Last night we had a water taxi boat ride down the Grand Canal which was spectacular and then all went to St. marks square for a drink and to listen to the two five piece orchestras who were top notch. It was magical and definitely a tour highlight! Rod even had the orchestra play Happy Birthday for me! A little later as I was gazing at the other people around I spotted our family GP and his wife three tables over!!! We went to chat with them and they were surpris...

We were bussed to the drop off zone for our water transfer to Venice this morning. Said goodbye to our excellent bus driver, Luigi, and boated to a small quieter island where we had lunch and wandered around the colourful houses then we were ferried over to Venice and our hotel. Lots of people about! We walked briefly thru St Marks Square to our hotel. Drinks and a wander about this evening. Our tour director bought me a beautiful scarf for my birthday today and ...

Today we drove a long way up into the Dolomite Mtns through 128 switchbacks until we reached a WW1 museum where we saw a large collection of artifacts that one man and his family had collected over the years from the mountain pass. Then we carried on to a mountain lake where we had strudel and coffee in the sun then upward to the top of a mountain pass where we took a cable car to a mtn peak that was 9000 feet up. There was a fantastic view up there all the way ...

Today we drove from Lake Maggiore to Verona where we toured the Roman Arena which was set up for a concert, and strolled down the streets to Juliet's balcony, and saw a statue of Juliet in the square. It was very busy in the square with lots of people trying to get their picture taken with Juliet. We had a quick lunch and then off to Cortina. We arrived in this Austrian style ski resort town in the Dolomites around 6 and had a very nice dinner in the hotel restau...

Yesterday we went to lake Como on a day trip, about a 2 hour drive from our resort. We Drove by George Clooney's house but he wasn't home. Went on a boat ride to Bellagio for lunch and shopping. Lots of expensive shops full of leather goods, purses, shoes, and jeweller. After that we came back to Lake Maggiore for afternoon drinks and dinner in a restaurant. Weather was beautiful and warm.