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Here is the itinerary. Venice to Bologna to Tellaro to Siena (Borgo Casata) to Orvieto / Rome to Marino di Lesina to Milan to Venice.

We took a bus from the airport to Venice. The bus drops you off right at the entrance to the city since no motor vehicles are allowed in the city. You just walk a little way and get on a water taxi to go to your destination.

After a few missteps we found the hotel. Things are not as far as they appear on the map. This is the view from our window.

We went for a walk. The sidewalks, buildings, and canals were beautiful.

That evening we ate at our hotel. It had a garden dining room and pretty good food. I was so tired I kept falling asleep at the table. (However, that is not me in the foreground.) Cindy is at the second table back on the left. 

We also ate breakfast in the garden each morning.

A friendly Italian family asked if we wanted them to take our picture. We said sure. 

A beautiful setting for a beautiful woman. (Let's see how that works for me.)

This view was right around the corner from our hotel. We were in the Dorsoduro Sestiere (district). It was mercifully devoid of very many other tourists and we could enjoy walking the city without crowds. 

We often stopped in an Alimentari to buy meat, cheese, bread, and wine for lunch. It was just a few Euros instead of an expensive lunch in a restaurant.

After buying the food we would walk until we found a likely spot to eat, like here on some church steps.

We walked to the Piazza San Marco from our hotel. We crossed the Grand Canal over a bridge. It was not that far, but of course it was pretty tough on Cindy. She bore up very well though. 

This seemed to be a very picturesque restaurant and gondola boarding point. 

Walking around Italy, and specifically Venice, is like leafing through a pack of post cards. Even Italian laundry is nice. If we saw this in the states we'd report them to the city.

Just another pretty alley. (And girl, of course!) 

Cindy was always happy to take a little rest and refreshment. 

We would take a water taxi to where ever we wanted to explore and then roam around. Some areas, like the Rialto were crowded, but most of the time we felt very comfortable and uncrowded.

We went to the Peggy Guggenheim Museum of modern art. These are young English girls sketching some statuary.

These tied up floating barges are the water taxi stops. Here a water taxi is approaching.

If you are going very far, you are going by boat. The water taxis are very reasonably priced and have various ticketing options for several hours to several days. 

The restaurant to the left is where we had a particularly delicious lunch. The pasta sauce was great. We had heard that Venice could be oppressive and smelly in the summer. Either it isn't or we were very lucky. There was no odor at all. It was quite hot though. 

There is always plenty of action on the Grand Canal. 

Our hotel was very close to the wide canal that divides the main part of Venice from the Isola della Giudecca. This is a view of that island from the Dorsoduro side.

One evening we crossed to the  Isola della Giudecca and had dinner. We watched sunset overtake Venice.

This is the heart of the Aceta. The vinegar is moved from big barrels to smaller barrels as it reduces and gets thicker and tastier.

After the tour, we went to the shop and bought vinegar, various other things, and food for our lunch. Cindy asked our guide, the owner, if she would be passing down the Aceta to her children. She said she would be finding out that afternoon if she was pregnant. She had inherited the place and did plan to pass it on. She also gave us a treat of Strachino cheese (a sort of very soft cream cheese) with jam. It was delicious.

Lunch was our usual fresh mozzeralla, tomatoes, and a few types of salami. Delicious as usual.

An view of all of us chowing down in the Aceta parking lot. 

Next stop was a winery. We approached down a beautiful rose lined track. We were greeted by the owner and taken into the production facility were they were bottling the wine. He walked right over tot he line and pulled off a still open bottle. 

We went to his office and had a snack of wine, crackers, and their home made salami. Cindy was particularly shameless in devouring everything.

The wine they make in this region is Lambrusco (Red)  and Trebbianni (White). Both are sparkling. It was delicious. He said it would be better after about ten days in the bottle. We bought six bottles to take back with us. It is really good stuff and you cannot get it in the states. I am going to order several cases from them. They are on the Internet at: http://www.zanasi.net/comeordinare.htm

We continued to drive around the area and stumbled on a kind of castle compound and decided to walk around.

We stumbled on a little bar/restaurant and Nathaniel was able to use his language skills because one of the guys in there was Romanian.

On a subsequent day we went to Parma, only slightly further down the road than Modena, and decided to try to find Langhriano, the source of ALL the really authentic prosciutto in the world. On the way we passed this castle.

In Langhriano we saw this sign and thought it said free food (Torta Fritta). As you can see, it is to be served at the Museum of Prosciutto. It did not start until 5:30, so we decided to go back to the castle.

Nathaniel and I roamed around the castle while Cindy relaxed in the restaurant. We discovered this castle was one of many built by Pier Rossi, but this is the one he shared with his beautiful mistress Bianca Pelliginini. One of the rooms had lovely paintings on the ceiling for her enjoyment.

After the castle we still had some time to kill so we took the advice of the waiter and went to a little convent out side of town. After some banging on the door a nun let us in. She was very nice and showed us their museum (very esoteric). We then visited their chapel. It was remarkably beautiful. All the nuns were from India. 

We were still a little early so we looked around the museum. It was actually very interesting, especially to those of us who love prosciutto (that would be all of us).

After inquiring it turns out Torta Fitta is not free food. It means Fried Bread. They dip the square bread dough into hot grease and then stick it in these baskets. We paid 3 Euros for a minimum order of 10 squares.

The you retire to a table where you purchase prosciutto, REAL parmesan cheese, and wine, and chow down. It was spectacularly delicious. We had several helpings.

The next day Cindy and I took a road trip down a lesser highway between Bologna and Florence. The man at the desk in our hotel advised this. It was a wonderful trip. We were constantly overtaken by suicidal motorcyclists, but there was little other traffic. 

We stopped for lunch in a small quaint hill town. We walked from the parking area to the main piazza.

Down a little alley we found a wonderful restaurant where we had one of the best meals of the trip. 
Note the 48 little clams they gave Cindy. I had Insalata di Mare.

The waitress volunteered to take our picture. The she brought us complementary Lemoncello. It was ice cold and really hit the spot. Altogether a wonderful experience. 

Cindy posed in the doorway on the way out. 

Next stop the small sea side village of Tellaro where Casey and I spent five days in the spring of 2006. I wanted to show Cindy how lovely it was. We only stayed one night, but Cindy did enjoy it and we had a nice time.

Cindy along the sea in Tellaro. 

Cindy emerging from the archway we have framed over our couch in Alexandria. 

An Italian cat in an Italian doorway. We took this picture for one of our friends. 

Is this place picturesque or what?  

Our dinner was interesting because we went to a place which had no menu (who knew). We ended up with way too much food. Ouch!

Now we were headed south toward Puglia for the wedding. Our first stop was Siena. This is the piazza where they have the big horse races where parts of the town compete against each other. It was a little too crowded and touristy for us so we went to a tourist office to find a room for the night outside of town. We somehow ended up in a modern Italian Motel. It was interesting though. After cleaning up we went driving around the area.

We stumbled on a little castle town called Castelnuovo Barardenga. As you can see, it was very nice.

As we drove the countryside we passed fields of sunflowers. 

We spotted a sign that said "Bed and Breakfast. We turned in and discovered a nice restaurant with rooms. We had a delicious and very reasonably priced dinner and determined to spend the next night here.

We sort of took the next day off and relaxed around and in the pool.

Cindy wanted to visit Rome again so we stopped in the hilltop town of Orvieto and got a room. We then jumped on a train and went to Rome for the day. We returned to a nice room, two beautiful little Italian girls who collected our passports for their mom, and a very nice hostess (their mom) who made us a wonderful breakfast with an omelet the next morning. She loves Americans.

In Rome we went to the Coliseum.  

The forum. 

The Trevi fountain 

And the Vatican. 

And the next day we drove the rest of the way to Puglia. After arriving at the hotel we immediately walked out to the beach and went for a swim. 

Everyone was relaxing on the beach. Here Katie is reading Harry Potter to Nathaniel. Must be nice. 

Cindy loves this picture. I must say she does look very nice. She is dressed for the wedding.

Soon the wedding party arrived. The brides maids are in green and Nathaniel is escorting Emily, one of Kirsten's college friends. Katie is the Maid of Honor in blue. Following is Kirsten, the bride, escorted by her father, Dr. Joe Welter.

Kirsten and Massimo exchange vows beneath the small pavilion on the beach. 

The wedding was attended not only by the invited guests, but by numerous Italian beach goers. They loved it. 

A party followed. Lots of food (I mean LOTS). Lots of dancing. 

The Italians started this conga line. 

The next day Cindy and I departed for Venice, we thought. Actually, it turned out we had an extra day, so we went to Milan instead. There we had our only expensive cappuccino. Usually they are 1.2 to 1.4 Euros. Here they were 4 Euros. However, we enjoyed the ambiance. 

We went shopping in the Prada store and got some small purses. It's just nice to say you got something in Milan.

Then we went on to Mestre, the town where the Venice airport is located. We stayed in a nice hotel and had a great dinner. The next morning we went to the airport and flew home with no incidents.

GREAT TRIP!