We got to Tampa airport and then flew to Atlanta with no problems.  While waiting for our flight to Rome the airline needed people to be bumped.  They offered a $1,300 voucher for a flight anywhere and would put us up in a hotel for the night.  The next flight to Rome would be Saturday the next day at the same time. Shirley and I thought this was too good a deal to pass up.  We told the airline and they asked us to wait until the plane was boarded and they would make our arrangements.  However I would have to let our hotel in Rome know that we would be arriving a day later.  Since it was nearing midnight in Rome I called and told them. The plane had boarded when the airline told us that several passengers had missed the flight and that we should board.  Onto the plane we went- but I had to call the hotel before we took off.  Almost panic mode, but I was able to reach them and tell them the correct date of arrival.

We arrived in Rome got our luggage and headed to the train station for our trip into the city.  At the train station we found out that the Metro and some of the buses were on strike.  Now we had to do plan B.  We took a shuttle into the city that dropped us off at our hotel.  The shuttle was only €15 per person so that was a pretty good price.  On the trip into the city traffic was a mess due to the strike.  It is chaos, not organized chaos, just chaos.  When we got to the hotel they were having a problem with the plumbing on one of the floors and had to get us a room in a sister hotel. We had to wait while the hotel tried to get a taxi for us – near impossible. The taxi finally arrived and we took our lives in our hands trying to cross the street to get to it.  Rome was a giant mess.  Finally we arrived at our hotel and checked in.  It was about 1:30pm Rome time and we are sleep deprived and tired from traveling.

Today we went to Verona. The first pic is of a city gate taken as we were walking toward the arena ( top tourist site). Then we went into the arena, which is still used for concerts today. I think it was built by the Romans around the same time as the Coliseum, but is still mostly intact.

We then went to Juliet’s Balcony – see pic. Also Verona was having a classic car show so of course I had to take pictures of a Corvette and a Mercedes. I have lots more pics on my camera

As usual we walked all around Verona and decided to have a late lunch/early dinner. Marsha took this picture of me when she saw the name of the restaurant. It isn’t clear, so I took a pic of the name only. We both had pasta
(1 penne and one spaghetti) with pesto, pine nuts and parmigiana cheese. I also had Parma ham wrapped around a breadstick. We walked back to the train station to return to Padua. It is now 9pm and we are in the lobby of our hotel waiting for an overnight train that leaves at midnight. We have to change trains at 4am to get to ljubljana, Slovenia. Will let you know how the trip goes.

Today we took the train to Bologna. We walked to the center of the city from the train station and of course climbed up stairs for a panoramic view of the city. We weren’t that high but could see several of the landmarks. We walked around the city and visited about a dozen churches. We noticed a lot of scaffolding, but we have seen lots of scaffolding because a lot of historic
buildings need renovation and upkeep. However, there was a sign in one of the churches explaining that the scaffolding was shoring up some of the building because this area in Italy had an earthquake a couple of years ago. Then we started to notice the cracks in walls and in one of the pictures we think the tower is leaning because of the earthquake.
Sorry, there is no picture of food today. We stopped about 4pm for a snack and had sandwiches. Even though we walked all over Bologna, I couldn’t find a bologna (baloney) sandwich. There are no pics because the sandwiches were just that – sandwiches. Also the restaurants in this area seem to all have the same menu with little variation – lasagna, spaghetti with meat sauce and pizza. There are other courses on the menus, but very little difference from restaurant to restaurant. On the train back we though maybe we would like little snack before we went to sleep. It was late – after 8pm so we stopped at a cafe in the train station and Marsha got some fruit and I got a small tart and some coffee. We are back early and have our jammies on and our feet up. We think we are going to Verona tomorrow.

We went to the train station in the morning and the next train left for Venice, so that’s where we went. I have to tell you I have a ton of pictures on my camera, but it is difficult to take pictures with both the phone and camera.
When we got off the train we crossed the Grand Canal on the large bridge by the train station. See pics of Grand Canal from the bridge.

We then walked thru the streets (alleys) of Venice to St. Marks square. We crossed the Rialto bridge on the was to the square. There is a lot of steps up and down on the bridges over the little canals. We went into St Marks church. I saw a group of Japanese tourists taking picture, so I took some, butwas told no pictures allowed. After St Marks square we went to the Bridge of Sighs. See pic. I am blocking most of the bridge, but you can see some of it.

After the Bridge if Sighs we walked further to Harry’s Bar where we had Bellinis. See pic.

We then bought tickets for the public transportation – basically a boat that is really a bus on water. We went Murano where they are known for Venetian glass. The glass is beautiful and there are many shops and glass blowing demonstrations on Murano. I was surprised at how far this island is from what we think is Venice. From Murano we went to Burano, a city known for hand made lace. The houses in Burano are quite colorful – see pic – quite different from Tuscany with tan houses and red tile roofs.

Also see pic from water “bus” from Venice to Murano.

It was also quite a distance from Murano to Burano, which I found surprising. To get back to the train station we took 3 water “buses”. The last one going down the Grand Canal. This is an amazing ride and we are on public transportation! You would not believe the amount of traffic on the grand canal – boats everywhere including lots of gondolas. The train station is actually on the Grand Canal and we decided to eat in Venice and then return to Padua. We decided to share a cheese plate and each have a salad. After dinner we took the train back to Padua. Again it is 10:30. We just can’t get everything done without coming back late. We are undecided about where we are going tomorrow, but will let you know.

We had reservations to go to the Scrovegni Chapel in the morning. No pics allowed – in fact we had to wait in an ante room until the atmosphere was stable enough to open the door to the chapel. It is of course beautiful and I would urge everyone to look it up on the net. Then we walked to the train station and took a train to Vicenza. There we saw the Teatro Olimpico. This place is amazing! It was designed by Palladio, a leading architect in his time. He designed many buildings in Vicenza and other Italian cities. See pic of theater.

Palladio also designed the building in the other pic. We then went to the Palladio museum housed in the Palazzo Barbaran da Porto. I learned more about architecture than I will ever need. The museum had models of all his famous designs. I am suffering from information overload. Next we walked across the entire city of Vicenza to see the Villa Capra Valmarana “La Rotonda”
This building is supposed to be the concept Thomas Jefferson used when he built Monticello and Poplar Forest. Palladio built the rotunda in 1560. All of this was extremely interesting. See pics of “Rotonda “.

We took a bus back to the train station. We boarded the train to Padua and while we were on the train we decided to go to Venice for dinner. Sorry no pics of the food. We both had pizza and all the restaurants have wood fired brick ovens to make the pizza. I did get to see the Grand Canal, but we will tour Venice on another day. Tomorrow is another adventure.