tourist buses with their organized tour guides waving umbrellas or sticks with flags or ribbons so people don't get lost.

Book out and leave the bag at reception to be picked up later. It has rained this morning so decide to carry our rain jackets. Good move as it rains a bit more. Wan to go to Murano to check out the glass blowing factories. Ferry times make it out of the question - too long to get there qnd see anything before we want and have to be off the island.

Start to walk around the square and then get propositioned by some cool dude who offers us a free trip to Murano on a water taxi with no hitches (??????). Not for us buts ask the taxi guy about a trip through the back streets of Venice. No way, only gondolas get to go down those little canals and they are not for us..

Walking the back streets is the next option. Off e go and our first street is a treasure trove of glass shops, bags, etc. 7th heaven for Chris and some really interesting place overall..

All of a sudden, thunder and down comes the rain - so hard that everyone is under cover and amazingly the touts are out selling poncho's and umbrellas before you can say 'welcome to Venice'.....

We shelter under umbrellas at a pizza bar watching all this take place. Eventually the rain eases and we jacket up and go, not before Chris gives the pizza dude 2€ tip for the use of his umbrellas - very surprised but grateful.

Find our way via back streets to the Rialto bridge and decide it is time to get out of here. On the ferry back to San Marco, collect our bag and again the ferry to Tronchetta.

Off to our next destination, Lerici on the western coast near the Cinque Terra. Getting dizzy with the zig zag across Italy but some interesting country anyway. Stella takes us through Bologna but there are no signs of the earthquakes so we keep going. Chris has been reading the book on Italy driving and suggests that we find the Ferrari museum near Modena.

Off the motorway with NFI where to go next. Luck out with a signpost and re-route Stella to the Ferrari POI (point of interest). Many wrong turns and way out of our way, we eventually find the Ferrari factory. Go to the gate and a friendly guard comes out to re-direct us (with a paper map) to the museum. While he is talking, a crashed Ferrari comes out of the gate. He lets the, out and off they go Ina howl of Ferrari exhaust somewhere down the road - must be making sure that the un-crashed bits still worked.

We eventually find the museum and in we go. Approached at the door by a grid girl in the red colors offering a drive in a Ferrari. Not part of the family but across the roads. Decide against this at the moment. Pay the entry price and here's a sign stating that the Ferrari drives offered outside a not genuine.........

Walk the museum amazed at the different cars on display - from really old original sedans to F1 cars across many years of existence. Walking from the F1 hall back to the static area, hey were moving a few cars (very carefully) so we hung around. Turns out they were getting a car (or more) from the upstairs exhibition.

To do this, they had to bring in specially mad bits that they assembled on 4 hydraulic rams that were in the floor under stell plates. On these rams they set up a jack assembly that they lifted to the 1st floor where they could then drive cars on and lower to the ground floor. Very ingenious and only used every so often.....

Another piece of good timing by pure chance....

Off again and finally arrive at Lerici. Drive the town and up some hills and stop at a hotel that we find. Park the car (seems a luxury here) and ask about a room - yea, in luck).

Nice room (2nd floor and yes, no lift again....). Never mind, getting good at this bag carrying stuff.........

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