Well….another busy travel day on our trip and we are in Florence today and have already done one museum tout and will have a tour of the cathedral tomorrow and the Galileo museum on Sunday morning…Florence is a frenetic city with action, action, action and even more people than Venice but add in cars on the packed streets and it is kind of surreal…nothing but Italian on the tv here so I’m using it to mask my tinnitus that has been really bad…and I am damn sore everywhere that I will have to treat with a lot of Ibuprofen to be able to get through it…the train ride was cool and so damn comfortable and I wonder why planes can’t have seats that good…our hotel is only a 15 minute walk from the train station and we’ll do that again when we leave for Rome Monday afternoon…I need rest…this 73 year old body may be getting some permanent damage…I tried to pay my daughter for my part of the trip but she said no and told me to have one of the new add on ac units installed for about 1300 bucks…they are 9-12,000 btu’s and cool the whole house along with heat it…we had one in our first hotel and it was pretty cool…so I just might…

Well…up and running at about 6am this morning to get ready for heading to the boat that we take to the train station at about 8:45 and I have the little induction pot going to make some instant coffee to get me moving…it’s been fun here in Venice and I was able to eat gelato/ice cream for the first time since I had the huge infection in my mouth that had me so sensitive to cold it was like getting hit in the face with a hammer it hurt so bad…we have one museum this afternoon and I’m not sure if it’s the Gallileo or DaVinci but I don’t care…it will be cool after seeing all the Picassos and Calder stuff yesterday…my body is holding up okay but with some pains that are pretty normal so I’ll live through it…I do have a blister on my right little toe that I have to put a bandage on but that was expected with all the fast walking we’re doing…my daughter really flies when she has somewhere to go…I did get a notice from consumers that the power was out at my house but it was for planned maint and only lasted about an hour so no big deal…so, I need to pour the coffee down and get a shower but need to get the first Mastodon post out first…more later…

Well…figured you’d be reading this at some point…we leave for Florence tomorrow and then Rome on Monday…Venice is a city with tiny little alleys that go everywhere and I’m almost figuring out where we are sometimes…J has been using the GPS on her phone to get us around…it’s been fun but we must have walked 25 miles since Monday…blisters on my feet but bandaids work for that…staying in the cool little hotel that is in a 200+ year old building…tiny rooms but I wanted old Italy and not a best western…lots of Italian language tv and even prime on my tablet is showing me Italian shows but that just makes me laugh…will give you a call when I get back on the 4th…just got a notice that my power is out from consumers…scheduled maint so no big deal…

Well…for our last day here in Venice, we had the best morning with a visit to the Guggenheim gallery that is housed in Peggy Guggenheim’s house she lived in when she was a resident in Venice…and yes she was rich…but she used her wealth to foster the talents of Picasso, Calder, Dali, and Mogdliani who were friends who she hosted at her houses all over the world and was instrumental to exposing them to the world…I have never seen so many Picassos in one place and one Calder mobile was still in the same place she had it when she lived there…in a front foyer where the wind from the doors opening would make it move…talked to one of the docents from London and she said that this collection was one of the best in the world of modern art and I couldn’t believe how many masterpieces were there…my jaw was dropping as I walked the galleries and saw artists I never thought I’d ever see…very cool…

Well…up and moving at 6:08 this morning on this last day here in Venice and I’m pretty worn out but I am making coffee here in my room to jump start this old body…did the Murano tour yesterday and it was okay but nothing special…kind of boring actually with going to two other islands that were not much and I was happy when we got back here for dinner…no tours or anything today but we are going to the Guggenheim museum that is only a 15 minute walk from here and it has Picassos, Dalis, Calders, and many other modern artists that are cool…they even have the famous DaVinci drawing of the man with his arms spread but we won’t see that since they only display that every 6 years for a few minutes so the conservators can look at it to make sure it’s not deteriorating…we’re heading for that around 10 after we have breakfast and coffee…it has been a good few days here in Venice and I am looking forward to traveling in our private train car to Florence tomorrow…going to look at some leather goods there since they have the best in the world…but first I’m going to make some coffee and get a couple of Mastodon posts out and read the news…more later…

Well…getting ready to head to Murano and the glass tour for the afternoon so I thought I’d do this one now since we won’t be back til 6pm or so and that will be dinner time since we ate enough for breakfast that we’re skipping lunch…had a ham, cheese and mushroom panini for breakfast along with the strong coffee they have here to get me fueled up for the day…have already walked a lot to check out where we leave on for the boat to the train station Friday morning but that leaves us an open day tomorrow that I think we’ll fill with hitting a museum…there are two to choose from and I need to check them out on the internet to see which one I want to see…we have hit our stride and are finding it easy to get around now that we’re familiar with Venice…there are so many tiny alleys to walk down and find what we want to do…I am going to eat gelato again after dinner since I am still reveling in the fact I can eat cold stuff without pain for the 1st time in 20 years…we have become Venetians with how we power walk everywhere…I can even keep up with my daughter with no problem now after a few days of getting new muscles used to being used….still more than a week left to see Florence and Rome…cool!

Well…it’s kind of funny how my body reverts back to the old schedule over here in Europe…in bed by 10 and up at 5:08 today and that is exactly my sched back home…I think we hit our stride yesterday with the fun tour of the Doge Palace and St. Marcos cathedral here…had a great tour guide and there was only 4 of us so it was cool…Valentina, out tour guide was a native Venetian born and raised here and her knowledge of the area gave me some facts I was looking for like what is it like to live here? After the tour we went out for a nice lunch over in the resident areas and my daughter found Valentina’s friend’s jewelry shop and bought a couple of pair of ear rings and I had gelato for the first time at “the best gelato” in Venice and it didn’t hurt at all and I was so geeked about that…it was so nice to get out of the crowds for a bit and hear the quiet over there…getting my day started with the instant coffee that was in the room and that is going to set me up for getting this old body moving today…we are touring the Murano glass works from 1 to 5:30 today and have to get on boat to get there since it’s on another island…have had some great Italian food since we got here…had a dish with ravioli and cheese truffle sauce last night and ate outdoors in the twilight and that was fun…so now I’m sitting here having coffee and I need to get some Mastodon posts out before we go out for breakfast at 7:30…more later…