Day 8 Venice to Rome

We leave Mestre, Venice, early in the morning , and drive across the Appian mountains and head for Rome. We have a toilet stop at a roadside amenities along the way and also stop at a “services” for lunch. It is pretty stressful J testing out my Italian to order. It would have been hard enough figuring it out for me but wait…..I need to order for all 6 of us!!!! So after lots of gesturing, plenty of smiles and my smattering of newly aquired Italian we actually get what we ordered and I even managed to correct the lady when she got it wrong. Who’d have though I could have such an enormous sense of achievement over a simple quarter of margarita pizza.  The adventure continues. We finally arrive in Rome mid afternoon and check into our hotel. At 4.45 we depart the hotel and meet up with a local guide for an orientation tour. We get fitted out with the latest in audio assistance, little earpieces that allow us to hear the guide whilst she talks and walks (saves her standing still and yelling), the only challenge then is to stay within range of the radio which is about 20 metres and this little Italian lady can sure duck and weave. I grab Riley’s hand and between us, Mark and I manage to keep all our cherubs in tow. We walk down the Spanish steps, across Rome in the drizzling rain to the Pantheon where we spend some time listening to our guide Miray, explain the significance and history of this amazing church.  We walk past the home of Pinocchio, where the kids get a photo with the little guy on a wooden bench before we arrive at  Piazza Navona. After some more orientation and history we are set loose to find a small ristorante off the Piazza. We find a nice enough little place and enjoy a fresh  pasta  dinner, then surprise, surprise ….some  absolutely wonderful gelato for dessert. We watch the last of the early evening light fade as we photograph in the Piazza then reboard our bus and head back to our hotel. Our nightly rituals follow , but at least we are here two nights so we don’t need to worry about putting the bags out in the morning or finalizing packing tonight. 

Beautiful, breathless, magical Venice!

Day 7-Lucerne to Venice

 

After breakfast we leave Lucerne and drive through the snow capped mountains to the picturesque lakes district of Italy. We skirt Lake Como and the city of Milan before arriving in Venice in the early afternoon. We take a water taxi from Mestre to the island of Venice.  We do a quick orientation then watch a glass blowing demonstration, by a traditional artisan at the Murano glass factory. We enjoy an hour of  free time to wander (more gelato)  and shop before  we meet up in Piazza San Marco. Maddie finds a beautiful hand painted mask with lovely musical scrolls around the top and a violin painted on the face. The boys each buy some great souvenir Italian model soldiers. We meet for a gondola ride  through the narrow canals which is simply magical. No wait I mean TRULY MAGICAL!!!!!!  As a family of 6 we have a gondola to ourselves. We have a bottle of Lambrusco provided for Mark and I, and the kids have a lemonade each. There is one gondola in our group with  a gentleman serenading us accompanied by an accordian. We then have a half an hour more free time  during which we race around trying get some photographs, buy some gifts for family and try to absorb as much of this pure magic that is Venice in the late afternoon.  We meet up again for a private motor launch ride through the Grand Canal to take us back to our transport to the hotel. We pass under the Rialto Bridge and admire the amazing scenery at every turn.  Mark and I hadn’t done this last time we were in Venice and it was an absolute HIGHLIGHT this time. Venice is a jewel in the golden afternoon light.  An amazing experience.  It really is too difficult to describe and the closest I can come , although it sounds incredibly corny, is PURE MAGIC!  After we settle in to our hotel rooms we  meet up for dinner at a local restaurant, pasta yummmmm. Such a totally amazing day.  How can tomorrow possibly beat today?

(even though it is now weeks ago since our return Venice still leaves me breathless)

Our evening ends with, you guessed it, photos, batteries etc…….

An interesting aside, and I don’t mean to bore you with “potty” talk but our wonderful guys encountered something new and wonderful in their hotel rooms tonight…… a bidet! I decided to ask them what is was, Riley answered immediately “Oh, I know, it is a little, itty  bitty baby bath” The other kids were less forthcoming. they were trying to seem knowledgable without actually admitting they had no idea , so they were poking fun at Riley's answer without offering any better ideas. Finally we explained its real use, but it was really amusing for a while there. 

One last note......I took over 900 (yes, you read that right) photos in our afternoon in Venice. I have shared just a couple of my favourites here.

Happy birthday Maddie

Our darling girl Maddie celebrated her 14th birthday yesterday. The celebrations actually started last week with a paintball party with her girlfriends, then a sleepover party here on Friday night with two of the girls after a movie. last night she had a nice Thai dinner from Chili Club, her favourite restaurant.  So here is our beautiful now  14 year old daughter!

Stanserhorn, Switzerland

Day 6- Heidelberg to Lucerne, Switzerland

 

Another early start as we leave the hotel at 7.15 am and drive through the very beautiful Black forest  to the Swiss border. We first stop late morning at the Rhinefalls – the start of the Rhine River in the foothills of the Swiss alps.

We have ice cream and French fries as a snack then back to the coach (not nutritious but yummy and the most kiddy appealing on the fairly limited menu- Mummy opts for a nice cappuccino instead). We drive to the picturesque alpine city of Lucerne and firstly take a cable car/funicular combo up to the top of Mt Stanserhorn. On the way up we see a young deer on the slope beside the cable car. The “typical” swiss scenery is breathtaking.  At the peak there is a man who is visiting with his 4 month old wolf cub. The boys are intrigued and love to pat the animal. Apparently no license is required to keep this wolf as a domesticated pet, unlike dingoes in Australia.  There are a few piles of reasonably soft and clean snow- it is a clear blue skied day and the views are incredible. The kids have a fantastic time throwing snowballs at each other and just frolicking in the snow.  Maddie decides to make a snow owl (instead of a snow man) From this one vantage point it is possible to see not only the Swiss Alps but also the Italian Alps and the Austrian Alps.  After an hour or so we take the cable car back down and late afternoon arrive in Lucerne. We have a brief stop at the Lion Monument in honour of the Swiss guard who were killed in the French Revolution and then have a few hours of free time. We shop for watches at Bucherer ,and Riley gets a personalized Swiss army knife.  (it is now safely stowed in our safe until he is of a reasonable age to be able to handle it safely- that was the bargain when he desperately wanted to buy it and he has been a trooper in upholding it and not whinging). And honestly, what better souvenir in Switzerland than a swiss army knife for a little boy………….

After this we wander the Chapel Bridge and look at the very beautiful Lucerne lakeside , in the late afternoon light.  We do some last minute chocolate buying immediately before we get back on the bus to round out our “typical” Swiss souvenir must buys…LOL

Dinner is at the hotel this evening. The boys have a short 15 min play on the play equipment at the truck stop in front of the hotel before dinner.

We continue our evening ritual of preparing clothes, battery recharging and photo downloading.

Off to Italy tomorrow…………