Our three days in Venice was wonderful.  What a beautiful and enchanting city of no cars, just boats of all shapes and sizes.  Instead of streets, there are canals.  The public buses to transport you around the city are yes, just bigger boats.  A three day pass let us get on and off at our leisure.  On our second day in Venice, Saturday, we took a “bus” to Lido, an island outside of Venice where the word was we could walk the beach and find sea shells.  Barb and I were all over that and we soon found ourselves on a beach that was over two miles long.  There were thousands of sea shells that had washed up on the beach for those inclined to sort through the numbers.  Once again Barb was out in front scouring the beach along the way and filling her pocket with these natural treasures.  We topped off our beach walk outing with perhaps the best little bit of Italian nourishment – gelato!!  It comes in all flavors and always seems to make a great day even better.  It certainly did not disappoint.

Later that evening, the four Wagnerson’s hooked up with Sam and Ruby and Linda who had arrived in Venice for their flight back home to Washington State.  Another excellent Italian meal and a celebration of Sam and Ruby getting engaged.  After finishing our meal, we headed back to our hotel for an after dinner drink of Tequila that we brought from home.  It was a fantastic evening of laughter and fun that included another thunderstorm with exciting streak lightning and heavy rain.

We said goodnight and goodbye to the three of them as they would leave for home the next morning.  On Sunday morning we awoke to a boat race out in the canal in front of our hotel.  Canoes, kayaks, 12 person racing shells, stand up rowboats, and even stand up paddle boards.  With the crowds lining the canal cheering and banging on pots and pans to encourage the racers this spectacle went on for more than three hours.  It was another great day as we explored Venice and yes, we got lost.  The cool thing about Venice is that while it’s easy to get lost, you can’t get too lost because you’re on an island and will be able to find your way eventually.

On Monday morning, we had breakfast, checked out of our hotel in the Jewish ghetto and made our way to the train station to catch our train to the food capital of the world……Bologna.