Cheerio England....................Ciao Italy!!!!

Lift a pint to Ken, becasue he got us to East Midlands Airport. I only had to close my eyes once. We took EasyJet (like our Southwest)and it was great. As the plane dipped into Venice, it was the most incredible site that we have ever seen. In your mind you know it is surrounded by water, but you have to see it to believe it! From the airplane, a bus took us to customs, and then we purchased tickets and walked to the water bus. The water bus pulled up to San Marco's Square. There are really no words to describe this incredible place. As we got off the water bus we needed to find the correct vaparetto (small boat that carries about a 100 passengers- we will use it to navigate the city).........we knew that we weren't in Kansas anymore. Thanks to Sally's brilliant Italian, we found the right vaparetto that took us to Hotel Ala which was about a 200 meter walk. The trip in was much easier than expected.

Our room overlooks a small canal with gondalas going by occassionally. Lesson for today.....Venice is one of about 100 islands, has 400 bridges, and 2000 alleyways. We have walked over about 15 bridges and walked down 50 alleyways and have no idea where we are. all we know is it is one cappuccino, one gelato, a pasta dinner, and a teramisso later and here we are. Venice is not known for its food so we look forward to Tuscany and Umbria. We wish you could all be here to see this. As soon as we walked off the plane we could feel the intensity and the passion of Italy!
Ken and Sally