Yes I had to do it - I slept late - perhaps I will heal .. My nose has my stopped dripping; for days I have been stuffed up, and we have the castle feast tonight. I really rested until we realize that this was the best time to buy another suitcase. After all, we did buy a few bottles of wine to take home and our suitcases were full to begin with. So off to shopping we went! Then back to the house to primp for the final evening in 2015. The drive to Castello Bevil...

Leaving Venice/ Mestre and heading back to Verona- the heater is apparently fixed.. Alice is took us to a winery where a friend of hers works. We had an education and then a tasting. Patrick heard about grappa for the first time and fell in love with it ! He also started looking for aquavite everywhere. New horizons!! Alice's friend Mara found a restaurant- wine shop for us to have lunch in Parona. Signorvino. Each of the dishes is paired with a wine on the menu....

Today after breakfast we headed out to the Doges palace and bought the private guided tour. (We spoke with a couple of people who told how good it was. They were right- we passed by a huge line.) the history lesson was amazing - definitely better than reading a book for a high school test. We saw Casanova 's cell in the prison, and learned about the doges being chosen like the pope, at a very old age so they didn't live long enough to garner power to take over. R...

We finally had an opportunity to sleep late- so we did! We took the bus into Venice, then the vaporetto to Piazza San Marco so Pat and Lindsey could see the church. The line was long again so we didn't go inside. We were hungry!And so we had lunch at a touristy place that was just okay ... The kids took off to explore and Joey and I took a path we hadn't tried before - and of course I did some shopping). I bought a wool beret (the Patagonia one kept popping up of...

We decided to leave Genova and not stay at our Best western- it seems to have deteriorated a bit since our last stay..even the morning breakfast 's cheese looked like it was left out from yesterday.. A bit dry, dark around the edges and curling slightly... So we left and drove to the port so Lindsey and Patrick could see the pirate ship and submarine - and Joey remembered he left his camera in the safe and I left the passports in the same place.so back we went......