Venice and the start of our cruise!

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Our stop in Venice was nice however getting on the boat was very welcomed. After lugging our bags up and down stairs and all over the cobble stoned city sidewalks, we were very happy to hand them off to the cruise staff! We really enjoyed our first evening of walking the quiet evening streets and stumbling across an amazing restaurant with delicious and fresh seafood! Our Venetian style hotel was in a quieter part of town, which was a wonderful break from the crowded city streets. After checking out of our hotel the next morning, we enjoyed strolling around adoring the beautiful architecture and the Grand Canal. Amazing to think that this city was built so long ago and still exists with no wheeled vehicles of any kind! Everything and everyone is transported by boat or walking! No wonder the Venetian women can eat the wonderful bread and gelato but remain fit! We also went into a couple of shops where they make the famous Venetian masks. These were worn in the past to hide their identity from others either due to social class or to hide from wrong doing. It was fun to try all the fancy masks on and take pictures of each other! After boarding the boat, we realized that Scott didn’t have dress pants to wear out to dinner. We could get by the first evening, however the next morning it was up to search for some pantiloni. Turns out shopping in Italy for dress pants for Scott’s “thick” legs was nearly impossible! We spent hours going from store to store asking for wider legged pants but everything was skinny and extra skinny! Finally at Doppelganger(really that was the name of the store) we found some that were good enough! We are now back on the boat laying in the sun on the upper deck and waiting to depart for our first stop in Hvar, Croatia

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