Brett goes to his meeting, Rupa and I head off into the less expensive shopping area after breakfast. With our map we wander about 3 blocks and start the shopping. its just a choice of bags, shoes or clothes, shop after shop, after shop. its hot again and im sure the shop attendants are hoping i wont be trying on any of their lovely clothes. Same with the shoes, you cant get a sticky foot into anything! The Zhang bag shop proved most promising with Rupa buying an...

The water taxis take us to the waiting bus at Venice airport at 7.45am. we have a 2 hour trip to the LIMA factory, where the surgeons listen to some presentations. then we have a tour through the new factory and see the manufacturing of the implants the surgeons use. It is so impressive, computerised machines doing the work. An 800,000 euro machine mills one implant every 50 minutes. There is even a robotic machine brought in as staff didnt want to work weekends!...

I wake and leave brett sleeping for another hour while I eat figs in the corner of our room! Why do I feel sneaky? He doesnt even like the, I think its cos they're so expensive at home that just to eat them from a paper bag seems wrong. they melt in my mouth..... off walking to the ferry station, 10 minutes from our lovely old hotel. On the way at the main st we buy Ecco sandals for me and the long searched for work shoes for Brett! First pair he saw. Leaving th...

Its world famous and their are thousands here. There are hundreds of huts in the sand and families having a ball. The water looks very inviting. The island is long and narrow, it only takes 10 minutes to walk across the breadth. We stop at a garden bar and have refreshments. We watch the families walking back at the end of a days beach fun. Eventuall, we move to a cafe by a canal for dinner. I spy a fruit shop and buy NZ kiwifruit and fresh figs..... It appears...

We leave Rome on the fast train and travel at 250km hour to Venice via Florence and Padova. It takes almost 4 hours and we love every minute. The train is super modern, bathroom has perfumed fragrance and hand dryers. complimentary snack and no complaints. When we arrive at St Lucia, venice we queue for 30 monutes in the heat and catch the ferry to Lido, via every stop along the grand canal, someone has graffitied Rialto Bridge and brett is horrified! At Lido we...