Surprisingly, the morning found us refreshed and ready to tackle Italy. We'd spent part of the evening with our phrase book and the lap top, practicing our Italian (We had had to use French to check in the night before). It paid off the next morning, when Margaret's broken Italian got us a free breakfast (she asked if breakfast was included and it was - cafe, succo, and brioches which means, coffee, juice and breakfast pastries!) It was a lovely breakfast which we ate at the same outside table as the night before, looking over a mountain river and gazing up into the mountains above. On the road, Barry drove entirely too fast but not fast enough for many of the drivers who still passed us at 160 and more km/hr. We took a blue sign to Venezia and went through town, after town, after town until, at long last, we hit Venice. We parked in the exact same parkade as 20 years ago and then strolled the streets of this amazing one-of-a-kind city, pausing at the Rialto and San Marco's Square. Our favourite part was escaping the crowds (which was remarkably easy to do) and wandering down the charming alleys or side canals, happy to be able to forget about cars, bikes and traffic for awhile. We ate thin crust pizza - huge, tasty and 1.50 Euros per slice - as we walked along. The day included gelato and stopping along a quiet canal for a game of cards, a glass of wine, and Italian slurpees for the kids. Many stores were closed, hence the lack of crowds, but the ones we needed were there. Tessa got another key chain - she's collecting them - and Connor bought an Italian soccer shirt. Around six, we left Venice, and were shocked with the bill for parking (21 Euros). That was the charge for 24 hours, and we expected it to be pro-rated since we'd only been there for about 6 hours. This was our only negative experience in Venice, as the rest of our visit was perfect.