Sad to leave Hotel Pierre but headed to beautiful Venice!Stopped (on a whim) in the town of Ferrara, home of the original Ferrari manufacturing plant. It's a sleepy, tourist-free town and we drove to the center, stopped, and asked for a restaurant suggestion. Had a great meal and laughed with the waitresses over Daniel's smiley face pizza crust. They even brought our cappuccino's with a smiley face!Soon we made it to the Hotel Adele, dropped our stuf...

Had a good breakfast at the Life Sport restaurant before heading out for Florence. This country is full of tunnels and fortified towns on hills! When we arrived in Firenzia (Florence), the old city was a puzzle of twisting, narrow one way streets. But our offline GPS got us close and we parked within a block of our hotel. Hotel Pierre was elegant and cozy, and the ladies loved it! The one time we stayed close enough to the historic area to walk from our room. We ...

Woke to the announcement that we were soon arriving in Brindisi and we needed to move to the outer deck. So cool!Soon we're on Italian soil!We headed out and before long we were in the unique city of Ostuni, otherwise known as Citta Bianca, the "White City". This ancient city on a hill was our first glimpse of the old world beauty and elegance of Italy. Hundreds of white buildings surrounding the local Duomo that just made the place seem so peaceful. From t...

Spent the morning visiting and encouraging George at the church; the Christian Center struggles with growth in such a historically Orthodox culture. He shared his biggest prayer need - that the Lord would bring forth two or three men to serve as godly elders, currently they have none. After the morning we all drive out to see an amazing sight...the Greek Orthodox monasteries on the cliffs of Meteroa.In the 9th century, a group of hermit monks moved up to the anc...

Crossed from FYRO Macedonia into Greece and soon was amazed by the stark contrast in the landscape and vistas. We decided we were too close to the historic city of Thessaloniki so we drove into the historic district and had lunch where we enjoyed a wonderful Greek lunch overlooking the city bay and the Aegean Sea. We took off for Larissa, stopping once for refreshment and scenic views at a hotel near the sea. Finally made it to Larissa where we found the Larissa ...