Today we picked up our car from the Venice airport and began our road trip! We had a bit of a rocky start because the car we hired was brand new and they hadn't installed the GPS navigation yet. We lost an hour waiting for them to install the GPS before we could leave, but finally we were on our way.

Our first stop was only one hour from Venice in a place called Vicenza. Lidia has relatives there from her mother's side and we had organised to visit them. We had never met them before so Lidia was very nervous. Her mother's cousin, Gianna had invited us all for lunch.

We found the house OK and were met outside by Gianna's husband, Giuseppe and their granddaughter, Alice. They took us inside and we met more of the family. Gianna was a beautiful, warm lady and immediately hugged Lidia and wouldn't let her go for ages.

We also met her two sons, Andrea and Davide and their wives, Lucia and Francesca. Alice is Andrea and Lucia's daughter. Alice spoke perfect English, which took the pressure off Lidia translating all day. She is only 15 and speaks Italian, English, Spanish and German fluently.

The minute we got there, Ian had to go to the toilet and when he came back he asked the family "What is that basin you have next to the toilet? Is it for washing your feet?" Turns out he was referring to the bidet. Looks like Awkwardo has the day off today!

Gianna had cooked us a magnificent lunch and we enjoyed antipasto, followed by lasagne, chicken and veg and a slab of tiramisu that was divine.

I was trying to talk to Davide in my broken Italian and asked him if he knew any English words. I said to him that usually the first words you learn in another language are swear words. He turned to me and said "You breaka ma balls", being the only English phrase he knows. We thought this was hilarious and then Giuseppe pipes up and says "Farka you!"; the only English words he knows.

After lunch we gave Gianna a bag of goodies we had brought from Australia, including tea towels, a boomerang, tim tams, wagon wheels, violet crumbles, an opal pendant and various other items. They were very excited, like kids on Christmas day. Ian and Carmel also brought a couple of gifts, including a tube of vegemite. We asked Gianna where she had put it and she had put it away thinking it was a tube of hand cream! Carmel slathered vegemite onto pieces of bread and the whole family had a try. We expected them to hate it, but they actually thought it was quite good. They thought it tasted like anchovies.

We gave Giuseppe a Geelong Cats scarf and then sang the Geelong theme song for them. They joined in because they recognised the tune from the opera Carmen.

The boomerang was a real hit, and Lucia, who was a real character was constantly threatening to crown the men in the room with it.

The Tim Tams and Wagon Wheels were a real hit with Lucia and Alice who both said they wanted to come to Australia just for the biscuits.

The family were plying Ian with alcohol all day and when he started on the grappa he began to get very animated. He told the family that we use boomerangs to throw at the police in Australia and then started making noises like a kookaburra. He kept us very entertained. At one stage Alice was explaining a building that is shaped like a ship. With her accent, Ian thought she was describing a building shaped like a sheep. He also jumped into the language with both feet and was doing quite well, except for the fact that every time he pronounced Alice's name he managed to do it in a different way. We got "Alice, Aleechay, Aleechia, Aleech and 100 other variants.

After lunch we all got into our cars and the family took is for a tour of Vicenza. We saw a famous rotunda, a magnificent lookout with views over the towns and mountains in the distance, and then the cathedral. There was a mass on at the time and Giuseppe wanted to take us to a statue of Madonna behind the pulpit. It was standing room only in the church. The people of Vicenza are obviously good catholics. While we were walking to the statue they started singing a hymn in Italian. Carmel felt embarrassed not to be singing so she started singing to the tune with the only words she knows in Italian, which are "Bring me two scotch and cokes".

We said goodbye to the family and checked into our hotel. We then went for a walk around the historical centre of Vicenza. They have a massive bell tower here that is 82 metres tall. At one stage Ian was taking our photo. During the day whenever we took a photo we would say "Formaggio!" which is Italian for cheese. Ian mucked up while taking our photo and shouted out "Fongoola!". I really hope he doesn't say that while taking photos of Italians on this trip!