We woke to our last morning in Florence and looked out of the window to a forest of umbrellas. It’s raining but we don’t care ‘cos we’re off to La Serenissima.

But first, a last walk down to the river Arno, and the Galileo museum, where we happily spent a very interesting couple of hours being amazed at the ingenuity of the early scientists and astrologers. They were so far ahead of their time and were demonised by the Church for daring to contradict popular belief. Thank goodness they were so brave and persistent in the face of such immense opposition, because the rest as they say, is history.

Did you know that you can buy pasta in Italy in your favourite football team’s colours? A missed opportunity for the AFL?

As we sat on the platform waiting for our train to Venice, we spoke to some Aussie tourists who had just arrived from Venice. What’s the weather like, we asked? “Pissing down” they said. Oh well, we’ll take whatever the weather gods decide to hand out.

An uneventful train trip apart from a slight seating mix-up. We arrived in the semi-dark. It gets dark around 5 pm now. We knew exactly where we were going, so walked instead of taking the water bus. We thought that we’d finished with the steep stuff, the hills of Naples, Rome and Siena. Nope! In your dreams! There isn’t any motor traffic in Venice apart from on the water, but there are certainly hundreds of bridges to negotiate. Up and over. Up and over. Up and over. This is going to be the story of our lives for the next 8 days. But not so bad when you don’t have to tow heavy suitcases.

We had a very spookily similar incident with our washing machine. Deb, do I detect a sigh of nostalgia, or hoots of laughter?? We tried to decipher the Italian instructions for the washer, and we ended up with the cleanest clothes in Venice, after 2 ¾ hours!!

Our first day in Venice, and yep, you guessed it, still raining. Pete made me breakfast in bed, a real treat after two weeks of eating in restaurants. After putting on another load of laundry (we have the brute tamed now!) we went for a nostalgic stroll. Ca Doro, Calle Zotti, Strada Nuova, San Marco, and the alleyways back to our Palazzo. Are you sighing, Deb??

Pete’s going to make dinner while I prepare this blog. We’re looking forward to more exploring tomorrow, and the weather gods promise more sunshine every day. Great. Our list of must-sees is a mile long.

We are hoping very optimistically for good orienteering weather this coming weekend.

Buona Notte.

Ilze