Verona and some of venice....

Verona 9/9
Woke up in Stresa with a serious sore throat and after loading up at the pharmacia caught the train to Milano then to Verona. First use of the Eurail pass, love first class trains over here! Arrived early afternoon and took a cab to Hotel Giulietta e Romeo. Then off to see the sites....

Seen on a plate today: Crepes with a wonderful porcini and cheese sauce, insalada mista, shreded horse meat [yes, as in Mr. Ed] on a bed of arugula with lemon juice and shredded horse-radish, Veal scallopone with porcini sauce, taramisu and sambuca negro.. and of course Chianti and espresso

Jane in the Piazza Bra, 1/2 block from the hotel	The Arena in Piazza Bra	Dante	Just a cool wall...
Guido and Dante	Piazza del Signori	Waterboy in Chiesa [church] St. Anastasia
Giulietta's balcony	The walls everywhere in the little courtyard where Giulietta's balcony is were covered with love notes, Gill loves Jane	Never could find her name, but this fountain was in Piazza dei Erbes. Sort of a fun piazza...
Arch Scaligeri 14th Century	View from Ponte Navi	The only standing Renaissance stairway in Verona in Torre dei Lamberti

Venezia 9/10
Arrived around 3 this afternoon and were the only ones in town today. Well, if you don't count the 300,000 other tourists. IT started to thin out around sunset and turned into what looks to be a charming town. Stay posted for the follow-up pictorial on boarded shop keepers and their over merchandised stores...

Seen on a plate today: Insalada mista, spaghetti pomodoro and spaghetti with clams and pomodoro.... and of course Chianti and espresso....

Guido crosses over...

guess

Guess again...

View from the campanile of St Georges....

Getting the stage ready for " Veniezia, la Luna et Tu" Venice, the moon and you...

St Marcos Church

The hunchback would love this place

View from our room...

Top of St Marcos church...

Last night, after some time at the internet place [literally 100 yards from the hotel] we made our way back to Piazza St. Marcos to check out the concert and it turned out to be Zaccarro [probably the only famous Italian rocker I can name]. Way to much fun! We took a table in Caffe Florian ~ a pub that has been in business since 1720! Of course, that involved Chianti, sandwiches, olives, peanuts and wouldn't have been complete without Italian Irish coffees...	Someone plying a craft that would be done by machine in the US	The new single man powered turbo-charged 6 seater Gondola 2002.
A typical piazza, of which every Italian city seems to have hundreds...	This city IS a postcard....	Famous sinking church, or is that an oxymoron?
Postcard city...	Typical market of fresh veggies...	View from Ponte di Rialto

Venezia 9/11- 12 ~the last night...

Seen on a plate today: Delightful vegetarian focaccia with roasted red and yellow peppers, mushrooms and Mozzarella cheese. Gnocchi ragout, Spaghetti with seafood and a thin grilled steak... and of course, vini e espresso....

Are you ready for this? We went to a Communist Rally ~Festiva Unite`. We actually passed up an invitation to it the night before, but came across it by accident last night. The band was doing Beatles covers in English and the wine was 2 � for a 1/2 liter and served in recycled water bottles...	This is a typical vaporetto, water bus... I am please to report that the water appears clean, that is, it is at least not fragrant and free of floating debris. WE have decided there must be some sort of speed limit and sound restrictions in play here. The motor boats are very quite and there is an absence of kids in little speed boats. I rather thought there would be a bunch of kids in their souped-up Honda low-riders, but there isn't...	Remember, there are no roads to speak of, so there are no service trucks. On every canal, as often as not, the traffic is likely to be a delivery boat bringing wine and water, a dump boat onto which laborers are wheel barrowing construction debris. In this case, it's the garbageroni boat... The red arrow points to the dumpster being lowered by mini-crane into the boat....
The Vaporetto ride to the train station was delightful. We got seats right in the front of the boat and the weather was perfect....	as was the neighborhood...	Another view from the bus....
As I write this we are on a train about an hour inside Austria on our way to Vienna, henceforth to be referred to as Wein, the way they say it. We have a compartment to ourselves, perhaps in part due to a half foggy window. The ride however, has been fast, smooth and comfortable. We have passed through some beautiful mountains, part of the Corinthian Alps. The last few towns have been lake towns. These towns have been delightfully alive. Despite the fact that it is Thursday evening, a bit past 5 PM, the lakes are speckled with sailboats, the roads with runners and bikers and the tennis courts filled. I am quite sure that the one picture I snapped can't even remotely do it justice... I love that the Austrian houses have a, dare I say, "Swiss" look to them. Most sporting colorful flower gardens both in the yard and hanging from the windows!		While this picture is a terrible picture the town/castle/fort, whatever it was, it was too cool to pass up... ..and now the sun has set, Jane has her nose back in Steinbeck's "Cannery Row", I have finished editing this web page and I am ready to to get to Wein, but alas we have 1 hr. 15 to go... yeah right... bitch, bitch, bitch...