Day 24: Homeward bound

After going to bed early last night we were up before the alarm as usual and got to the airport in plenty of time before our flight.  The plane was only about 1/3 full so everyone got to spread out for the flight.  I had hoped to have a good nap during the 8 hours to Philadelphia but it didn’t happen—only a couple little cat naps.  We then flew to Charlotte and had a 4 ½ hour layover before our flight to Tri-Cities.  After being up for 24 hours we were finally home!  It sure was good to be back in our own comfortable bed!  Even better was the fact that we do not have to go back to work….ever!!!  It was a wonderful retirement trip.

 

Day 23: Venice

We awoke to a beautiful day and visited the Rialto Market area where we visited one of my favorite artist and bought another of his prints.  We explored all the streets in this area and made the olive oil purchases for this trip since we were through schelping luggage except for the airport drag tomorrow.  I had found some bracelets for Becky yesterday and took photos to email her and see which one she wanted but was unable to get an internet connection so I called her and then made that purchase to finish up my shopping list.  After taking our purchases back to the apartment we went to the Dorsodura area and visited our favorite cicchetti bar followed by a trip to the famous Nico gelato store for dessert.   Along the way we found a mask shop we hadn’t visited before and Tim got a pirate mask to add to his collection.  It was now time to do the luggage shuffle and decide what went in which bag and try to get the weights worked out to avoid any additional airline fees.  This was quite a task but we did it:  49.5 lbs, 49.6 lbs and 2 large carry-ons stuffed to the max along with Tim’s mask in his backpack.  We decided to just have dinner in tonight and clean out the refrigerator, especially after Tim had a sugar low and didn’t feel up to going out.

 

Day 22: Train to Venice

We booked our train to Venice to arrive at check-in time there, so we got to have a leisurely breakfast at hotel before taking a cab in a light drizzle to the train station.  It was fun watching the bicyclers going through town holding an umbrella!  With only one train change and a 25 minute delay we were back in Venice and the rain had almost stopped.  We met the apartment rep at the water taxi stop and made our way to our apartment across from the Fortuny Museum/Palace.  We then strolled around Venice in a light rain until we were exhausted then had dinner and early to bed.

breakfast at Hotel Posta

Hotel Posta before departure to Venice

 riding bike while holding umbrella

VENICE!!!

Fortuny Museum

 

Day 21: Ferrari Museum

After a nice breakfast at our hotel we took a cab to the train station then got tickets to nearby Modena where we took the shuttle bus right outside the train station to the Ferrari factory and museum in Maranello.  This was a check mark off Tim’s bucket list.  We were surprised to learn that when Ferrari was introduced in the USA in California it was an upstart company and the sales in the US gave them the capital for the company to take off.  Their theme this year is “Holly Dreaming” and the display was great.  We enjoyed seeing the impressive trophy room with several race cars.  It was a nice day J

 

Day 20: Reggio-Emilia

We woke up at 5:30 in time to see the other 4 off from our window as they took a cab to the train station for their journey to Paris.  We then went back to bed until 9 and had a nice breakfast at the hotel.  They put out a big spread with lots of variety for breakfast but Tim ate light this morning after getting sick through the night last night.  He thinks it was from overeating at dinner last night. 

Reggio-Emilia is a delightful town.  Yesterday was a holiday and a lot of the shops were closed but today, Saturday, everyone in town was out window shopping.  The only souvenir shop we saw all day was a tobacconist with just a handful of souvenirs.  It is such a change to be in a foreign town which isn’t filled with tourist.  We only saw a handful of people who looked like tourist.  We had a very nice walk for a few hours and when the shops started closing at 1 to 1:30 pm for lunch we decided to follow suit and take an afternoon nap until they opened back up at 3:30.  We had another walk around town with a little shopping then a nice dinner to end a leisurely day.