Saturday, May 1—On to Italia!

Well, May is finally here, so it's time to head to Italy, where we will live out our fantasy of spending one month in the country that everyone we've ever talked to has loved! Ever since we saw the movie “Under the Tuscan Sun” years ago, we've wanted to see Italy, and spend most of the time in Tuscany. So this sabbatical is our chance to do it up right!

Bev and I got up a little before 7 a.m., showered, finished packing our things, and said goodbye to Patti (Nadege was still away at her meeting with her law firm). We left Nadege and Seth's apartment about six minutes before the bus was scheduled to arrive at the nearby bus stop. Seth walked with us to the bus stop and gave us instructions on how to buy a ticket on board. Even the littlest things are hard to figure out. We made it to the bus stop on time, with about 30 seconds to spare. The ticket machine on the bus was a good way for Bev to get rid of the heavy Euro coins, and she bought two tickets for a total of 5 Euro for the 10-minute ride to the train station. Seth had told us where to find the Starbucks and we bought some coffee and sweet rolls there and had time to enjoy them before stopping to buy some fresh fruit for the almost 8-hour train trip to Venice. We then found our train with plenty of time to spare, got on and situated and left Munich precisely at the appointed departure time of 9:31 a.m.

The trip took us through Southern Germany—Bavaria—and within minutes we were in the Alps! If you have to be on a train for almost 8 hours, you may as well go through the Alps of Bavaria, Austria and Italy! The Austrian Alps slowly transcend to the omnipresent vineyards of Italy as our EC train takes us to our final destination for today—Venice! As in the Black Forest, everywhere you look is a postcard, and photos are merely a hint of the beauty that surrounds the traveler. You find yourself just trying to absorb the beauty.

After one train change, we got on a regional train that took us the final two hours of a five-hour trip to Venice, getting in shortly before 6:00 p.m. Now the fun of adjusting to yet another new language begins! All of a sudden the reality set it: We were not going to learn Italian on a 7-hour train ride! At the train station, where we are wary of pick-pockets, we found a place to buy tickets for the boat to take us on the canal to our hotel, as there are, of course, no cars in Venice. We decided that for the three days we will be in Venice, it might make sense to buy the 72-hour pass that we can use as much as we want for any boat travel while we're here. Then we got directions to the boat and boarded with our packs and bags in tow. We got off at the famous Rialto Bridge stop and wound our way through the maze--no, really, it is a maze!--to try to find our hotel that we'd reserved for two nights. It wasn't pretty, especially getting lost with all the heavy gear, but we did make it to the hotel! We checked in, bought tickets to see a Chamber Orchestra perform a tribute to Vivaldi tonight near San Marco Square, and changed clothes for the concert. After grabbing a quick pizza and glass of vinio at a small hotel near the location of the concert, we went to the hall and there we were--listening to our favorite classical music, Vivaldi, with the orchestra performing "The Four Seasons." It was too good to be true!

We then found a place for some snacks and vino and relaxed for a little before calling it yet another adventurous and memorable day!