We woke up Sunday on our entrance to Venice to find out we were encased in fog. Nothing moving but the fog horn. We were anchored outside the harbor and not going anywhere soon. It took about 6 hours for the fog to lift and we had a window of time to get into the dock before the sailboat regatta started (sailboats have priority in Venice). This didn’t affect us because we were staying in Venice for two nights but everyone who had a flight or train was in big trouble.
When we finally docked, getting off the ship was a little tense. We navigated the People Mover (you had to buy tickets and walk up steps) to the vaporetto and found our apartment after a transfer. It was right by a canal which was a little noisy at night and the internet connection was lousy–still a great “taste” of how to be local.
We found a restaurant that was about as Italian as you can get– small, old, crowded, menus in Italian and everyone speaking Italian at the same time. Italians can talk “up a storm”. The food was great and we had a band. It was very amusing and distracted me so that I forgot to take any pictures.
The next day Jen and I did the San Marco “tour” and visited the museums before having another good dinner at 6432 a le tole.
We were off to Florence in the morning.
Finding our apartment in Florence was a challenge because I became map challenged–Jen had to take over. After walking forever with our suitcases we made it to our apartment which was near the Duomo:
Florence draws a crowd and walking the narrow streets is a worthwhile challenge: 
We met my niece – Mady and her roommate Sami and we went to have some pasta, visit their apartment, and see the “Kent State” of Florence. They live with four other girls in a large, 3rd floor flat. (that’s the 4th floor in Italy– no lift).
The girls had class so Jen and I went to a restaurant at the end of our street for Caprese salad, cheese ravioli, and fettuccine with mushrooms—-don’t forget the tiramisu for dessert: 
Tomorrow we explore Florence.
Barb Does The World 
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